Demolition Begins at Library Site : Lancaster: It will take four weeks toclear several buildings to make way for the new county facility, due to open in March, 1995.

A demolition crew Monday morning began leveling a Lancaster Boulevard building, once a J. C. Penney store, and several others in preparation for the construction of a $12.24-million Los Angeles County regional library.

Workers will spend the next four weeks demolishing several buildings, including a single-family house and a duplex, on a 4.3-acre site bordered by Lancaster Boulevard, Kettering Street and Cedar and Date avenues in the city’s downtown.

“I’m a little relieved,” said Gladys Cunningham, a senior citizens advocate and longtime supporter of an expanded library in this north county region, just before the buildings began to come down. “It’s taken me 18 years to get this far, (and) we need libraries so badly.”

At 51,300 square feet, the new library will be the largest in the Los Angeles County system. And it will be nearly three times the size of the existing county library in Lancaster that it is replacing.

“The population in Lancaster is three times the size of when they built that library,” said Mayor Arnie Rodio of the existing library, which was built in 1964. “The library on Avenue J doesn’t fit the needs of the community.”

It may have been years since the region outgrew the existing county library, but the county’s budget crisis has only exacerbated the problem. The Avenue J library is open only four days a week, and concerns have been raised that there will not be money to operate the new library.

“We will be able to keep it open,” said Sherry Lasagna, senior deputy for Supervisor Michael Antonovich. “Even if myself and some of the (city) council people have to check out (books).”

Construction of the new library, which is scheduled to begin in March, is not even expected to be finished until March, 1995, Lasagna said.

Lancaster Councilman George Runner said that having the library downtown is an important part of the city’s revitalization of the area, which it hopes to change from a struggling retail district to a flourishing civic center and financial district.

The library is being built as a joint project of Los Angeles County and Lancaster through an agreement that will also lead to the construction of a new sheriff’s station, hospital and other county facilities in the city.