VanderKolk Wins Long Battle to Build Library in Oak Park : Services: Despite cutbacks in many sectors, the Board of Supervisors approves the project in concept.

Achieving one of her earliest goals as a county official, Maria VanderKolk on Tuesday persuaded the Board of Supervisors that a $1.7-million library should be built in Oak Park despite three years of cuts in library services countywide.

Although there are concerns that constructing a new library would send the wrong message in tough economic times, the board unanimously approved in concept a new 9,500-square-foot library on the Oak Park High School campus.

“This is a real moment for me,” VanderKolk said. “I’ve been working on this issue since I first took office.”

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Supervisors said the Oak Park package--which includes free school district land and full payment of construction costs by development-related revenue--was simply too good of a deal to pass up.

“You have the money, you have the land, you have the (community) cooperation,” Supervisor Susan Lacey said.

Supervisors John Flynn and Maggie Kildee said they could back the new library partly because it would be the county’s first to incorporate the sophisticated interactive techniques of the “information superhighway.”

“The futuristic tone of this library could set the model for the future,” Flynn said.

The board authorized an engineering study of the project, with final approval tied to a $650,000 sale of land that will pay for part of the construction. The library probably will not be open for three or four years, VanderKolk said.

But supervisors also expressed concern about who would pay $83,000 each year in higher operating costs if the old, cramped Oak Park library--now hidden in the center of the high school campus--is replaced by the new larger library nearby on Kanan Road.

VanderKolk acknowledged that the new operating costs are a problem, since money could be drained from other county libraries.

“This is really the crux of the issue, “ VanderKolk said.

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In fact, county Chief Adminsitrative Officer Richard Wittenberg said he feared that the new library would cost the county--whose 15 libraries have trimmed hours at least 50%--money that it does not have.

“We’re concerned in terms of the on-going costs and the timing of this,” Wittenberg said. “I don’t want people to get the signal that this is an expansion we’re in.”

Wittenberg noted that state support for libraries has been cut 45% in recent years and that the county had to supplement its $6.7-million library budget with $1.6 million in general funds this year. He said he anticipates an even tighter budget next fiscal year.

But VanderKolk and supporters from Oak Park argued persuasively that their proposition was a unique opportunity.

First, the entire $1.7 million to build the new library would be covered either by fees from Oak Park developers, the sale of Oak Park land donated by developers or special fees dedicated for use in Oak Park.

VanderKolk identified $2.27 million that could be raised for the new library, with $200,000 going for library books and nearly $400,000 set aside for future needs.

And the Oak Park Unified School District has not only committed to operating the library during school hours at its own expense but to donating the $500,000 library site. In addition, the school district will pay for library materials used by students, district spokesman Stanley Mantooth said.

The current Oak Park library is “bursting at the seams,” because Oak Park has grown from a tiny community just a few years ago to 11,500 residents today, he said.

Wittenberg pressed Mantooth on whether the school district could contribute more to operating costs. But the educator responded: “We’re kind of in the same boat (as you) in terms of financing.”

Oak Park residents also assured the board that their community can be counted on to help pay extra operating costs if the county is still in deep financial trouble when the library opens.

“If they have to raise the money, they will,” Oak Park librarian Heather Ross said of her neighbors. VanderKolk added: “This community will make this library work.”

Lindy Heidt, a member of the Oak Park library committee, noted that affluent Oak Park has long paid much more property tax to library services than it ever received back.

The current 6,500-square-foot library is hard to find, has little parking, no restrooms and far fewer books than other county libraries in similar areas, he said. Ojai, for example, has 44,000 books, but Oak Park just 20,000, he said.

“All we’re looking for is something that is on par with the other libraries,” Heidt said. “We really are asking for a reasonable return for what we have contributed.”

Though forced to balance competing needs, the county’s top librarian, Dixie Adeniran, said in an interview that she favors the Oak Park facility. “That community needs a better library than they have,” she said.