In a Word, Booming : Santa Paula: Blanchard Library has increased hours and workers, plus more than tripled its budget for books. As others struggle, the facility flourishes due to a special tax.

At a time when libraries across the county have stopped buying books, slashed hiring and cut hours, the Blanchard Community Library in Santa Paula is thriving.

The library, which is celebrating its 85th anniversary this month, has increased its hours from 18 to 30 a week, hired three new employees and plans to spend $35,000 on books--compared with $8,000 last year.

That’s all thanks to a special property tax that the people of Santa Paula and the surrounding area allocated in June.

Unlike other libraries in the region, which are financed by either a city or the county, the Blanchard Library is financed by a $25-per-parcel tax and can spend up to $700,000 a year.

The community’s willingness to dig deep for the library has pushed the little-known facility into the spotlight.

“Right now, the Blanchard Library is in a very enviable position,” said Dixie D. Adeniran, director of the Ventura County Library Services Agency. “They have in effect not only doubled their budget but secured long-term financial support, and that’s a position that every library in the county would like to be in.”

But the Blanchard Library, which serves nearly 28,000 residents, has not always faced a flourishing future.

Indeed, the facility has struggled financially throughout most of its history--often haunted by the possibility of closure.

“We have had an extremely hard time,” said library Director Dan Robles, who has worked at Blanchard since 1966. “Often, I thought we would end up closing. But we persevered, and here we are. Though we’ve lagged behind so much that it’s going to take a while to bring the library up to the standards we need.”

The library was first funded in 1906 when, thrilled with the community’s pre-Prohibition decision to go dry, city founder Nathan W. Blanchard donated $10,000 for its construction.

On Feb. 28, 1910, the city opened the doors of a Greek Ionic-style facility at the corner of 8th and Main streets that housed 785 books.

When the circulation of books per capita increased to twice the state average--and five times the number that the facility had been designed to handle--library officials decided to expand.

After several fund-raisers, the library was moved in 1968 into a 22,000-square-foot former supermarket almost directly across the street from the original library.

At the same time, voters decided to convert the library from a city-operated facility to one funded through property taxes paid to the county.

The newfound prosperity lasted only 10 years, until Proposition 13 decreased the library’s budget by 54%, Robles said.

“The financial situation at the library turned bleak when Proposition 13 was passed,” he said. “That’s when our struggles to keep the library open began.”

In 1985, the district succeeded in getting voters to approve a $5-per-parcel tax levied on those who lived in the area served by the Santa Paula Union High School District.

But that was not enough. Stricken by dwindling donations, library officials embarked on a campaign to increase the parcel tax.

In November, 1993, two-thirds of the voters agreed to pay $25 per parcel, and to double the library’s share of the revenues to $500,000 annually. In June, 1994, as the number of parcels increased, they voted again to raise the library’s share of the parcel tax revenues to $700,000 a year.

It wasn’t only library officials who worked to keep the facility open during its poorer years.

Some residents did their share.

Professional window cleaner Tony Avila, for instance, cleaned the library’s 38 glass windows for free for three years.

“I did it because they couldn’t afford to pay and it just looked so dirty that I had to do something about it,” Avila said. “Kids were studying and I thought: Clear glass, clear heads.”

Today, children roam the spacious building or watch plays at a puppet theater, and volunteers teach adults how to read.

The library offers a collection of more than 71,000 books--2,000 of which are on California and Ventura County history; it also offers an archive of local newspapers that date as far back as 1906.

One of 11 special district libraries in the state, it is linked to a nationwide book system that allows patrons to borrow from any library in the country.

“It’s a wonderful library,” Santa Paula native Frank J. Michl said. “Any time I need something, all I have to do is to call and the staff is there to help me. Just a few days ago, I needed to know the melting point of lead, and all it took was a phone call to the library.”

Others believe that the library is a children’s paradise.

“They offer a large variety of children’s books, and my daughter loves to come here for the storytelling program,” said Valentina Pfeil, who brings her 2-year-old to the library at least twice a week.

Although the library is doing fine, the five trustees of the high school board, which still oversees the facility, said they are in the process of finding a way to allow it to have its own board.

“People run for the board because they are interested in the high school, not in the library,” Trustee Shirley Hendren said. “What happens is that often we don’t have time to deal with the library’s needs.”