Grant Buoys Hopes of Oak Park Library Boosters : Services: If the federal dollars are obtained, they could be used to build the facility. But the source of operating funds is still uncertain.

A long-promised Oak Park library could be built more quickly and might even grow larger than originally planned if the county is successful in obtaining a $977,300 federal grant, officials said Thursday.

“This is such a wonderful possibility,” said Dixie Adeniran, county library director. “It’s too good to throw away.”

Adeniran will ask the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday for authorization to apply for the grant money that could be used to build the proposed $2.3-million library.

But even if the grant money is awarded and the library built, it is still uncertain where the money will come from to operate it.

A loss in state revenues has forced the county’s 16 libraries to drastically reduce hours, and the county has had to supplement the library budget with $2.3 million in general fund money the past two years.

Supervisor Frank Schillo, whose district includes Oak Park, said the county is exploring a wide range of financing options to help pay for library services, including a possible tax. Schillo said he does not support a tax.

Still, the supervisor said it is important that the county go after the federal grant money while it is available.

“It’s our only hope of getting going on the library,” he said.

Oak Park officials agreed.

“The government is so deep in debt and yet they’re still giving money away,” said Kent Behringer, a member of the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council. “If we can get some of it--legally--then I think that’s great. The library is something the community needs.”

The affluent community of nearly 14,000 has been trying since 1991 to get its own library. Residents complain that the current 6,500-square-foot library, situated on the Oak Park High School campus, is hard to find, has little parking and has far fewer books than other libraries in areas of similar size.

“It’s too small,” Behringer said. “It’s just a couple of large classrooms without walls.”

The new library would embrace 10,000 square feet and be built on the high school campus, Adeniran said. If the library agency is awarded the federal grant, she said, construction on the new facility might begin by January, 1997, with the facility opening its doors by the end of that year.

Without the additional money, Adeniran said, it is not known when construction could begin.

Adeniran said the federal money would also enable the library agency to plan for a 5,000-square-foot addition that could be built at a later date as more development fee money is made available. The library agency estimates it will collect another $957,000 in developer fees when the last 330 residences planned in the community are built.

Adeniran said timing of construction is critical because the Oak Park Unified School District will need the space in the current library within two to three years for high school classrooms because of increased enrollment.

Although the federal grant requires a 50% match, Adeniran said more than $1.3 million in developer fees has already been set aside for the library project. She said the overmatch could make the county’s application more competitive.

“We’re in a very good position,” she said.