MISSION VIEJO : City Will Use Reserves to Start Long-Awaited Library Construction

After searching two years for other ways to pay for a new library, the City Council has agreed to designate $6 million of the proposed 1995-96 budget for the project.

Officials said construction will begin in January on the 25,000-square-foot project near the intersection of Marguerite Parkway and La Paz Road.

“I am absolutely delighted,” council member Sherri M. Butterfield said. “We can really move forward now. Our library is a reality.”

Although the initial construction fund will come from city reserves, council members said they expect revenue from other sources too.

“If I was asked to sign a check for $6 million, I’d say ‘No, thank you,’ ” Councilman Lawrence H. Smith said. “We established a fund where we can move assets to pay for building the library.”

The cost of a new library may be offset in part, for example, by selling the property where the current library stands.

Orange County now operates the Mission Viejo library. County officials had agreed to let a special library tax now paid by local residents be transferred to the city to pay for operations.

But the county’s Dec. 6 bankruptcy filing put those plans on hold. City officials said Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez told them he still supports the tax pass-through but has warned that it might have to be approved by the Board of Supervisors.

Smith said several money issues have yet to be resolved, particularly finding ways to pay for books and staffing.