VILLA PARK : Residents Stand Up for Their Library

When Orange County’s financial crisis threatened to close this city’s library branch, residents refused to let it happen.

Volunteers swung into action, giving time and money to an ambitious effort not just to keep the library open but to set up an endowment to help ward off future threats.

“Education is very important in this community,” said William Baker Jr., 46, a lawyer who is chairman of Friends of the Villa Park Library. “People in both Villa Park and in neighboring Orange value education and think it’s important to save this library.

“We’ve had a very good response. Our committee has already raised about $15,000, and we have fund-raisers that bring in about $1,000 a month. We also have about 30 volunteers to work in the library, and we’re providing their training.”

The county library system earlier this year targeted the Villa Park branch among dozens to be closed because of budget cutbacks. But in a last-minute compromise, the county Board of Supervisors agreed to keep the branch open two days a week.

That limited schedule, however, did not suit the residents of Villa Park. The City Council “bought” two more days a week by pledging to pay the county $23,116 for the extra cost this fiscal year.

Baker’s committee, in turn, pledged to raise money to reimburse the city and agreed to solicit and train volunteers to staff the library.

City Clerk Kaysene Miller said city government is gratified by the outpouring of support for the library. “The city budgeted that $23,116 to pay for the library’s extra days, but it looks like the city now will not have to spend it,” she said. The money will revert to the city’s cash-strapped general fund for other uses, she said.

Baker predicts that library supporters will easily meet their pledge for the fiscal year. “Our goal is to raise $60,000,” he said. “The extra money will go into an endowment.”

The volunteers, too, say emphatically that the library is a top priority.

“I live in Villa Park, and since it’s my last year here before I go off to college, I wanted to do some community service,” said Charles Huang, 16, a senior at Villa Park High School. “I’ve been working at the library with the summer reading program for kids about 6 to 12 years old.”

Baker said the library project has drawn the community together. “The support has exceeded my expectations,” he said. “I think the lesson of what Villa Park has done is to show that any community can do this. It just takes a little spark to make that big blaze.”