Schillo Gift Helps Launch Library Fund

Ventura County Board of Supervisors Chairman Frank Schillo on Tuesday wrote a $1,000 personal check to a new foundation designed to help support the struggling library system.

Before a backdrop of television news cameras, Schillo joined Library Services Agency Director Dixie Adeniran and other library boosters in making the first public contributions to the fund.

A total of $1,210 was donated Tuesday to the libraries, money that will be administered by the nonprofit Ventura County Community Foundation, which invests millions of dollars for numerous agencies.

“It’s one thing to just talk about [libraries],” Schillo said. “But you have to do something.”

Schillo’s donation followed a morning discussion by the Board of Supervisors, which officially recognized what Schillo calls the Ventura County Library Federation Development Committee.

Schillo envisions a nonprofit entity such as a library federation, which could accept public donations either to a specific branch or the entire 16-branch system.

The board chairman announced the library project months ago, even before Ventura County voters rejected several bond measures designed to prop up the ailing system.

Last month, however, voters in and around Ojai passed a special tax to help the Ojai Library. But the required approval by two-thirds of the voters in Camarillo and Piru failed to support similar measures.

For information about making a donation to county libraries, call 652-6289.