Email  Print

Library to close July 16

The Sonoma Valley Regional Library is set to close at the end of business on Saturday, July 16, in order to move to its temporary quarters in Burlingame Hall at the First Congregational Church.

The library will reopen in its year-long temporary quarters at 252 W. Spain St. sometime in mid-August.

Last Monday, library officials signed the contract with the church and later in the day, the Sonoma City Council approved the contract for the remodeling project.

"We're taking possession of Burlingame Hall on July 5," said Sandra Cooper, the Sonoma County Library director.

But since the library is moving, lock stock and barrel ... um, make that carpet, it will take a while to get set up. Even the carpet from the present West Napa Street facility will be moved to Burlingame Hall. Since the carpet is the last thing that will come out of the building, none of the book stacks or other equipment can go into Burlingame Hall until the carpet is moved and laid down.

"We have some improvements to make," Cooper said. "We're improving the lighting and the electrical so we have to get the electricians scheduled."

The library is also installing data lines for the computers, reworking one of the restrooms so it's ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant.

"We took our plans to city hall Tuesday," Cooper said.

Among other things, the library is going to remove the stage in the hall and set up a temporary wall as a workspace for the staff.

But the library will be reducing services in the year it's in its temporary quarters as it won't have as much space as before. As an example, currently the library has 16 computers open to the public, while that will shrink to six in Burlingame Hall.

The temporary digs will only hold about 2,500 volumes in the browsing section instead of the 10,000 plus at the current site.

The one area where the library won't be cutting any services is the children's area.

"We will have new material," said Mary Evelyn Arnold, the 1st district representative on the Sonoma County Library Commission. "We'll still have young adult, large type and Hispanic language books. And we'll have 100 percent of the DVDs and CDs. They're real popular."

The total cost for the one-year move to Burlingame Hall is expected to be almost $420,000 including $119,000 in improvements to Burlingame Hall, almost $113,000 in rent payments, almost $72,000 for professional services such as architect fees, $46,000 in moving and storage costs and $33,000 for furniture, fixtures and equipment.

As a result of the move, there won't be any more book sales by the Friends of the Library until the library moves back into its remodeled facility sometime in the summer of 2012. And the friends won't even be able to accept any new donated books after July 15.

But on Monday, the Friends of the Sonoma Valley Library presented the City of Sonoma with a check for $100,000 to offset some of the cost for the remodel.