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Library slated to re-open March 20

The Sonoma Valley Regional Library will be back in its West Napa Street digs and ready for business in mid-March.

The library has been in a temporary home in Burlingame Hall on West Spain Street since last September while the Napa Street site underwent a $2.3 million upgrade that includes energy efficiencies and upgrades for compliance with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) for the 30-year-old facility.

The temporary home in Burlingame Hall will close at 4 p.m. Saturday, March 10, and for the next 10 days staff will be moving back into the Napa Street site for the reopening at 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 20.

“They’ve done a fabulous job,” said Mary Evelyn Arnold, the 1st District representative to the Sonoma County Library board. “Everybody says it’s gorgeous.”

Arnold added that, “It ended up taking a lot less time than I thought,” explaining that administrators were given a

nine-to-12-month estimate on the work, and the library will be open nine months after it closed.

The remodeled facility will have some new furniture, including the new service desk that was purchased when the staff moved into Burlingame Hall.

“The Friends of the Library have been very generous,” Arnold said. “They’ve bought a number of pieces of furniture.”

The refurbished facility will have the new self check-out station that has been in use in the temporary facility, more public computers, a new teen room and a new periodical room.

“We have one self check-out station at Burlingame Hall,” said Arnold. “But we’ll have more when we move back in. This has been in the works for the whole system and this was a chance to roll it out and get people used to it. The kids took to it right away.”

And she said a new skylight changes the feel of the building.

“The city’s done a great job of managing the project,” she said.

Wayne Wirick, the city’s building official, said the project is finishing on time.

“It went as we expected,” he said.

Wirick said there were some minor things the city and contractor didn’t anticipate as work went along, but there were no major problems. “We just dealt with the minor things, but we plan for that.”

He called it a good project.

“We had an excellent contractor,” he said. The contractor, S.W. Allen from Sacramento, also remodeled the police station and community meeting room.

“From a cost perspective, it was right on the mark,” Wirick said. “Our goal was to bring it up to ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards and put the building into shape to last another 30 years.”

During the 10-day transition period, staff will be moving things from Burlingame Hall, from Los Guillicos, where some books were stored, and from the central library in Santa Rosa.

Arnold said the staff is excited about going back to the library.

“The staff has done a great job, considering they haven’t been in their regular spot,” Arnold said. “They’ve done a top-notch job.”

As of now, a date hasn’t been set, but there will be a grand re-opening for the library.

The Friends of the Library are particularly excited since they can now start collecting books again for their first used book sale in May.

Dave Dobbins, vice president of the friends, said they’ve got 257 boxes of books that have been in storage since last July.

“When the library re-opens, we’ll start accepting book donations again,” he said.