Contact:
Maria Daane
Executive Director
Santa Clara City Library Foundation & Friends
Cell: 408-387-0416
maria@SaveOurNorthsideLibrary.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Santa Clara City Library Foundation & Friends requested to halt construction of Northside Branch Library
August 6, 2013 – Santa Clara County filed for a temporary restraining order against the City of Santa Clara, forcing the City yesterday to request that the Library’s Foundation & Friends halt any further progress and completion of Santa Clara’s Northside Branch Library. The Library is 99.9% completed and had been expected to open in December.
The Northside Library is being built to serve Santa Clara, San Jose, and Sunnyvale’s communities, living north of highway 101, who have been underserved by libraries for decades. The library project has been in the works for nearly two decades.
The County’s RDA Oversight Board is requesting the City return the $19.2M that had been set aside for construction and FF&E of the Northside Library decades ago. The County’s RDA Oversight Board had been informed on March 23, 2012 about the project, and told that preparations were being made for the groundbreaking and the hiring of the contractor. Since that time, Bogard Construction was hired for the project, construction is nearly complete, and over $11M has been spent.
Jim Lyons, President of the Santa Clara City Library Foundation & Friends Board of Directors, said, “It is bad government to hold a community’s beautiful new library hostage in order for the county to plug a short term budget deficit. We question their motivations in taking 16 months to file a temporary restraining order on this project, during which time $11M was spent. It is a travesty that after years of work, on behalf of so many people, the county and state politicians can’t come together and figure out a way complete this library.”
Under agreements with the city, the Santa Clara Library Foundation & Friends has been responsible for carrying out the development and construction of the Library since January 2012.
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