Library Project Advances

Article Date: Monday, December 3, 2007

By Mary Bender, The Press-Enterprise

Fontana – The Lewis Tech Center, set to open in April, will be the largest in the county’s system.

Construction is humming along, donations continue to roll in, and in five months the city and county will hold a grand opening for the public library touted as a major ingredient in revitalizing downtown Fontana.

Come April 19, the $60 million Lewis Library and Technology Center will check out its first books. Under construction since November 2005, the library, at the southeast corner of Sierra and Seville avenues, will be the biggest branch in the San Bernardino County Public Library system.

"It will be a city-owned facility operated by the county," said San Bernardino County Librarian Ed Kieczykowski.

That formal relationship aside, Fontana has considered the project its own from the start. The city found and purchased the land, won a $14.9 million grant from a 2000 state library bond measure, put up all the construction funds, chose the contractor and embarked on an ambitious drive to raise money from private donors.

Contributions large and small have flowed into the fund, which by the end of November totaled $15.1 million, said Kathleen Fariss, director of development for the library. She is coordinating the fundraising campaign.

The 93,000-square-foot library will be named after the Lewis Group of Cos., which made the largest donation so far, $5 million. The developer built Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga and several retail plazas in Fontana: the Vons and Ralphs shopping centers, at opposite corners of Base Line and Cherry Avenue; the plaza anchored by Kohl's at Summit Avenue and Interstate 15; and the Home Depot, Costco, Lowe's and Ralphs plazas near Citrus and Sierra avenues, north of Highway 210.

Community Gives

The list of corporate and individual donors is long and continuing to grow.

At Tuesday's Fontana City Council meeting, three siblings donated $1,500 to the fund -- $750 of which they collected on their own, with a matching sum from their parents.

"I've never seen this big of a library before," 12-year-old Abdul Shah marveled.

"Neither have I," Mayor Mark Nuaimi replied.

Abdul, flanked by his sisters Umaimah, 10, and Homaira, 9, gave the contribution in the name of their Fontana mosque, Ar-Rahman Islamic Center. Their father, Faiz, said the children donated money they received as gifts at the end of Ramadan.

The two-story library, with a parking garage below it, will have 203 computers -- 25 programmed for Spanish-language use -- along with a coffee bar, bookstore, career center, literacy center and a 330-seat auditorium.

For the next few months, Fontana's downtown library will continue to occupy a 20,000-square-foot building a few blocks south of the construction site. The branch moved to Valencia and Nuevo avenues in July 2004.

"We're feeling cramped now because we're hiring in preparation" for April's grand opening, said Leonard Hernandez, branch manager.

"We had 18, and we have about 28 staff members now," he said. "We still have positions we need to fill."

Agreement With County

For library patrons, the new site won't just be bigger and loaded with modern amenities, it also will have longer hours.

Under an agreement the City Council approved Tuesday night, the library will operate 67 hours per week, up from the current 55 hours at the downtown branch. (The county also operates branches at two Fontana Unified School District campuses -- Kaiser and Summit high schools.)

The county will lease the library from the city for 20 years, with options to extend the lease for two five-year terms, said Fontana Redevelopment Director Raymond Bragg. The city will use 7,000 square feet on the library's second floor to house its Technology Services Department, leaving the county the remaining 86,000 square feet.

Fontana will cover the costs of maintaining the building and grounds, paying the utilities and furnishing it. The county will provide all the library staff and pay the city a symbolic $1 per year in rent, Bragg said.

City and county officials expect the library to become the civic center's multigenerational hangout. The building will be a WiFi hotspot, and the library café will borrow the welcoming climate of popular bookstore chains that allow customers to eat, drink, read, study and socialize.

"Kind of a Barnes and Noble approach," Kieczykowski said. "We expect usage to be very high in Fontana," he said. "It's a pretty awesome-looking building on the inside."

Reach Mary Bender at 909-806-3056 or mbender@PE.com.