A 10-year anniversary celebration of the Morgan Hill Library took place Saturday, as did a ceremonial groundbreaking for the future expansion of the facility.
Local families enjoyed an array of entertainment and activities throughout the three-hour event at the West Main Avenue library. The event was organized by nonprofit The Friends of the Morgan Hill Library.
“It was great. It turned out really well. We had a lot of people come out and they had fun,” said Teresa Stephenson, President of The Friends of Morgan Hill Library. “It was a good birthday party, and we’re really excited about getting this expansion going.”
The party included games for children, music by the Frank Dicker Band and Sandoshin Taiko, Germer the Magician and Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center’s educational ambassadors. Plenty of birthday cake and refreshments were served for everyone who attended.
“The birthday celebration went fantastic. We had a great turnout,” said Heather Ann Geddes, Morgan Hill Library Community Librarian. “The community really showed their support for the library and library services.”
Geddes said special events such as the 10th anniversary celebration are made possible by The Friends of Morgan Hill Library, a group that generates more than $40,000 per year for library programs and events.
Mayor Steve Tate, along with councilmembers Rene Spring and Caitlin Robinett Jachimowicz, participated in the ceremonial groundbreaking for the library expansion along with others including Stephenson.
“There was a lot of people there that have been involved with the library over the last 10 years,” Tate said. “We knew when we designed the library initially we wanted to make it bigger. We just didn’t have funds to do that.”
The city council already approved the preliminary design for the expansion created by Weston Miles Architects in April, but the final design is still being completed.
“It’s really a wonderful time to be new and be on the staff here. The people before me have done the hard work to put all that funding in place with impact fees,” Geddes said. “For me, libraries have always been about reading and literature. But really also about places for people to connect and engage the community as well as read and really have fun.”
The first phase of the expansion will be the children’s area because “there’s so much demand for children’s programming,” Tate said. Along with expanding the children’s area with a 5,000-square foot, L-shaped extension around the front, the first phase will more than double the size of the bookstore and shift the book return area to the front of the building to make it more convenient.
“We’re hoping that the design gets finished and approved by the end of the year so it can go out to bid by January, tentatively,” Stephenson said. “Then we hope to break ground on the first phase some time in late March and April. But these are all tentative plans.”
The current library, completed in July 2007, came at a cost of $19 million. The former Morgan Hill Redevelopment Agency funded the long-awaited project, with the city acting as general contractor. The 28,000-square-foot edifice at 660 West Main Ave. replaced the Morgan Hill Library’s previous home on Peak Avenue that closed June 9, 2007 after 34 years of service. The building allows for a 10,000-square-foot addition.
“At the time, we couldn’t afford to do what we really wanted to build. We couldn’t get federal money so we were limited by funds,” Stephenson explained. “The plan we have now pushes out pieces of the library on all sides…It’s a phased expansion.”
Back in 2007, the library also received help from the community, with the Friends of the Morgan Hill Library raising nearly a quarter of a million dollars to purchase a collection of permanent artwork for the facility. Additionally, the money paid for library equipment and a children’s puppet stage.
Morgan Hill resident Jessica Blakely, a mother of two, has been to the library “almost every day” for the last six years.
“I myself am a big reader and read daily, and my son—all he wants to do is read. And she likes the toys,” said Blakely, who was with her 7-year-old boy Colin and her 14-month-old daughter on Wednesday afternoon. “We try to come to all the activities they do for kids.”
Blakely said her family plans on attending the library’s “Summer Reading Wrap-up” party this weekend. Her son has read about 20 books this summer and 150 altogether, she said.
Parent Veronica Sanchez, of Morgan Hill, has been bringing her four children to the library on a regular basis for the last nine years because of “all the activities that go on.”
“Story time was a big hit for my first one,” said Sanchez, who enjoys the comfort of being able to tend to her two youngest children while her older ones “can wander” around the library. On Tuesday, they returned with a stack of books to check out.
