Library grant still possible in Calabasas

By Michael Picarella Acorn Staff Writer

Calabasas is still in the running for a library grant in the amount of $8.3 million, according to Calabasas special projects coordinator Matthew Hayden. If awarded the money, the city will build a new library as part of the civic center project. The city now leases space for the existing library.

The Calabasas City Council initially applied for a grant in a first round of awards in June 2002. The funding was available through California’s Office of Library Construction as a result of the California Reading and Literacy Improvement and Public Library Construction and Renovation Bond Act of 2000. The initial grant proposal was turned down because Calabasas was categorized as a "second priority." But the application was later re-categorized as "first priority" when the city and Las Virgenes Unified School District in March agreed to a joint-use proposal.

"The state received the applications (for the second round of awarding) and conducted a preliminary review to see which applications are complete," Hayden said. "By ‘complete,’ it means that they are all put together properly ... They did that and they knocked out around eight or 10 of the applications. This time, there was only one or two that went out."

Calabasas is now one of 66 applicants that were qualified for funding. The state, according to Hayden, is now moving into a final round of review.

"In this level, the (state grant) staff is now going to look again at the applications—and they’ve looked at them to some extent—for their bond act factors," Hayden said.

Results of the process, he said, might be revealed as early as September or as late as December. Earlier notification, Hayden said, would be beneficial because if Calabasas doesn’t get the grant, it could try for an alternative grant. If the city isn’t informed until December, city staff might lack the time to get council approval for a new grant application that must be completed by January, Hayden said.

During the first round of grant awards, the state revealed the results by early fall, Hayden said. Hopefully, it will happen again, but with the state’s budget crisis, nothing is certain.

Many applicants didn’t reapply after the first round, according to Hayden.

"There was not as many applications this time as people thought there might be," Hayden said. "All of the people that weren’t successful the first time probably didn’t reapply because they probably felt there was no way to improve their rating."

Calabasas captured an outstanding rating and even received feedback from the state on how to improve for the second round by creating the joint-use agreement with the school district.

"Based on the fact that we had an outstanding rating last time, one would think that there’s no way that the application would get worse because we didn’t really change anything."

The joint-use library between the city and LVUSD—if the city receives the grant—would include a homework center with tutoring programs, the latest textbooks, electronic access to homework assignments via school Websites and possibly other services.