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Politics & Government

New Los Gatos Library to Open Feb. 11

After 17 months of construction, $18 million, 30,000 square-foot building to open with day-long activities.

The Town of Los Gatos has chosen Feb. 11, 2012 to be the date for the grand opening of the new Los Gatos Library.

The $18 million, 30,000 square-foot facility had its official groundbreaking ceremony in June 2010 and will sit adjacent to Town Hall on Main Street.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the public will get a chance to tour the two-story building from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with activities to take place throughout the day and on Sunday, Feb. 12, that will feature various sections of the library, according to town officials.

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Some of these sections include the children’s area, the teens' “treehouse,” the history room and the periodical room with a fireplace.

A behind-the-scenes look at the book-processing station is also scheduled.

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According to Acting Los Gatos Library Director Linda Dydo, the new library will serves a great community resource for the town.

“I’m ecstatic about it and I can hardly wait,” Dydo said. “It will be a wonderful new service to Los Gatos as library use has gone up in the past 10 years.”

According to Dydo, the original library, which is operating in the Civic Center on Main Street, was built when the town’s population was at about 12,000 residents.

Carol Hamilton, president of the Friends Of Los Gatos Public Library, said that she can’t believe that the project is soon to become a reality.

“I’m excited. We’ve been working on this for the past several years and for this to finally come true has been wonderful,” Hamilton said. “We’ve done it and I can’t believe it’s almost here.”

According to Hamilton, The Friends hired Netzel Grigsby Associates, Inc. to help with fundraising consulting and the company has been working pro bono for the nonprofit organization for the past several months with every member of the fundraising committee making a substantial contribution to the effort.

Katherine Cance, The Friends' Once in a Generation fundraising campaign development director, explained the group has raised roughly $2.1 million for furniture, light fixtures and equipment that will fill the building.

Construction of the new library is expected to be completed at the end of November, with commissioning of the building systems and the move of books and materials from the old library occurring thereafter, officials said. The old library will be closed Jan. 16, 2012 to allow for the transition.

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