New Imperial Beach Library Part of Proposed County Budget

Updated 3:05 p.m.

A new Imperial Beach branch library has been proposed in the County of San Diego's $4.97 billion budget released Thursday and to be considered by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

"Construction for this project is anticipated to begin in 2014 and be completed in 2015. The total cost of the project is $9.5 million, and to date $1.1 million has been funded. Appropriations of the remaining $8.4 million needed, based on ongoing General Purpose Revenue, is recommended for Fiscal Year 2013-14," the proposed budget said.

The library will turn 100 years old in 2015, according to librarian June Engel. IB's first library was operated out of the area's first Post Office.

The county has been working with Engel and the City of Imperial Beach on the concept of a new library for IB for more than two years, said Supervisor Greg Cox.

Libraries are "where everything happens," he said.

Beyond books, the Imperial Beach branch library has a Japanese comic book club, quilting club, citizenship classes, resources to help people find jobs and several other programs.

"I would submit to you it is the heart of the community as far as culture and a place to come together and share ideas, and not everybody has a computer at home," Cox said.

Calling the current library inadequate, Cox formally proposed the library be renovated and connected to the Marina Vista Community Center at a City Council meeting in January.

"In Imperial Beach you have a library that is about 5,000-square-feet. It's way undersized for a community the size of Imperial Beach," he said.

At that time Cox proposed funding the new library primarily with private donations.

"Basically what happened is really good news. It looks like we'll have money in the county budget to fund the library after all," said Director of Communications Luis Monteagudo. "And if we do that there's no sense in looking for that funding elsewhere."

See the attached PDF for an idea of what the floor plan may look like.

The county budget plan would increase spending in the fiscal year that begins July 1 by 2.5 percent over the current year. It would also provide funding for the equivalent of 16,601 full-time jobs, an increase of 3.7 percent.

Most of the new positions are set to go to public safety and the Health and Human Services Agency, both of which will receive spending increases. The proposal calls for public safety to get a 4.4 percent boost to pay for more detention staff, operate the expanded women's jail for part of the year and make higher retirement contributions.

The HHSA would get an extra 3.6 percent to pay for changes to various programs and add staff.

The Land Use and Environment, and Finance and General Government sectors would also get more money.

Money for capital projects is set to decrease by almost 39 percent. However, infrastructure spending varies widely from year to year because of the way the county funds its projects.

Work that would be funded in the next fiscal year are libraries in Alpine and Imperial Beach, renovation of the assessor's branch office in El Cajon, $9.8 million in debt service for the Edgemoor Skilled Nursing Facility in Santee and $10 million for its Multiple Species Conservation Program.

The county, which plans its budgets two years at a time, also has proposed spending $4.81 billion in 2014-15.

The supervisors will start budget hearings June 10.

City News Service contributed to this report.