On Saturday, the City of Brentwood and the Contra Costa County Library held its Brentwood Library Grand Opening of a new state of the art two-story building.
Located at 104 Oak St, t
he $13.5 million project was in the works for more than a decade and now the community has a 20,000 square foot building which has a variety of services including meeting rooms and both children and adult areas—including study rooms.
The financing came from $7.9 million in Community Facilities bond and $5.6 million from the City while funding raising efforts from the Brentwood Library Foundation along with a $300,000 grant from the Margaret Lesher Foundation.
Melinda Cervantes, Contra Costa County Library noted the facility will have over 15,000 books and said that in 2000 they began very early discussions about a larger library.
“Libraries have a vital role in the health of our communities as they provide opportunities for people to explore ideas and perspectives. They learn to learn about local resources and world perspectives and libraries provide places for people to search for jobs, to meet new people, try new things, and get lost in wonderful stories,” explained Cervantes. “It’s a place where as infants, a lot of very young children first have their first interaction with books and reading and where parents can come together, when they may be home all day with an infant or toddler and learn from one another and really develop relationships. They reflect the diversity of our county and the needs of our communities.
She further highlighted that libraries promote literacy and provide access to educational opportunities and connect people with services and also help provide business resources.
“A lot of businesses, particularly small businesses, have not even begun to explore the resources that can help you to grow your business, to plan, to start a new business, to seek funding, to consider a grants,” said Cervantes. “Nonprofit organizations the same thing. We have a lot of really exciting online and other resources for you. The Contra Costa County Library remains committed to our goals to champion personal and community engagement in literacy, enriching lives, and providing equitable access.
Supervisor Diane Burgis congratulated the community on the new library.
“This is not just a resource for books which I love and I actually read at least two books a month usually. But this is also a place where people are going to go to apply for a job, study for a test, for the trades, someone that’s going to apply for a college. It’s a place where seniors going to learn something new that they’ve always wanted to learn. This is a place of magic and of importance. It’s also a place where a lot of our nonprofits are going to be able to access databases so that they can research so they can do work like the friends of the library did here because we need a lot of work here in our community,” said Burgis. “Something somewhere incredible is waiting to be known… education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. And there is a lot of education that you can do here.”
Brentwood Mayor Bob Taylor explained how this library was a long time coming and welcomed the entire community to enjoy it.
“This place is drop dead gorgeous,” said Taylor. This is a please for all of us to come. No Politician can take credit for that. The money came from the good hearts of many people and I am proud to stand up here today and say we did it.”
For a list of upcoming Brentwood events: http://ccclib.evanced.info/signup/calendar?df=calendar&lib=2&nomobile=1
