California State Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, who represents the 77th Assembly District which includes Coronado, today presented a $150,000 check to the City of Coronado for the Coronado Public Library.
Benefiting Coronado residents, students, and military families, the funds will be used to create two study rooms and refurbish the Library’s historic reading room into an event space.
Shaun Briley, Director, Coronado Public Library shared, “We at the library are extremely grateful to California State Assemblymember Tasha Boerner for securing these state appropriations for the Coronado Library from the State Budget. These projects have been on our wish list for several years. Most of the time, the historic room will continue to be used as it is now, as an art gallery and reading room. Adding the capability to use it as an occasional event space will give it a fresh lease of life and add much needed space for things like a small recital, a reading or community meeting. It’s unusual for a library of this size not to have study rooms so the creation of two study rooms will be a great addition, especially for the after school crowd.”
The Coronado Library is one of the City’s oldest buildings and most well-loved. The Library was built in 1909 and the historic reading room was the first reinforced concrete building in the western United States and is an important California landmark. The Library currently hosts 723 programs with over 34,000 attendees annually and is one of the busiest libraries in San Diego County. This funding is critical to help create more flexible space in the Library to better serve the Coronado community.
The City of Coronado is grateful to Assemblymember Boerner for securing the funding and for championing this project for Coronado, along with Governor Newsom.
Library Project 1 Scope: Create an event space
Install glass doors and sound proofing to convert the historic reading room into an event space. Sound proofing allows repurposing of the room to host events without disturbance to library patrons. The project provides much needed additional event space and revitalizes an important historic space.
Library Project 2 Scope: Create study rooms
The Library has over 30,000 users per year and there are currently no study rooms in the facility. The new study rooms will create space for the Library Veteran’s Resource Center, which requires a private space for confidential counseling and for the high demand for study space for teens after school.
