The Cupertino Courier

News

Monday library hours are funded in Cupertino budget

By Cody Kraatz

Beginning this fall, the Cupertino Library will open on Mondays thanks to the $240,000 included in the 2007-08 budget unanimously approved by the city council on June 19.

Approved budget expenditures also included $55,000 to the Cupertino Veterans Memorial project. The Rancho Rinconada neighborhood will get more than $2 million in the coming year for parks.

"It's a shame that we're not taking full advantage of the library," said Janet Riddell, vice chair of the Cupertino Library Commission, during public comment. Residents and Santa Clara County Library system representatives were pleased with the additional library hours.

The Cupertino library is the busiest one in the county system. Melinda Cervantes, county librarian, said new staff will be hired and the library will be open on Mondays by September.

Kathy Stakey, representing Friends of the Cupertino Library, put the library's popularity in perspective at a June 5 hearing. It recently checked out 218,000 items in a month, an average of 980 per hour, and had 2,000 visits per day.

The city is starting the fiscal year with more than $4 million in surplus funds from unexpected revenues in the past year. In addition, the city will keep about $14 million in emergency reserves, less than the $16 million it has set as a goal. The council dipped into the $5 million capital improvement project (CIP) portion of those reserves, which Councilman Richard Lowenthal repeatedly pointed out is meant to be spent, not saved.

The council accelerated and emphasized its intention to acquire Santa Clara County land along Lawrence Expressway just south of Interstate 280, earmarking $1.5 million for that project to aid in negotiations with the county. The city has plans to turn that site, currently a roadwork storage site, into a linear park with a trail.

The money shows the city is serious. But the funds are not earmarked specifically to buy the land because the city would rather pay nothing for the land, negotiating a gift or trade with the county instead, according to those involved in the negotiations.

The council debated nine extra spending items and selected only five, taking another $235,000 from the CIP reserves. These included a maximum of $50,000 to install a sink on the first floor of City Hall at Mayor Kris Wang's insistence. She said city staff had complained about the lack of a sink to her, but Dave Knapp, city manager, said he had heard no complaints.

The council also added $50,000 to address traffic congestion issues in the tri-school area near Kennedy Middle School.