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Committee backs $3.24M LPF appropriation to complete Main Library teen digital media lab
Summary
The Budget & Finance Committee approved forwarding a Library Preservation Fund supplemental to the Board to cover a $3.24M funding gap for a teen digital media lab at the Main Library, part of a $5.5M capital project that includes a Literacy & Learning Center and tenant improvements.
City Librarian Luis Herrera and the library’s CFO presented the Main Library Teen Digital Media Lab project and asked the committee to appropriate about $3.24 million from the Library Preservation Fund to close a funding gap in a $5.5 million project.
Herrera described the teen center as a roughly 5,000‑square‑foot space with a makerspace, audio and video studios, computer technology, a collection and flexible performance/teaching areas, designed with input from 19 young people who participated in charettes with architects. The project timeline calls for construction to begin in summer 2014 and to complete in spring 2015. Phase 1 tenant improvements were estimated at about $1.02 million, phase 2 (Literacy & Learning Center) at $1.15 million, and the teen digital media lab at about $3.08 million; the program budget including a reserve was presented at $5.5 million.
Maureen Singleton (CFO) detailed finances: current available funding included approximately $2.1 million from previous LPF appropriations and about $160,000 from closed projects, leaving the cited gap of about $3.24 million. The Library Commission and Capital Planning recommended the appropriation. Public commenters — including arts and youth organizations and teens who participated in planning — strongly supported the project.
Committee members expressed support and appreciation that youth and partner organizations were involved in design; the committee rescinded a prior vote and then moved the item to the full Board with recommendation without objection.
What happens next: The Board of Supervisors will consider the LPF supplemental as part of the full Board agenda. Library staff will proceed with the relocation and tenant improvement plan as funding allows.
Quoted from the record: "This project...will provide a hub of learning for young people," City Librarian Luis Herrera said. The CFO described the funding gap: "We're asking the Board of Supervisors to approve the supplemental appropriation in the amount of $3,243,752 from the LPF fund balance to fully fund this teen digital media lab capital program."
