From Daily Republic // Dec. 21, 2005
By Ian Thompson
SUISUN CITY - The Suisun City Council gave the thumbs up Tuesday to funding a new library that will be built on Pintail Drive next to Suisun Elementary School.
"This is a wonderful example of a partnership," said Ann Cousineau of the Solano County Library.
The proposed library next to Suisun Elementary School, which will be twice as large as the present one, could open as early as June 2008 if everything goes well.
The City Council approved a funding plan that will turn over 1.5 acres to the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District and spend $4.6 million to build the library.
Suisun City, the school district and the Solano Library District have been planning for more than a year to build a permanent library to replace the one leasing space at 333 Sunset Center.
The plan was born after the City Council proposed not paying the lease for the present library's quarters at 333 Sunset as part of its efforts to deal with a worsening deficit.
Initially, a library was slated to go next to the Joe Nelson Community Center in Heritage Park but that idea was dropped in favor of sharing it with Suisun Elementary School.
The funding plan has the redevelopment agency advance the project $710,000, which would be repaid by Solano County Public Facilities fees generated within Suisun City.
Another $2.2 million will come from redevelopment money that otherwise goes to the school district. The library's backers will try to get $1 million in state Proposition 47 grant funding.
Construction could start by February 2007.
In other business, the council held off approving a tougher false alarm ordinance that increases the penalties for homes and businesses that report more than one false alarm during a 12-month period.
Councilmembers asked the police to re-examine the proposed ordinance, how much the fines for false alarms will be and consider a form of 'insurance policy' for alarm owners who don't want to be hit with the fines.
Under the new ordinance, residents and businesses faced fined $100 for the second false alarm within 12 months and $250 for the third. The ordinance also establishes a $30 alarm registration fee.
Police pushed for the new ordinance saying that 96.4 of the alarms the department got between January 2003 and November 2004 were false. Responding to these alarms was an unneeded drain on the department's limited manpower.
Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or at ithompson@dailyrepublic.net.
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