I RECEIVED WORD TODAY that with the failure of Measure A on Tuesday, the San Buenaventura Friends of the Library have given up their valiant but unsustainable private fundraising efforts to keep Wright Library afloat.

"We can no longer keep the staff at Wright on tenterhooks wondering if this month will be the last," said Berta Steele of San Buenaventura Friends of the Library. "The Save Wright Library Campaign raised over $100,000 and was able to forestall the closing of Wright until the end of this month. However, the electorate has spoken and the library will close."

The Wright, which is operated by the Ventura County Library System, was targeted for closure by the county in an effort to consolidate and save money it doesn't have any more. A smaller facility than the E.P. Foster Library Downtown, it's unable to house the collections of both libraries and does not have a meeting room or computer center. The much smaller Avenue Library receives money from federal sources.

In flusher times, the City of Ventura has been able to step in to rescue library services. But after trimming $11 million out of the current two-year budget and asking employees to take salary and benefit cuts, the money is not there.

There was some question as to whether the hours at both libraries could be cut back even more to save both, but that is apparently not an option any more. The Wright is the most popular library in the city, with a circulation of 210,556.

Part of the revenues from Measure A were earmarked for the library and the Friends were pinning their hopes on the ballot measure's passage to save it.

The group put up a commendable fight to save their beloved library and I really feel for the patrons, both young and old, who consider it a home away from home. It will be missed.

IT SOMETIMES TAKES the threat of losing an old friend to make you appreciate just how much you need him, and so it has been with the announced closing of the H.P. Wright Library in Ventura.

A source of comfort, entertainment, and a home away from home for many Venturans, the Wright is a victim of budget cutbacks in the County Library System. The closing has sparked an uprising of sorts in Ventura which has secretly pleased me. To see an organized effort of this sort for a facility of knowledge is truly remarkable in an age when so many other things compete for our attention.

Long supportive of efforts by the San Buenaventura Friends of the Library to privately raise money to keep the facility open, I recently joined a group of my fellow Venturans on the newly convened Ventura Library Plan Steering Committee.

In these dog days of budget cuts, our group of motivated citizens is the substitute for the $100,000 library plan exercise axed from the city's budget last year.

"It's time to have this conversation and see it through to the end," Deputy Mayor Bill Fulton told us last week.

The Wright is losing its lease from Ventura College in 2015 and chances are it won't be renewed. A smaller facility than the E.P. Foster Library Downtown, it's unable to house the collections of both libraries and does not have a meeting room or computer center. The much smaller Avenue Library receives money from federal sources. So the Wright was targeted for closure by the county in an effort to consolidate and save money it doesn't have any more.

But it's the most popular library in the city, with a circulation of 210,556, thus the uprising.

San Buenaventura Friends of the Library has raised enough money to keep the facility open until late October. If the Ventura sales tax measure passes in November, with the added revenue, the facility could potentially stay open until the lease is up in 2015, at least. If not, well, it's likely the Friends will give up the effort and the facility will close.

A DENIZEN OF THE EAST END, I must admit to traveling more frequently to the Oxnard Library when my children were very young in the late '90s. A larger, newer facility with a better children's collection, the city-run library had predictable hours, which our three Ventura libraries have never had. The now-closed bookstore Adventures for Kids drew us out as well.

But we've also spent time in the comfy beanbag chairs at the Wright, talked to the friendly librarians who obviously love their jobs, and watched the students trail over from Foothill High after school.

The city has property available in the Community Park on Kimball Road near the 126 Freeway to build a large, new facility for the entire city, but doesn't have the funding identified. I envy the cities of Camarillo and Oxnard for their new state-of-the art facilities. In 1997, a comprehensive study recommended the city withdraw from the County Library System altogether, but we never followed through.

LIbraries of the future may need to look very different than they do today. Books can be downloaded digitally and reference materials are available online. When surveyed, our group lamented the lack of community programs and activities offered in Ventura libraries. Meeting facilities, an auditorium and possibly a coffee/juice bar would be great additions.

Our group has a big, lumpy piece of clay to mold. Citizen input will be very important. The entire community is being invited to weigh in. The idea is to have a strategic plan to present to the council by May of 2010.

Your constructive thoughts are welcomed in this space, or you can send me an email.

DO OTHER CITY COUNCILS have 6-hour meetings? Just before midnight, the Ventura City Council put off further discussion on proceeding with a possible sales tax measure until Feb. 17, at a time still to be determined. Those of us who stayed in our seats until the bitter end had long lost feeling in our lower extremities by the time the final decision was ultimately put off.

Because of the worsening revenue situation, department managers were asked to prepare immediate 5 percent reductions. Those cuts will bypass the Budgeting for Outcomes team process, which is now being structured around priority services. The teams will still work on identifying other cuts, which are expected to fall hardest on the Community Services Department.

I decided to make one of my rare attempts at public speaking last night and I shared my thoughts closely along the lines of my preceding blog entry. It is time for all of us to work together and make sacrifices.

Any attempt to pass a sales tax measure will include a town hall meeting first, a suggestion made by Council member Ed Summers which I believe has much merit.

IN LIBRARY NEWS, Council member Bill Fulton reported last night that he is recommending the County Library Commission also put off its decision whether or not to close Wright Library until all input is gathered and alternative options aired. A separate children's library site is also being explored for the Pacific View Mall. The County Library Commission meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Thursday in the Topping Room of the E.P. Foster Library.

I STARTED OFF my day yesterday at 7:30 a.m. at a wonderful presentation put on by the Ventura Social Services Task Force. It was a eye-opening look at our area's homeless issues. I will write more about this in an upcoming entry.

AND FINALLY: City Manager Rick Cole has written in his blog that "Wal-Mart will finally be applying to occupy the vacant K-Mart building they leased on Victoria. Ventura voters will have a chance to vote on banning big box stores that offer groceries in November. But although the initiative would be retroactive, it will be interesting to see how the courts interpret that if Wal-Mart goes ahead and simply occupies the existing empty store."

No word yet on the chain's plans for that site but it would need to comply with the city's codes for that area, which forbid anything over 100,000 square feet from going in there. That would preclude a supercenter, which the ballot initiative slated for the November ballot seeks to prevent. If Wal-Mart simply reoccupies the current 90,000-square-foot space, they would be compliant with the city's codes and the ballot measure would have little impact other than preventing them from adding on.