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.

I HAVE BEEN a big supporter of San Buenaventura Friends of the Library's dogged efforts to save their beloved Wright Library from closure due to cutbacks in the Ventura County Library System. They've done event after event and even invited science fiction legend Ray Bradbury to be the featured speaker at a fundraiser. So far they've raised $92,000.

But there comes a time when even the most devoted volunteers get tired. Volunteer-driven fundraising efforts cannot always be sustained. I've been there, done that myself when in 2003 as part of an equally determined group of moms we raised $84,000 to save the School Resource Officer program in Ventura's middle schools for just one year. We couldn't do it again the next.

So the Friends are pinning their hopes on the passage of Ventura's Measure A, the 1/2-percent sales tax measure on November's ballot. The estimated $8 million raised locally by the measure would stay in Ventura and wouldn't be subject to a raid from Sacramento. The state is taking $4 million from the city's now balanced budget to solve the state's budget crisis -- "borrowing" $2.8 million in property taxes and taking an additional $1.2 million from the city's Redevelopment Agency.

The spending plan for the revenue measure, which sunsets in four years, would do much to restore some of the service cuts our older, full-service city has had to make in the last few years to balance the budget. Supplementing the county's funding for our libraries would keep Wright open and maintain hours at our other library facilities.

Today the Friends and other community leaders and local families officially kicked off the campaign for Measure A in front of the Wright Library. The measure has broad community support if the endorsement list is any indication. On the growing list is the Ventura Auto Center Dealers Association and other local business leaders. 

SBFOL President Will Thompson put an impassioned plea in the group's latest newsletter: "So, it will be up to us voters to save Wright Library. ... We are, in the face of so many voters in previous elections who just said "NO," the voters who now have the opportunity and the privilege to say "YES." We love Ventura and are eager to save our Wright Library!"

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.

Will Thompson, president of the San Buenaventura Friends of the Library announced a fundraising campaign to save the Wright Library from closure and added his voice to two earlier speakers' pleas for some sort of tax measure to keep libraries and other essential services afloat in these tough times.

"Since money is the problem, we need to step in and urge the City Council to place upon the ballot of some upcoming election a tax measure that would somehow provide stable funding for our libraries," Thompson told the packed room. An overflow crowd watched on TV from the adjacent community room.

Ventura County Library Director Jackie Griffin explained the system is now facing a fiscal year 2009-10 deficit of $650,000. Two of Ventura's three libraries, Wright and E.P. Foster, use 40 percent of all extra money available to the county library system, in addition to property tax revenues collected here which are designated for library use. Griffin recommended that Wright be closed and its collection moved to the Downtown Foster Library, saving nearly $300,000 a year. The small Avenue Library is funded through federal block grants and would remain open.

In flusher times, the City of Ventura has been able to step in to rescue library services. With the possibility of $8 million being trimmed from the general fund by next year, coming on the heels of $7 million in cuts made in the last year, the city isn't able to step up this time.

The county is also facing difficult times, Chief Financial Officer Marty Robinson said last week. "This is the worst I've seen it and I have been around 30-35 years in the system."

THE WRIGHT LIBRARY'S FATE ultimately resides with the County Library Commission and not the Ventura City Council. Adding to the complications is the fact that the building is owned by Ventura College and the $1-a-year lease is up in 2015.

"They've made it very clear to us that in 2015 the lease would ... either be ended or be renegotiated much closer to market rate," said Ventura Community Services Director Elena Brokaw. This would put the building, which is in need of repairs, out of reach financially as a library.

Councilman Bill Fulton said he felt it was unlikely that the Wright could remain in its present spot past 2015, but he was willing to give fundraising efforts time to work as a stopgap until a new facility could be built, possibly with state grant funding, in the city's Community Park on Telegraph and Kimball. Camarillo recently constructed a new facility in this manner.

On a unanimous vote, the council directed staff to work with the Friends of the Library on a fundraising plan and ask Griffin to explore how much time the efforts have before a final decision is needed. Councilmen Carl Morehouse and Ed Summers offered to donate their $600 council salaries this month to the effort.

Another part of the motion put discussions for a possible sales tax measure on the agenda for next week. This could provide sustainable funding for a new library and other services. Oxnard and Port Hueneme recently passed general-purpose tax measures, which only require a majority vote.

Venturans will soon find more than their libraries missing in the upcoming budget cuts, said City Manager Rick Cole. "We have a lot of budget challenges and there are going to be a lot more rooms filled with people concerned about things they care about. ..."