New Alpine Library Groundbreaking Ceremony
Friday, March 6th saw the groundbreaking for the new Alpine Branch of the San Diego County Library. The site, adjacent to the Wall of Honor and the Alpine Community Center, will provide a wonderful location for this state of the art facility. The ceremony began with the posting of the colors by Color Guard Troup 142 followed by the Pledge of allegiance led by Theo Bazdorf, Chaplain of the VFW post 9578, Alpine.
New Alpine Library Groundbreaking Ceremony
Friday, March 6th saw the groundbreaking for the new Alpine Branch of the San Diego County Library. The site, adjacent to the Wall of Honor and the Alpine Community Center, will provide a wonderful location for this state of the art facility. The ceremony began with the posting of the colors by Color Guard Troup 142 followed by the Pledge of allegiance led by Theo Bazdorf, Chaplain of the VFW post 9578, Alpine.
County Library Director Jose Aponte welcomed over 200 people to the ceremony and expressed his delight at the enthusiasm shown by the Alpine Community and the tenacity they had shown in bringing this library to fruition. He acknowledged the many civic organizations represented in the audience along with many representatives of past and present library staff, the County staff and the Design Build team.
Jacob then spoke of a promise she had made over 10 years ago to the people of Alpine that she would fulfill their desire to have a new library that would meet their needs. “The folks in Alpine are getting the bigger, better library they deserve, and I think they’re going to love it,” said Supervisor Jacob. “It will not only include the latest technology, but will serve as a vital hub for the entire community.”
She joked that it had taken a long time, but praised Alpine Library Friends Association for continuing to believe in their mission. She said how happy she felt being able to bring the library to Alpine and looked forward to cutting the ribbon at the opening projected for spring, 2016. She described the many facilities inside the new building and emphasized that it would be LEED certified at least Gold and be the first County building to be Net Zero Energy efficient.
Christine Connell, ALFA President, confessed that she had told a few fibs when she said the library would be coming in 2003 and 2008 when applications for funding through Proposition 14 and 81 failed to be approved. She told the audience how delighted ALFA was when the County had approved almost $10,000,000 to construct the library, but noted the community needs to raise a total of about $700,000 for the Furnishings Fixtures and Equipment to complete this state of the art Library. To date over $350,000 has been collected, but she joked that we needed lots of those “magic green pieces of paper” preferably with lots of zeroes on them. She explained that folks could also write checks or use PayPal via www.alpinelibrarayfriends.org
Manuel Oncina, and Philip Pape, architects for the library described how pleased they were to be involved with this project and described how they had overcome some of the challenges posed by the site. They promised to be at the ribbon cutting also.
Viejas Vice Chairman Victor Woods was then introduced by Director Aponte. Woods said he was pleased to see the beginning of the building of a new library which would greatly benefit the entire Alpine Community. He then introduced Raymond “Bear” Cuero, who led the Viejas bird singers. They performed traditional ceremonial songs and dances which was a lovely conclusion to the Groundbreaking event.
