Kings Plaza Diner

SV library to open today: Community to dedicate branch 21 years in the making

SCOTTS VALLEY - The Scotts Valley library has been 21 years in the making but it's finally a reality.

Scotts Valley residents will get their first look at the new 13,000-square-foot branch - nearly 2.5 times larger than the city's current library - during a grand opening dedication today. Donors got a sneak peek during a reception Friday night, but the general citizenry who paid for the $8 million facility through redevelopment tax funds will be the guests of honor today.

As she helped put finishing touches on the branch's individual sections for adults, kids and teens, Elizabeth Walch, president of Friends of the Library, Scotts Valley chapter, said, "To have it all be cohesive is amazing. To have a comfortable place for everyone really appeals to the community."

Opening the new facility - a former roller rink transformed into a high-tech, light-filled center - represents a bright spot in what has often been a gloomy season for the 10-branch city-county system.

Driven by declining tax revenue and increasing labor costs, persistent budget deficits during the past several years pushed the Santa Cruz Public Libraries to rethink how it serves thousands of customers from the San Lorenzo Valley to La Selva Beach. After a cost-cutting proposal to close four small branches met stiff opposition this winter, the Library Joint Powers Authority board voted to keep all sites open, increase technology and spread out hours more evenly through a new service model set to premier in January.

Then, just a few months after the closure dispute was settled, a last-minute tiff unfolded between officials from Scotts Valley and the county - who first agreed in 1990 to jointly open a library - over the length and other terms of the lease. The two sides worked out their differences, albeit temporarily, with a two-year pact that allows the county to lease the library through the Joint Powers Authority for $1 per year.

With the agreement complete, staff got into the new building Monday to start setting up. They reshelved the branch's 65,000 volumes from the old facility in the nearby Kings Village shopping plaza.

Solar tubes and window walls thrust sunlight into the airy, loft-like space. The original dark wooden glulam beams and perpendicular purlin supports that hovered over the roller rink - now buried below an array of bright carpeting - are still in place, giving the library a strong industrial feel.

The wood is replicated throughout the library, in the large signs hanging over the branch's various sections, and in canopies and end caps for the book stacks, which have yet to arrive. Large, rectangular lanterns in the center of the library diffuse light from large windows and skylights, which in addition to LED lights throughout, will save enough energy to offset higher-than-expected utility bills at the system's Live Oak branch.

The Shining Star, Kings Plaza Diner, Total Wine Bar, and More ...

Welcome back to the weekly Friday Shutter. Know of any other restaurant that has met its demise? Let us know .

1) Park Slope: Brownstoner reports that Total Wine Bar has been shuttered for almost a month now. [Brownstoner]

2) Lower East Side : Bowery Boogie notes that greasy fast food joint Munchies is closed. [BB]

3) Upper West Side : From a tipster: "The TLC/ Tasti D Lite on Amsterdam and 81st closed. Sign says couldn't renew lease. More concerning though is the Shining Star 24 hour Diner also closed after 16 years . Not sure where all the drunken patrons of Bourbon Street, Jakes Dilemma, etc will stumble to for there 3am fried food fix now." It closed early last month.

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