If the City of Long Beach had stuck to its original timetable, Main Library would be open just more six weeks before closing indefinitely. Then, some day, a new, watertight, earthquake-proof Main Library would be built or rebuilt, there or elsewhere. Some day.

That’s what worries members of the Long Beach Public Library Foundation, whose drive to keep Main Library open–or, at least, reach a sensible decision on what to do about it–continues.

You’ll recall that on Aug. 1, City Manager Pat West and Mayor Bob Foster suggested closing Main Library, to save an estimated $1.8 million in the proposed Fiscal Year 2008-2009 budget. Plans then were to shutter the Main as soon as Oct. 1.

The city plan now is to open a satellite Main Library–some kind of library, somewhere–before closing this one; then to either rebuild the current structure in place, or build another from scratch somewhere.

A temporary library–which could, as Second District Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal observed at the proposed budget’s public unveiling Aug. 5, be so good and so great that it stays open in perpetuity.

Sound good? Well consider that the old Mark Twain branch library–on the northwest corner of Anaheim Street and Gundry Avenue–was itself a temporary library, opened in 1958 just until the city could build a new one. And the City of Long Beach finally did, in 2007. Yep. It took them 49 years.

So despite assurances from city officials that they’re ready to go on a new branch library for north Long Beach–and that building a new Main Library should take only two to four years (the timeframe’s already been optimistically improved from the original estimate of three to five years)–library folk aren’t convinced.

“If they think Main is going to have a new library in a minute they’re crazy,” says Mark Twain branch librarian Sue Taylor, who remembers working at the stately old Andrew Carnegie Library downtown until 1972, when it was closed following an arson fire–then, of course, torn down.

The Carnegie’s replacement–our current Main Library–took five years to arrive, as part of the civic center.

“A temporary library is no small thing. You have shelves and computers and conditional use permits,” says Sara Pillet, director of the Long Beach Public Library Foundation.

“My concern is that they’re going to vote without fully … we won’t know what has been voted on–with basically the city council saying ‘This will be taken care of,’ ” Pillet says. “Forgive us if we need more definitive information.”

The Foundation has filed a California Public Records Act request with the city, demanding to see the actual documents proving that the Main Library needs to be closed due to seismic and leakage problems.

“It’s just one thing to say you have to [close Main Library], and then another thing to have a document that says you have to,” Pillet says. “So far there hasn’t been anything that says this has to happen, other than what the city council and the mayor and the city manager have told us.”

Pillet also wonders where the money would come from. Current plans are to fund a new Main Library with Redevelopment Agency dollars and at least $18 million from Mayor Bob Foster’s proposed $571 million infrastructure bond.

“But what happens if the bond doesn’t pass?” Pillet asks. “If the bond doesn’t pass, are we in a temporary building forever? I think a lot of our supporters are in favor of staying put until a permanent plan is in place.”

If you’re interested in lending your voice to discussions of the city’s proposed budget–and to the possible closure of Main Library, you might consider attending one or all of the following meetings:

11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Wednesday: Ninth Council District community budget meeting at Coolidge Park, 352 E. Neece St.
11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Thursday: Third Council District community budget meeting at Long Beach Yacht Club, 6201 E. Appian Way.
7-8 p.m. Thursday: Seventh and Eighth Council Districts community budget meetings at the Petroleum Club, 3636 Linden Ave.
5:30-6:30 p.m. Aug. 26: First Council District community budget meeting in Main Library Auditorium, Pacific Avenue at Ocean Boulevard.
6:45-8 p.m. Aug. 26: Community meeting to discuss the possibility of rebuilding and relocating Main Library, in Main Library Auditorium, Pacific Avenue at Ocean Boulevard.
6-7 p.m. Aug. 27: Sixth Council District community budget meeting at McBride Park,  1550 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.
3:30-4:30 p.m. Sept. 2: Budget study session at Long Beach City Hall, 333 W. Ocean Blvd.

Tags: Andrew Carnegie Library, California, California Public Records Act request, City Manager Pat West, City of Long Beach, Coolidge Park, infrastructure bond, Long Beach, Long Beach Public Library Foundation, Long Beach Yacht Club, Main Library, Mark Twain branch library, Mayor Bob Foster, McBride Park, Petroleum Club, Redevelopment Agency, Second District Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal, Southern California, Sue Taylor, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas