Oakley, CA — Contra Costa County Supervisor Diane Burgis has pledged $250,000 from her Livable Communities Trust Fund toward the construction of a new library and community center for the City of Oakley, she announced at this evening’s Oakley City Council meeting. She challenged other major donors to match her contribution and encouraged the Oakley community to support the project.
“Libraries and community centers are essential to a growing city like Oakley, and residents expect and deserve a full-service library and community center,” Supervisor Burgis said. “The new library will be not just a place to check out books, but also to gather, to search for a job, to learn a language, to act as a cooling center, and to house activities for seniors, veterans and other community groups.”
“I’m excited to pledge $250,000 from my Livable Communities funds to help build a library and community center that serves the needs of Oakley and our growing East County communities,” Burgis continued. “I want to challenge large funders to match my contribution, because the need is enormous and the time to support this community is now.”
The Oakley Library currently has a month-to-month lease for 3,000 square feet of space inside the Freedom High School Library on Neroly Road. According to the Friends of the Oakley Library, a nonprofit supporting the library, “the library space has no community meeting rooms, the shelf space is limited and there are no quiet study or workspaces separating it from the High School side of the library. The Oakley Library needs to have a permanent space, with enough square footage to accommodate the needs of Oakley residents.”
“Oakley is celebrating 25 years as an incorporated city, and a new library and community center will be the next major step in improving services for our residents,” said Oakley Mayor Anissa Williams. “I’m grateful to Supervisor Burgis for her generous contribution, and I encourage members of the community to join her with contributions of all sizes so we can build the new library and community center that our 45,000 residents deserve.”
According to the Friends of the Oakley Library, the City has identified $9.5 million to fund a new library of roughly 9,000 square feet. However, to build a library and community center comparable to other Contra Costa County cities of a similar size, the City aims to build a library and community center that would comprise approximately 28,000 square feet at a cost of $28 million. The City Council has set a deadline of December 31, 2024 to raise additional funds to build the much larger library and community center that can house the library, a senior center and a veteran’s center.
Supervisor Diane Burgis proudly serves the 222,000 residents of Contra Costa County’s 3rd Supervisorial District, including Antioch, Bethel Island, Brentwood, Byron, Discovery Bay, Knightsen, and Oakley in East Contra Costa County. Prior to being elected to the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors in 2016, Burgis served as a trustee on the East Bay Regional Parks District Board, a member of the Oakley City Council, and as the Executive Director of Friends of the Marsh Creek Watershed.
For more information about the new library and community center, visit the City of Oakley’s website at: Engage.OakleyCA.gov
For more information about the fundraising effort, visit the Friends of the Oakley Library at: www.OakleyLibrary.org
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