PRESS RELEASE

In the news and on the web
January 27, 2006

IT TAKES A VILLAGE (AND MORE): EL DORADO HILLS GETS FIRST FULL-SERVICE LIBRARY

Used book sales with 25-cent paperbacks. Garden tour fundraisers of beautiful El Dorado Hills homes. State grant money. County funds. Brownie troop donations. Developer fees. Bridge tournament fundraisers. A land parcel dedicated by Serrano Associates. Voter approval of Measure L, the annual library assessment. And, of course, the "library ladies" (the EDH Friends of the Library), who pushed, cajoled, and worked tireless hours to bring a full-service library to El Dorado Hills.

It took a village - and a county and a state - to make it happen. And here it is. The El Dorado Hills Branch Library will hold a grand opening event for the public on Saturday, Feb. 4, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and then officially open its doors on Tuesday, Feb. 7.

"As neighbors of the library, Serrano and Parker Development Company welcome this wonderful new facility to El Dorado Hills," said Bill Parker, president of Parker Development. "We are happy to see the project become a reality after seven years of fundraising and hard work by the EDH Friends of the Library. Since the library site at Serrano is virtually in the center of El Dorado Hills, we envision it as a place that will not only foster learning and provide a pleasurable atmosphere for reading a good book, but will bring residents together as a community."

The library includes a children's room for story time, teen and adult homework and reading rooms, public meeting rooms and a kitchen. At capacity the library will hold some 60,000 items, including books, periodicals and CDs; it will open at about 50 percent shelf capacity with up-to-date items added when feasible.

The 16,000 sq. ft. building sits on a 4-acre parcel at 7455 Silva Valley Road. Its glass-and-fieldstone building materials and architectural style echo that of its neighbor, the Serrano Visitors Center, and the Serrano Country Club, which is a short drive up the hill.

The setting is serene: Patrons have a view of the lake at the Serrano Village Green, as well as of several striking majestic oak trees. In fact, the oaks are so key to the setting and to El Dorado Hills in general that the image of an oak has been sandblasted into the granite wall of the library's lobby fountain.