Mark 2032 on your calendar.

It is the 29th anniversary of a previous Manteca City Council’s decision to move forward with plans to build a new library that would be designed as a 21st century learning center.

The city in 2002 dumped $160,000 into assessing community needs and devising plans to build a $33 million, story replacement facility at the current location at 320 West Center St.

The structure was anticipated to take over the entire library parking lot.

The price tag included putting the library in portable modular buildings for two years across the street at the tennis court while construction took place.

Then, after the new library was completed, the tennis courts were to be converted into a new library parking lot.

Nothing happened because the city missed state library grant funding twice. The city didn’t have a local funding source such as a temporary parcel tax or even a sales tax.

They were betting the library was so inadequate for the city’s population of 52,000 in 2003 that it would meet the state’s No. 1 deciding factor in awarding grants to community’s with woefully subpar library facilities.

They secured zero dollars from the state. That said, Manteca was the city that was just nudged out of the 13th and final grant awarded in the second round.

The library is arguably the best example on long-term failure at not just making sure city facilities keep up with growth but that they are updated.

A new library is on the city’s government facilities fee list.

Altogether, there are 10 projects identified at a combined cost of $266.4 million.

Fees have been put in place to collect growth’s maximum legal share of the projects,

And now that the Measure Q sales tax has passed, it provides a local funding source to move most, if not all, of the projects to the point they actually break ground when combined with growth fees..

The library at $65 million is the most expensive endeavor.

And while it is important to the city, work on design and such won’t likely start until 2032 based on the city’s justification study for growth fees.

The first project to move forward is the new police station.

Next, on the current priority list, is expansion of the animal shelter and a community center.

Then, in 2030, the first phase of a new city hall could get started.

The library and the remaining projects wouldn’t start planning and design any earlier than 2032.

If a library project does break ground as early as 2032, it will mark the first time in 55 years that Manteca expanded library facilities.

Manteca Library history

Manteca has had a library in one form or another for the past 114 years.

The first library in Manteca was started in 1910.

The first library was opened in 1910 in a building on the southwest corner of Yosemite and Maple avenues.

A year later, Mrs. M.B. Hooper became the second librarian and moved the library to a corner of her husband’s store that carried hardware, groceries, and dry goods on the northeast corner of Main Street and Yosemite Avenue.

There were never more than 50 books at a time in the library’s collection in 1911. They were exchanged once a month in Stockton.

The Manteca Bulletin published a list each month of the new books that were brought in from Stockton for circulation.

The library bounced around for several years including a stint in a private home on Willow Street.

The library, in 1918, was housed inside the Vandevort Ice Cream Parlor.

In 1924, the library was housed in part of the second floor of the just completed City Hall on Sycamore Avenue. The two-stork brick building was recently remodeled following a fire.

Space needs in 1952 forced the library out of city hall and into rented storefront space at 313 W. Yosemite Ave.

It was three “yes” votes on the last absentee ballots counted in 1960 that passed a $75,000 bond to build the initial portion of Manteca’s current public library that now stands on Center Street in the triangle formed with Manteca and Poplar avenues.

The site is the ninth home for Manteca branch library. It took three elections for the bond measure to pass. The first effort failed by four votes in April 1958. The bond was defeated again in November 1958 by 60 votes.

The library was dedicated on Jan. 13, 1962.

It was expanded in 1977 to its current configuration with the prediction it would be adequate for the city through 1995 when population was projected to reach 32,000.

Manteca’s actual population in 1995 was 45,060 residents. Manteca now has 93,000 residents.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, e-mail dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com