Don Bobeda, Castle Pines Chamber of Commerce Chairman, Mayor Maureen Shul, City of Castle Pines North, and Jamie LaRue, Douglas County Libraries Director at the March 19 Douglas County Library District meeting.

by Lisa Crockett and Terri Wiebold

Where there is a will, there is a way! The tenacity and creativity of the Castle Pines community, combined with the generosity of local residents, businesses, and a Castle Pines charitable foundation just might bring a library to Castle Pines North (CPN).

Despite bond failures in the last two elections, the Castle Pines community is not accepting defeat.

At the March 19 Douglas County Library District Board of Director’s meeting, Castle Pines Chamber of Commerce Chairman Don Bobeda presented a plan that could provide the necessary facility as well as the funding for a library in the Castle Pines community.

Bobeda said he sees the library as not only an important addition to the civic amenities offered to area residents, but as an important part of the business community.

The proposed location for a new library is in the Village Square Shopping Center, placing it in the heart of the CPN business district.

“We see the library as a third ‘anchor’ in our business district. We have Safeway and King Soopers now, and according to our research, traffic at a library would be equal to or greater than the traffic at our grocery stores,” said Bobeda.

According to Bobeda, the Paul Mitchell Foundation is donating $250,000 in kind for a Castle Pines library, provided that the community contributes an additional $50,000 to the project this year.

As of press time, the Chamber had collected approximately $28,700 in pledges from the community toward the library – well beyond its preliminary goal of $10,000. The pledges are a show of good faith to the Douglas County Library Board of Directors that the community is in support of the effort.

According to Douglas County Libraries Director, Jamie LaRue, additional funding is available from a 2005 land purchase paid from the Castle Pines North Metro District to the library district. Since that time, the library district has held the $150,000 from that purchase in an account to be used for a library in the Castle Pines Area.

“We wanted to be sure the money was used in the community it came from,” said LaRue.

As part of LaRue’s district-wide recommended budgetary cuts presented at the March 19 meeting, the bookmobile (which serves CPN) would cease operation in surrounding communities and be “parked” in CPN.

Bobeda says that the funding that would have otherwise supported the bookmobile in CPN could be used to support this new facility. “It makes sense that they [the library district] could allocate funds and resources to a more permanent facility,” said Bobeda.

“In the November election, the Castle Pines North community supported the idea of a library with 62 percent of the vote, the highest by far of any area in the county,” said Warren Lynge, a CPN resident on the library committee. Lynge has worked with various entities in the community in coming up with a proposal that would bring a library here.

The Douglas County Library District Board of Directors will discuss Bobeda’s proposal further at its next meeting to be held April 16 in Highlands Ranch.

For more information about the library project, contact the Castle Pines Chamber of Commerce at 303-688-3359 or visit
www.castlepineschamber.com.