Community volunteer Warren Lynge joins the Castle Pines Chamber of Commerce in cutting the ribbon to open the new library in Castle Pines North.

By Lisa Crockett

In place of the aging and often out-of-order bookmobile, the Castle Pines community has a new, and comparatively spacious, outlet for books.

The community celebrated a grand opening celebration and ribbon cutting for the Castle Pines Library in the Village Square Shopping Center in late September. The occasion featured speeches by the Library District’s Director, Jamie LaRue, the Library Board of Trustees President, Mark Weston, and the Mayor of Castle Pines North, Maureen Shul.

“Despite a lost election, a core group of civic volunteers refused to take no for an answer,” said LaRue. “Through their relentless fundraising, they made it possible for a library to open, even in the midst of challenging economic conditions. In the process, they not only built a library, they built a real community.”

One of the key community members LaRue referred to is Warren Lynge, a resident of Castle Pines North (CPN) who led the charge to bring the library to the Castle Pines community. Lynge was honored at the grand opening by Weston. (To read more about Lynge, see page 21.)

“Warren is a former General Motors executive, and often when we were working on this project we would see a look in his eyes that reminded me of Clint Eastwood,” said Weston. “We knew he meant business!”

For his part, Lynge said he couldn’t be happier with the outcome of the work he and countless other community volunteers devoted to the project. After two failed bond initiatives, Lynge worked with community members and library district officials to negotiate an affordable lease for the library space as well as find ways to bring staff and materials to the location.

This is a good day,” said Lynge. “It’s great to see a concrete result of our efforts and the people I worked with on the committee to bring this library here were real jewels.”

After the ceremonial cutting of the ribbon by Lynge, the library’s doors were open wide to the more than 300 people who were ready and waiting.

One library patron, seven-year-old Meg Huber, waited patiently as her older sister Emily checked out a large stack of books for her to enjoy.

“I like to get books and read them,” said Meg. “This is better than the bookmobile because it’s bigger and has more books and more space to walk around.”

Veronica Fratta, a CPN resident and mother of three, sees the library as a real boon to the community.

“We were faithful patrons of the bookmobile, and our family is really excited to have a larger selection and more choices of books. There is a lot more variety now, and a lot of the materials are nice and new.”

The Castle Pines Library is open Mondays and Tuesdays from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m, Wednesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon until 5 p.m. For more information about library services, visit www.douglascountylibraries.org.

Library Fast Facts:

Castle Pines Library Branch Manager: Sharon Lauchner

Library Staff: Five full-time employees and five part-time employees

Library Space: 2,300 square feet (1,600 square feet of public space, 700 square feet staff work space)

Items available at the library for checkout: Roughly 12,500 items – more than double the number of available items on the bookmobile

Hours open per week: 61 (the bookmobile was open for 29 hours per week)

Story time: Four times per week at varying times; check out page 27 for details

Services available at the library: Friendly staff, express computers. wireless Internet, informal reading areas, self check-out, and a children’s area

Volunteers: The library welcomes volunteers; call Sarah Tweed at the Castle Pines Branch for details at 303-791-7323