PORTERVILLE, Calif. – A new public library is on its way to the city of Porterville. The city council approved of building a new facility at their final meeting of the year in December, five years after the previous library branch was lost to a deadly fire.
The project is estimated to cost $22 million.
The city previously secured a $7.26 million grant for the project from the California State Library’s Building Forward Infrastructure Program. Additional funding will come from insurance proceeds the city received after the 2020 fire.
Officials will continue to explore additional financing options to present to the council at a future meeting. A staff report to the city council suggested the city even has “viable financing options available,” should the project’s budget extend beyond its expected cost.
The new library — estimated to be 16,765 square feet in size — will rise up just east of downtown Porterville, across the street from the South County Justice Center on Olive Avenue.
A design concept by Paul Halajian Architects includes space for children’s services, teen areas, and staff work areas. The new branch will be much larger than the previous building.
That library was blocks away, tucked between city hall and the city’s fire station in the heart of downtown. It was built in 1953 after the city’s original library, one of more than 1,000 Carnegie libraries built around the country, was demolished due to concerns about its structure.
Nearly 70 years later, the Porterville Public Library burned down in 2020 in an arson case that gripped the community. Two teenaged boys were accused of lighting a paper on fire inside the library, which later spread throughout the building, which did not have sprinklers.
Two firefighters — Cpt. Ray Figueroa and firefighter Patrick Jones — were killed as crews raced to put out the fire. One of the boys — the prime suspect — was sentenced in 2022 to six months in jail.
The city had already been looking to update the library as far back as 2017. A temporary library has operated in the meantime using funds from the fire insurance payout. Some of the funds were also used to fix smoke damage at the city’s downtown fire station and city hall.
