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Kapolei library
glitters in opening
The ceremony shows off
the second city's newly stocked
$6.9 million center of learning
Kapolei has another jewel in its second city crown with yesterday's grand opening -- finally -- of its public library.
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"A good, well-staffed, properly stocked library ... is very valuable, like a jewel," Lingle said.
"This is a statement that Kapolei has arrived," Lingle said, to enthusiastic applause from several hundred people at a 10 a.m. ceremony. "And it's only the beginning of many more outstanding additions in this community."
Though the 35,000-square-foot building was completed in February 2002, lack of funding for books and staff delayed the opening until now. Planning for the facility began in the late 1980s.
Dave Gilbert proudly wore his Friends of the Library of Kapolei (FOLK) at the ceremony, which proclaimed "I love the Kapolei Library."
Since moving to Makakilo in 1983, Gilbert has been waiting for a library. He helped in the Kapolei reading room twice a week over the past year, where an all-volunteer staff provided a place that lent used books on the honor system and provided a place to study and read 14 hours a week.
Artist Frances Ammon, reading room volunteer coordinator for a year and a half, said she felt it was important "to have a place for children to come rather than the street."
"The new library has been long awaited and expected by the community to serve us in information and knowledge," Kahu Kauila Clark said in a dedication prayer. "May this be a sacred place for education."
Many Kapolei, Ewa and Makakilo residents at the opening yesterday said they've been making do with trips to the nearest libraries -- Waipahu and Waianae -- and relish the thought of a library of their own.
First-day festivities included speeches, performances by hula halau and musicians, a Lion Dance by the Chinese Physical Culture Association, and cake and punch (to be consumed outside the library only).
The community is to be complimented for its "perseverance, dedication and hard work" for getting the library funded and open despite competing interests for state dollars, Board of Education Chairman Breene Harimoto said.
Children of all ages roamed through both floors of the bright, airy two-story building yesterday, urging parents to check out books, videos and DVDs. Parents took advantage of free Hawaiian-design shopping bags to tote their offspring's selections.
"It's beautiful," first-time visitors kept exclaiming to each other.
Library workers said business was brisk when the library opened Monday, with more than 1,000 books checked out that day and close to 100 new library cards applied for since.
The library has 41,000 books on its shelves, 42 computers, many with public Internet access, and four microfilm machines. It has adult areas for fiction, nonfiction and research, and separate areas for young adults (teenagers) and for children.
Kaiulani Pieper, 9, and her brother Travis, 11, have been waiting two years for the library to open.
"We check on it when we go to soccer, across the street in the park," said their mother, Treena, who is glad to have such a nice library closer to their Makakilo home than Waianae or Waipahu.
"We're excited," Pieper said, pushing a stroller with future reader Treyden, 6 weeks, into the library.