Vince Hernandez believes the time has come for serious movement toward the city expanding Manteca’s library facilities.

That, however, doesn’t mean the Manteca City Council member wants to see the proposal for a $33 million “main” library expansion on Center Street dusted off — far from it.

Instead he wants to see smaller branch libraries placed around Manteca to make them more accessible.

Hernandez at recent council meetings on the city budget pushed to include library facilities in future spending documents as part of the five-year capital improvement plan.

Inclusion on the list is crucial to get a project moving toward fruition. They are essentially priorities that the council adopts for staff to work toward. It doesn’t mean that they will get completed within that five-year time frame but it does mean work toward a project will move forward and not be shelved.

Placement on that five-year plan also means the facilities can be included in factoring the park fee amount collected from new growth.

Mayor Steve DeBrum made it clear during budget talks that Manteca is “leaving money on the table” by not getting the public facilities fee and park fee updated as quickly as possible. By that he believes homes now being built are paying fees that are significantly lower than what can be justified as growth’s fair share of community facilities that the council has determined as being needed.

Library facilities are mentioned in passing in the capital improvement plan section in the budget among possible future projects. It is clear, however, it is not something within a five year target.

Library advocates such as Mas’ood Cajee believe the most effective library facilities would be smaller branches placed south of the 120 Bypass and in north Manteca along with a moderate expansion and modernization of the “main” branch library in Manteca.

Cajee noted such a strategy “greatly increases access” for people based on the distance to the existing library as well as barriers for those without cars — including youth — such as the 120 Bypass.

Other communities such as Stockton and Lathrop have built branch libraries as part of structures that provide other functions such as a community center or — in Lathrop’s case — a teen center.

Cajee pointed out library services have evolved with the times meaning that there isn’t a need to have massive book stacks to make branch libraries function effectively to increase community literacy, knowledge, help improve the economic lot of individuals and for use as a recreation facility for reading and other endeavors.

Such smaller branches could carry an annual cost to operate and maintain of $450,000 according to information obtained from the Stockton-San Joaquin County Library System.

Manteca essentially provides the building and covers the maintenance costs including utilities. They also make a small contribution to the books fund for the Manteca branch collection as well as provide funding for staffing hours beyond what the county and City of Stockton underwrite.

“We’ve done a good job of providing a proliferation of parks,” Hernandez said. “We need to take care of the intellectual side of the equation.”