Construction Contract Awarded for Overdue Library : Services: City and county work out plan to cover added costs on long-delayed Antelope Valley facility.

City Council members have awarded a $6.1-million construction contract for a long-awaited new regional library, saying it will replace an overcrowded existing facility and help revitalize Lancaster’s old downtown district.

City and county officials agreed in 1992 to cooperate on building the new library and predicted that it would open in March of this year.

But city and county staff workers disagreed on design issues, delaying the project for many months. More recently, the project was jeopardized when construction bids exceeded the amount of money left for the project.

At a meeting this week, however, the City Council approved a plan to join the county in covering the additional costs. In a 4-0 vote, the council awarded the contract to Kajima Construction Services, which submitted the low bid of $6,095,000.

“Thank goodness it’s happening,” Councilman Frank Roberts said.

Chuck Billodeaux, manager of the 30-year-old county library that currently serves Lancaster, watched the vote from the audience. “I was extremely happy,” he said. “I breathed a sigh of relief.”

A groundbreaking ceremony will probably take place within two weeks, and construction of the 48,721-square-foot facility should be under way by early August, said Jeff Long, the city’s public works director. The library site, on Lancaster Boulevard at Cedar Avenue, has already been cleared.

The building is expected to open one year after construction begins.

The new library, to be run by the county, will be almost three times larger than the existing one, where shelves are filled to capacity and not enough seating is available.

Originally, the project was budgeted at $12.2 million, including land acquisition, design work and construction costs. But delays and design changes raised the cost to $13.4 million.

Because of continuing county budget problems, staffing and operating hours at the new library may be limited when the building opens. But library officials say they hope to expand its services later, when the county’s financial condition improves.