Borrego Sun - Since 1949

The County has a new Library Director and he has already set himself his first challenge.

“Since I come from another jurisdiction” says Migell Acosta “I’ve told staff to give me a hundred days to get to every library and talk to every member of staff. Each system has its own soul or spirit that I want to make sure I understand.” Acosta has only been in his post for one month but already has a lot of experience behind him. Having moved from his role in Los Angeles as assistant director for the county library, he is now based in San Diego and the father of four is looking forward to moving his wife and family from Downey. “I have wonderful staff who do amazing creative things.” stated Acosta and he is going to need all the help he can get as his position encompasses a variety of tasks from having overall responsibility for activities, the library budget, setting initiatives for the libraries, to overseeing, along with other county departments, various library projects. But before you start to feel sorry for his workload, Acosta is already finding out that there are perks to the job. “The drive from San Diego and this community is gorgeous. Coming down that road in to the valley is gorgeous. I definitely don’t mind doing that drive again.”

Even Julian library was an eye opener “I happened to be on a route, so I stopped in there for an hour. The first thing that impressed me was the overall beauty of the library and the art and architecture. I was quite blown away. It gave me an appreciation of the impact of local artists on the building which was something I wasn’t expecting.” Currently, Borrego Springs Library has Tonya Gadbois acting as temporary manager, borrowed from Julian library, however a permanent manager should be in place within a three-month time frame.

There is also movement forward on the new library, the sites selected and acquired and the county have sent out a Request for Statement of Qualifications for potential design build firms to state their qualifications for successfully completing the job. “The timeline shows fourth quarter of 2018 is the current projection, subject to some planning.” stated Acosta “This is happening. I know sometimes these projects are talked about for a long time without moving forward, but we are at the point that this is definitely happening.” The good news is that the current library will continue to be operational and act as a local ‘cool zone’ throughout the build project. “It’s important that we keep this one going but the great opportunity is, we have the chance to see the natural evolution of the library hub. It’s important to build beautiful places for people to get together, network and form friendships.”

The county currently sponsor a few knitting clubs, start time reading program and ‘silver sneaker yoga’ in a few libraries around the county and Borrego Springs library have introduced various clubs of their own. A lot goes on within the building and the library manager and staff would like to reach out to the community and see what resonates with them and what they would be interested in doing. If you have a skill or would like to learn a skill, let the team know.