16-1018_TL VETERANS CONSTRUCTION, INC_Correspondence - D., MaryTO:
FROM:
DATE:
SUBJ:
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31495 -A El Camino Real
San J uan Capistrano, CA 92 675
San Juan Capistrano City Council
Mary D, President
SJC Friends of the Library
October 18, 2016
Agenda Item DIO-Library Painting and Driveway Paving Projects
10/18/2016
010
Thank you, City Council and th ank you, City staff for these CIP projects. We are very excited about these long overdue
projects and appreciate the schedule updates you have been providing us. Thank you also for listening to downtown
businesses and postponing the paving projects till after the busy holidays.
We hope these two projects are the first steps in helping to bring back our treasured award-winning Michael Graves
library facility to the standards to which the renowned architect designed it. We hope too, once the walls are
repaired/painted and the driveway paved , that there will be sufficient savings from the estimate so the City can finally
install better lighting on the library campus to highlight this beautiful facility and showcase it to architectural aficionados
and cultural visitors who come from all over the world to see one of the early works of this master architect. This will help
deter vandalism that has become so rampant in recent years as well. We also hope the City installs skateboard barriers on
the top of the ledges to keep the damage to them and this valuable community asset to a minimum going forward. We do
our best to keep watch when we are on site, but we are all only part-time volunteers and the conservation and preservation
of this iconic facility is of constant concern and requires full-time attention.
I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank Joe Mankawich for his work on the library painting project and
congratulate him and his team on getting what appears to be a great bid . I'd also like to reiterate our thanks to him for his
work on THE Bookstore construction project a while back. Joe has gone the extra mile in making sure the paint colors
chosen were approved by Michael Graves' office so as to properly accent and return this a rchitectural icon to its original
luster and match that of the ne w bookstore. We have worked closely with Joe on this and THE Bookstore project, which
is our gift to the community a nd its residents from this community-based nonprofit. We believe it is a credit to San Ju a n
a nd has become a wonderful community browsing place as used bookstores tend to be. (Wh ere better to meet your
n eig hbors?) It is a wonderful a ddition to the library complex and to this town; it is th e only bookstore in town and it's in
the downtown mission district on historic El Camino Real. We get daily plaudits such as , "thi s is a wonderful addition to
San Juan Capistrano; it's beauti f ul ; it's like a real bookstore ; it's the best Friends' bookstore up/down the whole state ."
W e thank Joe for getting it built on time/budget, our volunteer craftsmen for the customized bookcases and our dedicated
volunteers who man it. It's a community effort. Over the course of the last few years, Joe has proven again and again-
thro ughout construction, flooding issues, patio renovations, warranty matters and now this painting project that he cares
deeply about this beautiful and consequential library facility and understands its historic a nd architectural importance. He
is to be commended and we just wa nted to officially thank him. He is a dedicated public servant and as such, I'm sure
appreciation is not always g reat. But this public thank you is.
S o , thank you, Joe, for doing a ll you do to help make life easi e r for us in the process o f getting your important work done .
We a ppreciate you. And, thank you, City Council, for puttin g this beautiful library facility back on the City's front burner.
Best wishes,
Mary D, President
SJC Friends ofthe Library
IRS No. 95 -3704662
THEBookstore Hours: Mon -Sat: 10-5 I Sun: 12-5
THEBookstore phone: (949) 493-2688