Sacramento’s Colonial Heights library, which serves 20,000 residents annually, has been closed for over a year because of a kitchen fire and is on track to open January, yet many have questions as to what has caused the delay.
According to the Sacramento Public Library’s website, the July 2024 fire destroyed the library’s HVAC, electrical and monitoring systems. All furniture, carpeting, and drywall in public spaces of the library were smoke damaged and required replacement.
In a statement, the Sacramento Public Library said that they settled an insurance claim in late 2025 and placed orders for new furniture and other materials in March of this year, which are set to arrive within the next month.
“The City of Sacramento completed work on the public areas of the branch in June 2025; however, issues remained unresolved until August 2025,” the library system told CapRadio. “Completion of the meeting room marks the final step in restoring the branch.”
Sacramento District 6 City Councilmember Eric Guerra said there are still insurance claims the city is working out, but he’s pushing the library system to open the branch before January 2026.
“Many of the residents I’ve talked to say they’ll deal with the discomfort of minor construction work while they’re finishing it up,” he said. “A little bit of library usage is better than none.”
He said that the South Sacramento Community has felt the impact of its long closure.
“It has a lot of uses. It’s used for our summer free lunch program [for those] who may only get lunch during school,” Guerra said. “We’ve had two summers without it.”
Guerra said in a Facebook post to the community Oct. 16 that the Library Authority was already given the all-clear to operate earlier this year, with the exception of the community room and kitchen.
“It is the discretion of the Library Authority to open when they are ready, so new furniture and an updated book collection has to be ordered,” he wrote in the post.
In the interim, the Sacramento Public Library said they’ve added additional mobile library stops in the Colonial Heights parking lot every Tuesday afternoon from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Thursday morning from 10 a.m. to noon.
The Sacramento Public Library Bookmobile Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, outside of the Colonial Heights Library in Sacramento.(Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio)
District 5 Councilmember Caity Maple is the Vice Chair of the Library Board Authority. She said the hold up is mainly to do with following proper procedure.
“I would just say that we ask for people’s patience,” she said. “Sure, we could rush to get it open and not have all of the amenities and the things that people expect. We want to make sure we do it right.”
The Colonial Heights branch is the closest library for many residents in her district of Oak Park, which has gone without a dedicated library for decades.
“We don’t have a lot of library options for folks in South Sacramento, and this makes it even more challenging,” she said.
Friends of the Colonial Heights Library and Sacramento Black Caucus member Faye Kennedy said she understands things take time, but the library is a vital part of the health of the community.
“ It was always staffed with people who were bilingual and bicultural,” Kennedy said. “We have a large Latino population, we have a large unhoused population, we have a large community where people are low-income.”
Prior to the library’s closure, it offered computer classes and other community activities. It also serves as a voting center, as a result will be closed for the 2025 special election.
“We would have pancake breakfasts, ice cream socials. My daughter had her graduation party there,” Kennedy said.
According to Maple, Sacramento Library Director Peter Coyl will give a report on the progress of the Colonial Heights Library repairs at the next Sacramento Public Library Authority meeting at 700 H Street on October 23 at 3 p.m.
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