San Mateo is scaling back planned reopenings of its public libraries with the county now in the purple tier and potentially facing further COVID-19 restrictions, according to officials.
San Mateo City Manager Drew Corbett decided the libraries would not have limited openings of indoor lobbies as previously planned to protect the public. The city did not have a timeline for when San Mateo libraries might be open indoors. Libraries will continue to allow curbside service. San Mateo started working toward relaxing library restrictions in early November and had plans to allow up to eight patrons inside at one time starting in early December.
“With case counts rising and conditions changing, we decided to pause reopening plans for the lobby reopening, San Mateo spokeswoman Samantha Weigel said in an email. “We look forward to being able to reopen when conditions improve, but in the meantime, encourage everyone to check out the variety of resources they can access virtually or through the curbside services.”
San Mateo Mayor Eric Rodriguez on Tuesday said with the county’s move into the purple tier, the city did not feel it was safe or appropriate to reopen the library. Rodriguez said the opening wasn’t postponed indefinitely, but it didn’t make sense for the city to open the libraries as it previously planned.
“Even though we want to get back to normal as soon as possible, we have to do what’s best for the public’s health, and right now, it’s just basically shut down,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said San Mateo is facing challenging times, and he asked the public to continue to stay vigilant. The city is facing the possibility of more restrictions if San Mateo County adds stay-at-home orders already preemptively adopted by most of the counties in the Bay Area. San Mateo County is still following state guidelines on stay-at-home orders.
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“Now would be the worst time to let our guards down. We really need to follow these health experts’ orders that are in all of our best interests to get through this winter and just make the personal sacrifices that we need to make for the good of everybody else’s health,” Rodriguez said.
All library branches in San Mateo are currently closed to the public. Libraries have also canceled events and room reservations for months because of COVID-19. The Main, Hillsdale and Marina libraries currently only have curbside holds pickup services available for residents.
Corbett provided the updates to the San Mateo City Council Monday, Dec. 9, which included information on the library delay and other cancelation of city events. San Mateo won’t be offering seasonal events like Winter Wonderland or the ice skating rink in Central Park due to concerns over in-person gatherings, Weigel said.
“With the move back into the purple tier, we have had to shift our thinking on what we were going to do and move back to all virtual events to celebrate the holidays from a recreation perspective,” Corbett said.
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