Three times the party

By: NELSY RODRIGUEZ - Staff Writer
Grand opening of Murrieta City Hall, library's anniversary and annual Eggstravaganza all to be celebrated Saturday | Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:50 PM PDT ∞

MURRIETA ---- Talk about celebrating the season of rebirth.

As Murrieta streets and parks flourish with springtime blossoms and fresh grass, the center of the city also will come to life.

The grand opening celebration of the new City Hall and council chambers on Saturday at Town Square Park also will incorporate the following in what officials are billing as a grand spring festival:

- A celebration of the Murrieta Public Library's first birthday.

- The announcement of winners in a citywide photo contest.

- A breakfast to benefit the Murrieta Fire Association.

- The city's 14th annual Spring Eggstravaganza at Town Square Park at Kalmia and Juniper streets.

This year is the first time the egg hunt and spring festival won't be held at California Oaks Sports Park and planners are expecting more than 5,000 people to attend.

"This is our whole Town Square festival, so it'll be a lot bigger this year," said events coordinator Michele Carter.

City Hall, located at 24601 Jefferson Ave., will be open for the public to see the work that was seven years in the making. The $13 million building is more than twice the size of the former city hall on Beckman Court and features all new technology in the council chambers for presentations.

At 11 a.m., during the City Hall ribbon-cutting, city officials will announce the winners of the citywide photo contest. Residents submitted photos taken all around the city in a competition to have their works framed and displayed in the new building.

More than 100 photos were submitted in categories for nature, architecture, city activities, artistic expression, black and white and historic. City Council members Rick Gibbs, Gary Thomasian, Kelly Bennett, Doug McAllister and Warnie Enochs selected the winners.

"The landscapes stuck out the best to me," Enochs said of the photos he judged. "The pictures of the hills and the homes ---- you don't really know how beautiful your community is until you see a lot of photos from different views."

The day also will mark the first anniversary of the new public library, which has offered computer training programs, story hours, teen events, community service projects and literacy programs. Since it opened, the library has doubled its number of books, said Mike Tansley, a librarian assistant.

"It's amazing the amount of people who have come to see our library compared to our old one," Tansley said of the former library building on Los Alamos Road. "It'll be a quiet celebration. We'll have banners up and give away pencils."

The day will be highlighted with an egg hunt for children from 3 to 10 years old starting at 9:30 a.m. with the older kids and finishing at 10:45 a.m. for the 3-year-olds, with a special area designated for children under 2 and children with physical challenges.

There will be breakfast, a giant slide and jumping house, a petting zoo, prizes and candy. A bloodmobile from the Blood Bank of San Bernardino and Riverside counties will be on site from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Saturday's forecast will offer plenty of spring sunshine, with temperatures expected to peak at 81 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

"The last two years or so, it was kind of overcast," Carter said. "But it'll be a great day this year."

Contact staff writer Nelsy Rodriguez at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2626, or nrodriguez@californian.com.