Murrieta's Children's Library Has Spent Most of a Year in the Teen Section. Here's How Storytime Works Until the New Wing Opens.

If you walked into the Murrieta Public Library at 8 Town Square this week to find the picture books, would you have known to head for the Teen Area? That's where they've been since the library reopened on November 8, 2025. During construction, about 5,000 children's items moved to the Teen Area along with the children's seating. Some teen materials shifted into the Adult Area, and the rest of the children's collection went into storage in the Community Room.

The setup is temporary. The Children's Library Expansion going up next door was first scheduled to finish in August 2026. It still has no public opening date. Its target has moved twice, and as of early October 2026 the most recent public word is "Fall 2026." In the meantime, the library has kept storytime, movie afternoons and kids' STEAM programs going inside a building that is also a construction site. That arrangement shows what the new wing is built to fix.

The finish line moved, one season at a time

The project hasn't stalled. Its estimated finish date has been updated as the work went along:

The 2024 roadmap expected construction to start in July 2025. The groundbreaking ended up in the Carol Carson Garden of Verses on September 4, 2025, two weeks after the City Council approved the construction contract on August 19. Starting about two months late explains most of the shift from August to October. The newer "Fall 2026" wording is looser and still doesn't name a day.

In the May update, library staff said they had looked through the construction scrim and taken a quick tour inside the addition. They gave credit to "John and his team at RC Construction" and wrote, "While the staff may not have an opening timeline for the expansion just yet, we know your patience and support will be worth the wait." I couldn't find a newer construction update, revised date or grand-opening announcement from August through early October. Until the city posts one, treat October as a hope and not a plan.

A library that has closed twice so far

Families who rely on the library have already worked around two full closures tied to the project.

1. November 3–7, 2025. The library closed to prepare for the expansion and reopened Saturday, November 8. During that week, holds pickup moved curbside to the south-side staff entrance, and the outdoor book return stayed open.
2. July 20 – August 1, 2026. This closure covered new carpeting and flooring, plus concrete repairs at the entrances and parking lot. Digital services kept running. In-person programs paused, except for Lunch at the Library at Murrieta Elementary School. The doors reopened Monday, August 3.

There's also an outdoor change. Since September 29, 2025, Town Square Parkway has been closed on the north side of the library parking lot, just northwest of the Garden of Verses. The city's notice said the closure would last for the whole construction period, with fencing, a staging area and no through traffic. The library parking lot itself stayed open.

Storytime, for now, lives in The Lab

After the November closure, the Friends of the Murrieta Library said programs would continue in The Lab. That's the room to know this fall. Here's what's on the city's calendar for October:

• Baby Storytime: Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. in The Lab, September through November. It's for babies from birth to 24 months with a caregiver. Registration is required 72 hours ahead.
• Family Storytime: Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m., September through November, for ages 2 to 5 with a caregiver. Registration opens the Sunday before at 10:30 a.m.
• Dog Tales: Monday, October 5, from 4:30 to 5:20 p.m. Kids ages 3 to 12 read to therapy dogs with an adult. Drop-in sign-ups start at 4 p.m.
• Family Movie Afternoon: Every Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Lab Room, running from September 5 through November 28, including today, October 3.
• Creator Space for Kids: Hands-on STEAM activities for ages 6 to 12 with a caregiver, on select Tuesdays and Thursdays. October dates include the 13th and Thursday the 29th.

The timing matters. The Family Storytime window opens on Sunday morning, so if Wednesday storytime is part of your week, a Sunday reminder at 10:30 a.m. helps. Baby Storytime runs on a 72-hour cutoff, so a Tuesday session closes the Saturday before.

What the new wing is built to fix

The new wing puts storytime at the center of the plan. The approved design is a 4,500-square-foot addition. It includes a multipurpose Storytime room that can split into two rooms, along with book stacks, restrooms, staff offices and storage. The library's own feature list adds more detail:

• A Storytime Suite of 1,320 square feet that divides into two rooms
• More stacks with direct access to the storytime rooms, which the library says will ease crowding
• Flexible learning areas that hold about 100 children for storytimes, crafts and STEM
• Toddler and sensory zones for early learning and inclusive play
• A Tween Zone, made by remodeling the existing 2,700-square-foot children's area
• An expanded Carol Carson Garden of Verses for programs year-round

The square footage tells the story. Today's children's area is 2,700 square feet. With the addition, the children's space grows to more than 7,200 square feet. The old space doesn't go away either. It becomes the tween section, so the kids who have been sharing the Teen Area this year will eventually have a room between the picture books and the teen shelves.

A construction photo from May showed where everything will go. The future Garden of Verses is in the foreground, the new play area and picture-book space sit behind it, and the windows on the right belong to the new programming space. Transitional-kindergarten classes from Murrieta Elementary School have already toured the site.

Who is paying for it

The City Council's August 2025 report put the full project budget at $8,015,493. That covers construction, contingency, design, project management, furnishings, equipment and technology. The building itself went to R.C. Construction Services, the low bidder at $5,188,600 plus a 15% contingency. SVA Architects designed it.

The funding table in that report shows how many sources went into it:

The largest single line is the $3.5 million interfund loan. The state money is the California State Library's Building Forward grant. The table's funding total comes to $8,019,326, which is $3,833 more than the project cost listed on the same report.

The $388,400 in community commitments has local names behind it:

• $135,000 from the Murrieta Public Library Foundation
• $103,400 from the Friends of the Murrieta Library
• $110,000 in water-district support, counting in-kind contributions and rebates
• $40,000 in pending private-sector commitments

The Friends have said their pledge includes $12,500 for the new children's book collection and more than $100,000 for furnishings, fixtures and equipment. Fundraising has continued during construction. As of late May, a GoFundMe for the space had raised more than $8,250.

Two October dates within reach of the construction fence

Until the new wing opens, two events this month are good reasons to visit the library or Town Square.

On Saturday, October 17, at 10 a.m., the Friends of the Murrieta Library hold their Corner Bookstore sidewalk overstock sale at 39445 Los Alamos Road. Proceeds support library programs. The Friends are also the group that pledged more than $100,000 toward the new wing's furnishings, fixtures and equipment.

On Friday, October 23, the city hosts Dark in the Park at Town Square Park & Amphitheater, 11 Town Square, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. It's free, with live music and a laser show. The library shares the Town Square address, so the same evening is a chance to see how far the construction has come.

When the city does name an opening day, I'd love to help you plan around it. That goes for people who already live near Town Square and people still deciding which part of Murrieta suits their routine. If knowing where storytime happens is part of how you picture your week here, Melissa Grasso can share what she knows about life around the library. Let's Connect.