A little more than two months after a flood forced the closure of Cal’s Books, friends of the business have rallied to reopen the beloved bookstore.
Calling a soft opening, Cal’s Books Cooperative is scheduled to open Thursday, March 5, at 5242 Westside Road, the same nondescript space where the store greeted customers for more than 50 years before it closed last December.
Jasper Larkins, one of five managing partners of the cooperative, said the plan is to open the doors at 10 a.m.
“We will probably have a grand opening later this month. We are still working on getting everything sorted through and cleaning up, but we wanted to open the doors back up to get the community in to see that we have in fact preserved the space,” Larkins said.
Larkins and friends started a GoFundMe account to raise money to reopen Cal’s after flood waters on Dec. 21 overtook the business off Highway 273 in south Redding. A sign on the front door soon after flood said the entire store took in 2 feet of water on Dec. 21.
They were able to raise just over $15,000 that went toward, among other things, money to establish the cooperative LLC and to buy the business from former owner Carl Anger.
The floodwaters destroyed between 25,000 and 40,000 books, “which is such a daunting number, but inside the store we will still have close to … 80,000 books,” Larkins said. He said many of the books were so badly damaged that it was hard to see the titles.
“The books absorbed water like sponges,” he added.
Eventually, Cal’s Books Cooperative will move to a new location. But Larkins said it will take more money to make that happen.
“We are going to open here so we can pull in some income to support us moving,” he said.
Larkins did not have an estimate on how much they would need to move. But he did say they would like to find a larger space in an area in Redding with more foot traffic.
Would they consider staying put?
“Staying is definitely something to be considered and something that the cooperative team and I have talked about. However, the increase of bad weather in the winter and knowing (this location) was a flood risk once, we don’t want it to happen again, so our goal is to be out by October, November of this year,” Larkins said.
According to a 1998 Record Searchlight business profile, Cal’s was established in 1971 by Calvin “Cal” Kearn, who came to Redding from Denver in 1962. Kearn would later sell the business.
Kearn died in May 2008 at the age of 82.
Cal’s Books Cooperative will be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, Larkins said.
David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly “Buzz on the Street” column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-338-8323. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Redding’s Cal’s Books sets reopening date with eyes on future location
Reporting by David Benda, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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