REAGAN LIBRARY AWAITS MILLIONTH VISITOR.

Byline: Douglas Clark Daily News Staff Writer

If you've ever considered a visit to the Reagan Library, this may be the time to get in the car and go.

Reagan Library officials are carefully counting attendance, preparing to extend a glad-hand to their millionth visitor.

As of Thursday, the 5-1/2-year-old Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum was about 1,000 visitors shy of the magic number, said the director, Mark Hunt.

``We're figuring it will be some time around the 9th or 10th,'' Hunt said.

The millionth visitor will get small gifts, and there possibly will be a balloon drop in the initial fanfare, Hunt said, and then the lucky person can count on extraordinary treatment for a three-day weekend beginning June 27.

The millionth visitor and a companion will be treated to two nights in the Presidential Suite at the Century Plaza Hotel and get limousine service to the Shubert Theatre for a Friday-night performance of the musical ``Ragtime.'' Lunch on Saturday will be at the newly reopened Chasen's in West Hollywood, the restaurant where Ronald Reagan courted and proposed to Nancy. Then there will be a scenic drive to Santa Barbara, and dinner will be at Boccaccio's in Westlake Village. Breakfast on Sunday will be at the Century Plaza Hotel.

The Reagan Library opened Nov. 6, 1991, and Hunt said the facility is ``right about on schedule'' for its millionth visitor.

``It means we are a major attraction within the area,'' he said.

About 350 to 400 people visit the library each day.

The presidential library drew 2,600 people on its first regular operating day, including 500 visitors in the first hour. And by 10 a.m., the parking lot was full and visitors had to park down the hill on Presidential Drive and hike up to the library grounds.

Since then, the facility has attracted about 200,000 visitors a year.

In the past two years, special programs have been developed to attract visitors, primarily families, Hunt said.

``Over the last couple years, we've made a real effort to create special programs that appeal to a wide range of audiences,'' he said.

A family celebration of Independence Day in small-town, early-20th century style is scheduled for July 4. The event will feature pie-eating contests, balloons, Dixieland bands and a George Washington impersonator.

In September, the presidential library sponsored a 1960s-style Battle of the Bands and an appearance by a Beatles look-alike band. The event commemorated Reagan's election in 1966 to become governor of California.

``We try not to get too far afield of Ronald Reagan and his presidency. But we look at the presidential office and institution as a whole when planning events,'' said Hunt.

The Reagan museum is now showing a National Archives collection, ``Tokens and Treasures of 12 Presidents.''