City of Powell River council has affirmed its commitment to the Powell River Public Library’s process for a new library.
Library supporters packed council chambers for the city’s December 15 committee-of-the-whole meeting to show support for letting the process continue. A petition opposing the location for a new library--the vacant lot on the corner of Marine Avenue and Abbotsford Street, known as the old arena site--was on the agenda, along with a five-page letter from the chair of the library board defending the location. Council selected the location last March. Subsequently, the library hired a project manager, then an architectural firm to develop a concept design for a building. The firms are holding a series of community engagement meetings designed to involve residents in the process of creating a concept design.
Charlie Kregel, chief librarian, addressed council, explaining that the process has been about imagining what Powell River could be like with a library facility that “we all participate in creating. We should do all our major projects this way.”
The library is opposed to any path that leads council to reconsider its choice of location, Kregel also said. “The board’s position and council’s best course is clear: let the process continue or risk losing our investment in the project.”
The city and Powell River Regional District provided $25,000 in capital planning funding in the library’s 2010 budget. The regional district’s share of the funding was just under one third, said Patrick Brabazon, Electoral Area A director who is the board’s representative on the library board. Brabazon attended the meeting and also addressed council. He explained the regional board passed a motion that it would withhold the funds until the city had “quite properly selected a site, because it is a municipal library. We contribute, we share in the costs, but it is your library.” After council selected the site, the board released its share of the funding, Brabazon added. He will have to go back to the regional district’s committee-of-the-whole in January to report that council had either decided to carry on with the contract “as we all agreed” or decided to go a “different route, in which case I will be asking the board for a decision on what we want to do with the money that we’ve already spent, which will be gone.”
Councillor Myrna Leishman asked Brabazon about the regional district’s position on a referendum. “I’m also asking the question of council, as to what their position is on the referendum issue, because that does pose a problem, maybe,” she said.
Brabazon said the regional district would hold a referendum in all the rural areas, except for Lasqueti Island, on any contribution it would make toward a new library. “I am a strong believer in libraries,” he said. “When we go to referendum, I will be doing my part to convince my taxpayers to make the contribution for the well-being of the whole community.”
Councillor Chris McNaughton, who attended via telephone, said if there were a referendum, it would be on the question of funding, not location. “I support the new library concept,” he said. “I did not support the location, but having said that, I certainly believe in democratic process and I’m fully behind continuing on, because council has made that decision.”
While the referendum would be on borrowing, Mayor Dave Formosa said, the location will also be an issue in a referendum. “If folks don’t like the location, they’re going to vote no,” he said. “As much as we want to say it’s about the money, it will be for the whole package.”
Formosa also said he would like to see the process continue. “From there we have a base, we have something to work with, something to talk about, something to possibly go to referendum about,” he said. “I support allowing the board to continue on with the tough decision we made, be it the right decision or the wrong decision.”
Councillor Debbie Dee said she would like to see the process finish, “then we’ll have something we can bring to the public.”
Dee also spoke about the possibility of other community groups being involved, such as Powell River Historical Museum and Archives Association, Tla’Amin (Sliammon) First Nation and Malaspina Arts Society. She thought there could be a cultural centre at the site, with the library as phase one.
Councillor Jim Palm pointed out that the location is “the crossroads of our community. To make that a cultural hub, I think it will be well received overall, once the plans are in place...Council has made a commitment to that site. I want to see us continue with the planning and bring the concepts forward.”
Kregel told the Peak while the library has always said “we would be happy to have partners with us at that site, we’re working now on a library, which is closer to ready-to-go than anything else.”
The architects’ mission is to create a library design, he added. “However, they have been told that it is likely that other cultural uses could occur on that site. That means, when they design, they have to be mindful of that.”
Those other uses will not be drawn into the concept, Kregel added, because “we don’t know what those functions are or what the features of those functions would be.”
For more information about the process, interested readers can visit www.newlibrary.ca. A synopsis of the first community engagement meeting held in November has been posted to the site.
