Stephen Vance, Staff
Meaford’s council has been presented with another potential location for Meaford’s public library.
At their October 3 meeting, council approved a staff recommendation to spend up to $15,000 to explore the possibility of turning a municipally-owned building at 390 Sykes Street, which currently houses Meaford’s OPP detachment as well as an insurance office, into a library.
With the approval of the recommendation, council has directed staff to “engage LGA Architectural Partners, for an upset amount of $15,000 to be funded from the anticipated 2016 operating surplus, to complete preliminary designs and cost estimates utilizing 390 Sykes Street for library services with two options being: a – Develop a model utilizing only the existing floor-plan of 8,362 square feet; or b – Develop a model utilizing the existing floor-plan along with new construction to maximize the programmable space to approximately 11,300 square feet.”
At their September 26 meeting, council was presented with a report outlining the anticipated costs for merging the current library building with the municipal administration building located next door. Meaford Treasurer Darcy Chapman told council on October 3 that using the building at 390 Sykes Street, which was built in 1996, would be cheaper than the $4.4 to $4.9 million it would cost to merge the two buildings, and it wouldn’t require either the municipal offices or the library to relocate during construction. Chapman suggested that at least $1 million dollars could be saved over the estimates presented for merging the current library building at the municipal administration offices.
“The facility condition right now is 0.19, and anything five or less is good,” Chapman said of the 390 Sykes Street building at the October 3 council meeting, referring to a recent study into the condition of municipally-owned buildings. “So the only need that the facility has in the next two years is a $5,000 estimated expense in order to install a roof ladder. That’s it. In the medium term, from three to five years, the only thing that they are saying is required is new flooring, new fixtures to meet energy compliance.”
Chapman told council that the building would be suitable for a library.
“So when we look at this short to medium term, it provides a great facility for a potential library because it has very little needs from a facility standpoint, and anything it does need in the medium term would be dealt with in the renovation for a new library,” Chapman told council.
Chapman suggested that the facility could provide 7,000 square feet of useable space in its current floor plan, and addition could be made to increase the amount of space to the 11,000 square feet recommended for a library in a community the size of Meaford.
With regard to the OPP detachment, Chapman told council that some initial talks have taken place, and the OPP is open to the idea of moving to a new location.
“They said yes (to a potential move) as long as they had adequate administrative space, recognizing that they would have a change in protocol as far as the lock-up, and they were fine with that because they know that they only use the cells 50 times per year on average anyway. The biggest concern for them was that they still have administrative space within the Municipality of Meaford so that their officers could report to Meaford instead of reporting to Chatsworth and then having to drive to Meaford,” advised Chapman.
Chapman also noted that the 390 Sykes Street building is the only remaining municipally-owned building aside from the administration offices that would be suitable for a library.
Council was interested in the proposal, though they had some concerns about the location, which, while located in the urban area of the municipality, is located more than a kilometre from the current library, which could pose issues for elementary classes who regularly visit the facility, and who walk from their school to the library.
“As we all know, the schools are going to be about two and a half miles southeast of there, so any participation from a classroom visit perspective could be changed,” noted Councillor Mike Poetker. “As far as the building goes, it would work well as a library, as far as a location goes, I’m not so sure.”
Meaford CAO Denyse Morrissey noted that while the building is further away, the entire stretch of road leading to it includes sidewalks, and she suggested that projected future population growth from new developments will be significant on the western fringe of the urban area of the municipality. Morrissey also suggested that the future construction of the new combined elementary and high school could also have an impact.
“We’re anticipating that with the merging of three (school) locations under one roof, that their library services for that population will be enhanced, and while there is current strong use from walkability from the school community, we’re not sure that would be sustained going forward,” suggested Morrissey.
Deputy Mayor Harley Greenfield questioned why Meaford would consider an addition to the facility that would increase the floor space to the recommended 11,000 square feet when a significant number of residents use the Owen Sound library instead under an agreement that costs Meaford nearly $120,000 per year.
“We should have one square foot per person (Meaford has roughly 11,000 residents), but since we are facilitating Sydenham residents in Owen Sound (at the Owen Sound North Grey Union Public Library), we’re back to about 7,500 here. I’m just wondering why we’re thinking about an option of 11,000 square feet,” noted Greenfield, who also suggested that library use could decline in the coming years. “It’s possible in the future, and we have to look at 20 or 30 years down the road, library usage will decline.”
Chapman suggested that the full 11,300 square feet could be realized with a future expansion if the need arises.
“The base option of 7,000 square feet is something that may be palatable for this council to dig into right now, with the anticipation that the 11,300 option could potentially be an expansion at that site five, ten, twenty years from now. So that if in the future we actually needed that space, if we were no longer in partnership with the Owen Sound North Grey Union Public Library, if our population exploded, and if things don’t go the way of IT and people actually still want to read a good old paper copy book, then we could expand at that stage,” Chapman suggested.
