Stephen Vance, Editor
When Meaford’s council was presented with the most recent proposal for a location for our library, my first thought was that it made a lot of sense. After mulling over the idea for the past week, I’m even more convinced that the building at 390 Sykes Street would make a great location for a library.
The facility is in excellent condition, and will be for years to come; the current footprint of the building would provide enough floor-space – an anticipated 7,000 square feet – to service the community right now, and should more space be desired or required in years to come, space could be added.
“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.”
There’s plenty of parking on the property, and sidewalks are present for the entire stretch along Sykes Street, from downtown through to the building, which makes the property easy to access.
True, a few people have pointed out that the building is ‘out of the way’ for people who walk to the library, though I suppose it depends where you’re walking from. I suspect that those living in the Victoria Village area find the current library location to be ‘out of the way’ for walking. With Meaford having now dipped its toe into the public transit business, I would guess that if the library were to be relocated to 390 Sykes Street, it would be quickly added to the public transit route – who knows, the municipality might even get creative by providing vehicle-less library card holders with a handful of free ride passes that could be used only for travel to and from the library.
Anticipated cost is perhaps one of the most attractive features of 390 Sykes Street as a location for the library.
Last month council was presented with a proposal to merge the existing (and crumbling) library building with the municipal administration office next door. That plan would cost an estimated $4.4 to $4.9 million, and would displace both the library and the municipal administration offices for as much as a year and a half.
Meaford’s Treasurer suggested that converting 390 Sykes Street into a library would be at least $1 million cheaper, and temporary homes wouldn’t need to be found for the library and municipal administration staff while construction was underway, saving many headaches.
The Treasurer also told council that preliminary discussions with the OPP about the potential of moving them to a different facility have been well received, and the other tenant of the building, an insurance company, would need just six months notice to terminate their lease, so the building could be empty and ready for renovation virtually as soon as Meaford could come up with the money – which itself could still be years in the future.
Where would the OPP be moved to? That has yet to be discussed at council, but if council and staff are open for suggestions, I’m wondering if space couldn’t be found at Meaford’s fire hall on Stewart Street, or if even a small addition could be made to that building in order to house the police detachment.
The $15,000 approved by council on October 3, that will be used to hire an architectural consultant to explore design options and cost estimates for converting the facility into a public library, will be money well spent.
