Peggy Revell
With money ready to flow from both the federal and provincial governments, town council voted unanimously Monday night to give the official go-ahead for the building of new Fort Frances Public Library and Technology Centre.
“I just want to follow that up by saying how pleased I am that we’re finally able to award this tender,” said Coun. Andrew Hallikas. “It’s really been a long haul and things have finally fallen our way, I think.
“When this project is complete, I think residents of Fort Frances will be very pleased and very proud of the library and technology centre that we’re going to have because of the vision of a number of people,” he added, thanking the library board, building committee, and all the people who spent “countless hours” getting this project to go forward.
Despite initially voting against it just back on April 13, council voted to accept a contract with Aurora Construction for $4,043,000 following the influx of federal and provincial money for the project.
A joint announcement June 12 by the federal government’s “Build Canada” fund and province saw $1.967 million in funding earmarked for the new library, followed by an additional $170,000 in funding from FedNor three days later.
“The only change I made in that tender from the original tender was the inclusion of Glulam beams as opposed to timber trusses, and that was a recommendation from the contractor in order to save us some money, the cost of $170,000,” Community Services manager George Bell told council.
“This project includes all the parking requirements for the library and overflow parking for the memorial sports centre,” he added. “A complete turnkey operation.
“We will not have to incur long-term debt, or tap into library reserves if everything goes as planned,” Bell noted.
Mayor Roy Avis asked whether or not the money from the various funds would be given up front. He was advised that, at this point, administration had not yet been made aware of how that money would be coming down from the federal government.
“I suppose all through this process I’ve been the most negative person,” admitted Coun. Paul Ryan. “I have to say what I think and I apologize if I disturb anyone.
“I know by the Library Act I shouldn’t have spoken out as I did in past meetings because this council really doesn’t have power to decide the location, size, or anything else, it’s straight financial.
“And now that I see that the financial has been totally covered by higher government funding, I’ll have to support this and I will support this,” he added.
Although Coun. Ryan supported the recommendation to proceed with the library project by accepting the tender, he still expressed concern about the size of the new centre, its future operating costs, and the viability of libraries in the future with the way technology is changing.
“Maybe someday the library will be used for something else, I don’t know,” he remarked. “It’s an awful big building and I hope we can live in it, but I support it.”
“You remember my first word at the first meeting was ‘Keep knocking’ and finally somebody answered, so congratulations,” said Coun. John Albanese.
“I know some people they think that we were strictly against it, but we were not,” he stressed. “We were trying to do our best and save taxpayers money.
“But now we can say, ‘Good luck, you got it, from my side of the fence.”
After declaring the project “dead” when council first voted against going ahead with it just over two months ago, library board chair Joyce Cunningham said her reaction to the project finally moving forward is one of relief and excitement.
“We’ve been on such an emotional roller-coaster for the last several years that it’s really hard to get control of what we feel right now, but excitement is coming,” she said.
“And we’re looking forward to that one full new building,” she added, thanking the community for both the financial and moral support for the new library over the past several years.
As for what’s next, Cunningham said a meeting with the contractor, project manager, and whole building committee meeting is slated for tomorrow (June 25), where more details, including “alternates,” will be finalized.
“What had happened, because of the money problems, we had to take some of the things out of the project,” she noted. “Now we’ve put them back into the project, so we’ll be going over that in detail to make sure that all of the players are very, very clear of what we’re agreeing to and what we are signing.
“And then we watch the contractor, the project manager, and George [Bell] make it happen!
“[Chief librarian] Margaret Sedgwick and I, in the meantime, will be looking at the furnishing requirements, in particular all the requirements that have to do with the self-checkout stations,” Cunningham added.
“That part’s going to be very exciting,” she laughed. “You’ll get two women looking at furniture, it gets to be very exciting.
“We’ve been overwhelmed by the generosity of so many in this area, and we are the envy of many, many communities in Ontario,” she noted.
