In response

Dear editor:
This letter is in response to Shari Humphrey’s letter that appeared in the Fort Frances Times last week (May 21).
As with most issues in our town, we are somewhat divided on this very important matter of a new public library. Talking to a cross-section of residents in our town, there are many supporters for a new library and there are just as many people opposed.
Sometime before I was elected to town council, I was in Canadian Tire when I happened upon an acquaintance. The topic of the day was the grant money the library board recently had received to help with the construction of the planned new library.
The question that was asked was, “Do we really need a new library or could we not simply renovate the existing one and make it more user-friendly and accessible to everyone?”
We two people talking soon became some 15 or 20 people discussing the pros and cons of a new library. Every person who stopped to listen and comment was of the same opinion—that bringing the existing building up to a modern standard for a library was the preferred route rather than a new structure.
I am sure there were people in the store that day who would very much like to see a new library built, but on that day they did not wish to comment under the circumstances.
At the very first council meeting I attended as a councillor, we voted to give to the library project in the amount of $452,000 and allow the $140,000 that was in the library reserve fund to also go towards the project. That was the amount that was asked for from the library building committee at that time.
Town council has not deviated from that request and at the April 28 meeting of council, we passed a motion to allow the library board to continue with their plans and re-affirmed our commitment of $592,000 that we originally had allowed for the project.
Since the new year, many components have changed in regards to the library project. The funding we had hoped to receive from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund and FedNor, for the technology centre portion of the new building, has not materialized.
Meanwhile, the estimated cost of construction by the architect has gone from $180 per square foot to more than $227 per square foot. The footprint of the new structure has been reduced and some of the more expensive construction cost have been reduced. The fundraising effort has slowed to a trickle because of the delays.
When this plan goes to tender, many people versed in the tendering process believe the construction costs will escalate. They almost always do.
Simply stated, the new library project, in its current form, cannot proceed with the amount of money that has been secured to this point. Town council’s stance has remained the same.
The public school board offered assistance to the library board when it realized the project was having trouble garnering sufficient funds to proceed as planned.
The school board is going to construct a new Robert Moore School in the next two years. The new school will have a new library incorporated into it just as every other school has. Annexing a new school to a new library, or annexing a new library to a new school, is not a new idea, it is just a new concept to us.
Once completed, a combined complex would work. If we can afford to go it alone instead of within the framework of a school, that will work better.
As a member of the town’s Administration and Finance committee, I have to ask, “Can we afford to contribute to such a grand plan?” Few, if any, towns in Ontario, or anywhere in Canada with a shrinking population and the size of Fort Frances, are planning a library almost as large as a sheet of ice at the Sportsplex.
The construction costs are just the beginning. Janitorial, maintenance, repairs, heating, cooling, and electrical continue to increase every year. If the costs become more than we can handle, what will we then cut? Maybe services, hours, staff, books, videos, Internet service.
Those are the things we can barely maintain now.
Every department in this town cuts budget estimates year after year. Where are we heading? When do we stop cutting? Are more taxes the answer?
A church doesn’t build a new building because it is full on Easter Sunday. A small town does not build an auditorium for a rock concert. We cannot build a library to suit a town of 25,000 and growing when we are town of 7,500 and shrinking.
But we can build a new library to suit our town’s needs.
Signed,
Coun. Ken Perry
Fort Frances, Ont.