THUNDER BAY – Parents and children move into the new programming space at the County Park Library to enjoy their first Baby and Me Storytime.
“We’ve had the space under development for months now, and we’re finally able to welcome people in. It’s bringing the life in, right? And I’m very excited,” head librarian Ruth Hamlin-Douglas said.
The ribbon cutting ceremony was held on Monday, allowing parents and children to enter the 892-square-foot space for the first time since the library mascot, Zoose the Moose, burst through the wall at the branch, giving a sneak peek at the new program room.
“Families have their children in a program in a contained space. You don’t have to worry that they’re going to go and go on an expedition and travel through the building, but you also have folks who are studying or adults who just want to quietly read the paper. They don’t have the children’s program happening immediately adjacent to them now. They end up having a little bit more privacy. We can get louder. We can actually do louder programming because we aren’t interrupting other people,” Hamlin-Douglas said.
McIntyre Ward Coun. Albert Aiello said the library plays an important role in the community.
“This is a true sense of community, and this is what it’s all about. We have a community with schools nearby, residents nearby, and we have a library, and that’s really where a library should be located in communities…It’s about starting them off young, giving them that experience, that opportunity, and that’s how we keep it alive for generations to come,” he said.
In 2025, city council approved a lease agreement renewal between the Thunder Bay Public Library and County Fair Mall.
The lease agreement will maintain the current rent of $114,000 a year for the next two years, with a minor percentage increase in the last few years before the library renegotiates with the mall.
Togman said the agreement comes at zero cost to the taxpayer and allows the library to expand.
“We can do that much more in our facilities, and we’ve seen huge spiking demand for library programming. Over the last three years, it’s been pretty much 30 per cent year-on-year-on-year growth. So we’re just straining at the edges,” he said. A new programming space really lets us meet community demand, cater to those 67,000 visits we have just for programming alone. So that feels amazing to be able to finally unveil the space after such a long development process.”
As part of the lease agreement, the library gained two additional storefront spaces directly across from the existing branch location at a combined 4,000 square feet.
Togman said the smaller space is geared toward adults for knitting groups, social clubs, or book clubs. The room is free of charge for a not-for-profit.
The larger room still needs a bit of work before it can host bigger events and larger-scale programming, he said.
Currently, the Friends of the Public Library use the space to run special book sale events.
“We have different spaces that fit different needs. So, for example, you know, if we’re running a great baby and me storytime, the babies aren’t always the quietest, right? They like to laugh, they giggle, sometimes they cry, they get hungry. And so having adult programming spaces across the hall, having an event space that is adjacent to us, allows different people and different needs to be met where they’re at,” Togman said.
