As town council and the library board wait to get firm numbers regarding the cost of the new library from Chamberlain Architects, and a better financial picture of the situation, Mayor Roy Avis stressed Monday that council is not trying to stall the project.
“Council is not to be seen as stalling this project or slowing this project down in any matter at this time. We’re still on track,” the mayor said during a meeting with the library board late Monday afternoon.
“I think there’s a misconception out there that council wants to derail the library project. We don’t want to stop it. We want a library built,” Mayor Avis vowed.
“Let’s get the real hard numbers. Let’s get the costs,” he added. “As I said two weeks ago, there’s probably going to have to be some compromise in both camps.”
“There was never, ever a point where this council said the library project’s in jeopardy,” echoed Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig. “As a matter of fact, the very fact they’re asking questions tells you that this council is trying to find a way to build a library.”
McCaig noted the fiscal challenges before the town in the next few years are “stacked up like cordwood,” and the town has received grants for projects that it must find ways to partially fund, such as the road upgrades en route to the biomass boiler.
“Don’t misinterpret the questions asking about the ability to compromise and the ability to stay within the budget as it was first presented as throwing up roadblocks or trying to kill it,” he stressed.
“I take it as trying to work with the library board to try a find a way to do it in an expeditious manner.”
Mark Kowalchuk, chairman of the “Building for the Future” fundraising campaign, said Monday that controversy over the library project has caused the campaign to screech to a halt—noting people have to know where council stands on the project to give the public the confidence in the campaign.
“The project has not been slowed down but the fundraising has stopped,” he remarked. “Right now, the fundraising environment is so poisoned we’d be hard-pressed to make or raise another $10,000, let alone another $240,000 that we’ve committed to.
“I think until this project is back on track, I don’t think we’ll see fundraising efforts start up,” Kowalchuk warned.
“If the project does go ahead, we’ll try our darnedest to get things geared up again, to get the amount we’ve committed to, and get the library built the way it’s been envisioned.”
“Because of the uncertainty in the press, fundraising is at a standstill,” agreed Coun. Andrew Hallikas. “These folks’ hands are tied as far as trying to keep their fundraising up, and that’s crucial right now.
“This issue has to be resolved,” he stressed.
“More than anything else . . . we need to send a message to the library board and the community that we support this and that we are prepared, within limits, to fund this and the library, in some form, will be built,” Coun. Hallikas added later.
Library board member Arlene Georgeson further expressed the need for a new library here, noting the current library building on Church Street is “past obsolete.”
“It is not accessible, it is not livable,” she said.
“When you take a look at the square footage, is it that much bigger than it is now? Sure it is, but you’re looking at a library that has stayed stagnant for this 13-year planning process,” she remarked.
“It has not changed in staffing, has not changed a lot in budget, has not changed a lot in any other way except to run very efficiently.
“We have to get beyond that, we have to come up to full-service again,” Georgeson argued. “We’re getting so far behind in the times, we’ll be lost. And you know who’s going to be lost with it: the kids.
“We need to make sure they’re looked after, as well as the rest of the community.”
Georgeson noted despite controversy when they were in the planning stages, both the Ice for Kids Arena and Townshend Theatre have turned out to be good additions to the community—and a new library will be the same.
“You have to look at the whole picture, you have to look down the line and you have to be progressive,” she remarked. “What we have now is obsolete. You have to go forward. There’s no stopping.”
As mentioned above, the library board is expected to get firm numbers as to project costs for the new library after meeting with the architects on April 1.
As such, town council will put off any more discussions regarding funding the library until after that time.
On Monday, library project manager Brian Avis told council he and the board will know more about the library plans and costs after next Tuesday’s meeting.
“The committee right now has not seen any detailed drawings, nor have we seen any detailed costing,” he noted. “This will be our first crack at it.
“The last time we met with the architects, they were very confident and were relating to the committee and to myself that this looks good,” Avis added.
“The dollars and cents look good and the footprint looks good at 14,800 sq. ft. . . . Next week, we’ll have a good opportunity to look at it.”
Avis also said that after the April 1 meeting, the architects will be in a good position to put the job out to tender.
“They want to put the tender out, and I would say that’s a good position to be in right now,” he noted. “It’s my belief the town’s purchasing policy gives the town a timeframe of 45 days where you really don’t have to commit to a contract with what’s there.
“Having said that, once that bid is out and we know the details of what they’re bidding on, then the committee is in a far better position to say what can be cut back to reduce costs,” Avis continued.
“If we’re very fortunate, the costs will come under and that will be a bonus for us.
“My recommendation to the committee this afternoon is we let that tender go and then we’ll certainly be in heckuva lot better position where we can reduce costs,” Avis reiterated.
“We can address far more clearly how many dollars we can save.”
The project manager noted the current estimated $3.9-million price tag roughly breaks down as follows:
•$2.88 million for construction materials;
•$327,000 for site work;
•$275,000 in architectural fees;
•$60,000 in management fees;
•$45,000 for survey work; and
•$350,000 for furnishings.
Mayor Avis summed up where the town and library stand right now with funding, assuming the old library is sold and the library fundraising campaign reaches its $750,000 goal:
•$10,500 from the Ministry of Culture in 2006;
•$1.6 million from the Ministry of Culture in 2007;
•$67,200 interest from that grant;
•$136,000 in library reserves;
•$150,000 for the potential sale of the old library;
•$750,000 from the “Building for the Future” campaign; and
•$452,389 earmarked in the 2008 town budget.
This adds up to $3.166 million—a number Mayor Avis said he’d like to see the cost of the new library come in at.
“I’d like to stay within that parameter if possible,” he remarked.
Coun. Sharon Tibbs recalled there’s often compromise with large projects like the library. When the Ice for Kids Arena and Townshend Theatre were built, the original plans had to be scaled back.
For example, some people wanted the arena to be Olympic-sized while the theatre was going to have 1,000 seats.
“Although it appears . . . that we’re picking [on the library], we’re not,” Coun. Tibbs stressed. “We’re just saying, ‘OK, we all have dreams. Some of them terrific.’
“But the reality is we have to be careful, we need make sure we spend within our means.
“I want to see this library built but I think we need to keep a cool head,” noted Coun. Tibbs. “I think if we work together, send it to tender, and find out exactly what we’re talking about, eventually we can sit at this table and we can up with something we can all agree on.”
“We got the Cadillac. Maybe we can only afford the Chevy?” said Coun. Paul Ryan.
“I feel some compromise is going to have to take place here,” he added. “I do not believe council should give direction as to size—I think that it’s up to them [the library board].
“But what we can do is give them some sort of avenue or path to follow as far as the money goes.
“I’d be willing to offer the funds that I agreed to during the 2008 budget deliberations as presented by the town administration on Nov. 21, Jan. 21, and Feb. 4, that being the town’s commitment of $452,380 plus the library reserves of $136,588.66 and any proceeds from, if and when, the present building is sold,” continued Coun. Ryan.
“Any amount over that budget would have to be fundraising,” he said. “There would be no long-term debt or tax increase or impact on the town’s operational expenses in the 2009 budget to service the debt.
“We have tremendous pressures on our reserves,” he noted, adding that, among other things, the town is losing $90,000 a year in taxes from the mill after the province reassessed AbitibiBowater’s property.
“I have to think of all these things before I make any decision about building a new library. The funds aren’t there,” Coun. Ryan stressed.
Treasurer Laurie Witherspoon noted the town is not on a tight timeline to pass the 2008 budget, but council does only have until April 30 to establish tax ratios for 2008.
This means any tax increases, either resulting from funding the library or other projects in this year’s budget, would have to be set by that time.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
