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| NEWS - March 2, 2010 |
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| New library goes to Bold Center |
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Tobias Romaniuk
Post Staff
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The Stuart McPherson Public Library is getting a new $3.85 million home attached to the Bold Center. The decision was announced in the 2010 Lac La Biche County budget, with design work to begin this spring and a projected completion date of late 2011.
The project was decided on as a way to use provincial legacy grant funds originally intended for construction of the interpretive centre.
Council was told that if the money was not used by February of 2010 the grant would return to the provincial coffers. Not wanting to lose the money, council committed the dollars to helping fund a new library, while also matching the fund with their own reserve money.
The Legacies grant of $1.6 million won’t go entirely to the library, though, as $500,000 has been promised to the Mission Historic Society.
The 12,000 square foot, two level library will be designed to accommodate the eventual inclusion of two schools at the Bold Center, and more than triple the size of the existing Stuart MacPherson library at McArthur Place.
"The library, of course, is huge," said Coun. Cecilia Quist when asked what she viewed as being highlights of the budget.
The library will be built as a community facility, but also designed to accommodate the schools once they are built, said Quist.
Clark will likely be doing the building of the facility, she said, adding that economies of scale, and perhaps some cost savings, may be realized as the library is built while the Bold Center construction is still underway.
After years of being cramped for space, it’s about time a new library was built, said Coun. Phil Lane, noting that a new home for the library has been talked about since he first came on council nine years ago.
"I think it’s great that the opportunity presented itself," said Lane, referring to the Legacies Grant, and the need to find a way to spend it.
Council was given other options for spending the Legacy grant, said mayor Peter Kirylchuk, but the library seemed like the best option.
"I think that was the right thing to do." |
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