City of Powell River council has selected the vacant lot on the corner of Marine Avenue and Abbotsford Street as the preferred location for a new library.
Council passed the motion at its March 3 meeting, two weeks after it voted not to rezone the lot, known as the old arena site, from parks to mixed use.
In making the motion, Councillor Debbie Dee outlined new library planning work done by the Powell River Public Library board and Charlie Kregel, chief librarian. “I believe that once we pass this resolution and give him a place to work with, we will see positive results to continue to come out of that office,” she said.
Councillor Chris McNaughton alone voted in opposition to the motion. He said he thought it was important to talk about a new library in conjunction with other facilities needed in the community, such as an emergency services building and office space for Powell River Regional District. “At the very least, if we’re going to be responsible to the community and the taxpayers, it would be advantageous to bring these projects together, have a discussion and see if there are synergies associated with identifying one location where we could share common infrastructure and facilities,” he said.
McNaughton made a motion to refer Dee’s motion to the March 11 council strategic planning session, but his motion was defeated.
Dee pointed out that the Powell River Historical Museum and Archives Association has an expansion committee and Tla’Amin (Sliammon) First Nation had plans for a gathering space. Those would fit with a library, Dee said, not “fire trucks and office buildings. That site is cultural, it’s public, it’s not emergency services combined with regional offices.”
Councillor Jim Palm said he supported the motion because he understood council needed to select a site in order for planning to proceed.
Councillor Dave Formosa said he understood McNaughton’s position, because he questioned how the city was going to pay for a new library. However, he said he was prepared “to take a leap of faith. It’s a great site. I hate to see it just sit there with grass and flowers and benches, so this is community. Let’s give it a shot.”
Councillor Maggie Hathaway said she wasn’t going to oppose the motion, even though she preferred Barnet Street because it was the least controversial site. Dee scoffed at that. “I’ve done my homework on this,” she said.
McNaughton elaborated on why he thought more discussion was needed, saying he supported the library, but wanted to see good process.
Dee became more emotional during his comments. “I’m going to explode,” she said. She also took exception to McNaughton saying talking to four people in the last few hours is not consultation.
Kregel said he’s sure the board is pleased that council chose its number one site.
“I think council wants to move this project forward and they know in order to do that, we need to develop a building concept and a plan, so funders and the community can rally around it,” he said.
The next step is to request proposals from architects who are interested in doing a building concept and plan, which will be based on the needs assessment completed in 2009, Kregel said. “It will tell us how much all this might cost,” he said. “Then, we’ll have to figure out how to actually build it with as little impact on taxation as possible.”
A complete record of new library planning is available on the library’s
website ,
