Negotiations to procure Powell River’s new library location continue.
During the Thursday, July 16, Powell River City Council meeting, Councillor Rob Southcott, council’s library representative, highlighted some of the activities currently underway. Southcott asked that Shehzad Somji, the city’s chief financial officer, provide an overview of some of the financial matters concerning the library.
Somji said negotiations for the new library site are continuing. The proposal for the new facility is for a turnkey operation at Crossroads Village valued at $4.9 million. Powell River voters authorized a referendum during the November 2014 civic election for city borrowing of up to $3.5 million for purchase and renovation of the facility, with the remainder to come from other sources.
Somji said part of the motion from council on September 18, 2014, prior to the referendum, was that there was adequate parking at the site for the library. The other condition stipulated by council was that the purchase price for the building was $2 million and the remainder would go toward construction costs. He said there was also $300,000 factored in for contingencies.
A purchase agreement for the building is being put together, Somji said. There is a grant application that has been submitted for the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program, coinciding with Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017, to cover some of the project cost over and above the city’s contribution. One of the conditions of the grant is that it has to be applied toward a building that the city owns.
“We’ve talked to Crossroads Village and they understand why we are doing the purchase agreement first and the construction agreement secondary,” Somji said. “That way we can own the building, the grant application goes in and we meet the conditions of the grant.”
City staff members have received an assurance that seismic standards and other regulations will be met at the new library site.
Somji said Crossroads Village provided the city a letter in March, requesting a letter of intent for the purchase. The city provided a verbal confirmation but does not want two steps.
“We want to go straight to the purchase agreement,” he said.
Currently, the price of the building is being negotiated. The city sent an initial offer, that was countered, and the city countered again. Somji said the two sides are not far apart and it is hoped there will be a purchase agreement by mid-August. Subsequently, work toward construction, renovation, design and those sorts of things will be initiated. There is still work to be done on clarifying quality of materials and other details, Somji said.
Councillor Maggie Hathaway said she was confused because at the time council passed the motion, that purchase price was established and that it was a done deal.
Somji said the proposal was for a turnkey proposal but because of the way the Canada 150 grant program is structured, the city has to own the building first. That is why the project needs to be done in two stages.
Somji said in negotiating the deal, the city wants to have more funds available for the renovations than for the purchase price.
In other library news, Southcott said the new RFID (radio frequency identification) program is not yet fully functional at the existing library. He said the program involves items in the library such as books and videos having a magnetic strip that can be waved past a reader to streamline the process of checking out materials.
“It hasn’t yet been introduced,” Southcott said, “but it will save a lot of staff time in checking out books and that kind of thing.”
He said he had also mentioned there is a new computer program in place at the library that handles card files and a variety of other tasks. It will also create efficiencies and is operational.
