Region could build library for less in new location

Thomas H Raddall Library. Photo Ed Halverson

A new library could come in at a third the cost of previous designs if Region of Queens Council decides to build it in the Liverpool Business Development Centre.

Projections from staff indicate refurbishing the building to accommodate relocation of the Thomas H Raddall library would cost in the neighbourhood of $1.15 million.

Home to Belliveau Veinotte accounting and Global Empire Call Centre, the building is commonly known as the call centre.

Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman says the municipality is under pressure to find a new home for the regional library as the lease at its current location in the Rossignol Centre is up at the end of 2024.

“Library users will recognize the fact that our present library location is on really weak legs,” said Norman. “There are difficulties with the building sometimes with power and heat. The building’s been for sale now for, I would say a year. The price has been reduced and Council is getting very nervous that unexpectedly, we may be without a library site.”

The Region of Queens has wrestled with where to build a new library since it decided to allocate approximately $3 million from an unexpected budget surplus to its construction in spring of 2022.

The library site selection committee twice recommended an area by the sledding hill at Queens Place for the relocation. Council declined the first time but decided to accept the committee’s recommendation when it came around a second time.

But council scuttled the plan once more when it came to light that close to a million dollars was needed to connect the sledding hill library site to the existing road and infrastructure.

The proposed site at the Liverpool Business Development Centre meets most of the criteria established by the library site selection committee.

It has 6,000 square feet of available space, parking for 24 vehicles, outdoor lighting, outdoor space for programming, isn’t in a known flood zone and is already owned by the municipality.

However, the nearest sidewalk is 350 metres away and the site is currently not accessible by public transit, although the staff report mentions Queens County Transit could potentially extend service to the location.

Norman says the Centre has a lot of positives to offer but people may struggle to get to the site. She is concerned if the library is not centrally located, the Region could be creating a problem that will hound residents for years to come.

“We need to realize that if we spend a million, or a million and a half, or a million and three quarters, or whatever it takes, there’s no such thing as renovating, spending that much money and just making a temporary library,” said Norman.

“It will have program rooms, it will have its own washrooms, it will have [a] staff room, it will have its own entrance. When all of those things are put in there, I would say that is where the library is going to stay for decades.”

Council heard the presentation from staff and will decide at a future meeting whether they will go forward with the Call Centre location for the new library.

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