{"id":6797,"date":"2024-02-28T16:48:37","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T20:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=6797"},"modified":"2024-02-28T16:48:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T20:48:37","slug":"liverpool-library-moving-to-call-centre-building-by-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/02\/28\/liverpool-library-moving-to-call-centre-building-by-december\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool library moving to call centre building by December"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Region of Queens CAO Cody Joudry and Mayor Darlene Norman before Tuesday’s council meeting. (Rick Conrad photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Library users in Liverpool will be checking out books in a new location by the end of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Region of Queens councillors voted Tuesday night to move the Thomas H. Raddall library to the Liverpool Business Development Centre until a permanent site can be found and built.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Global Empire call centre and Belliveau Veinotte accountants are the current tenants at the building, just off the White Point Road. The municipality owns the building.<\/span><\/p>\n

The call centre currently uses about 18,000 square feet of the space, while Belliveau Veinotte leases 4,800. That leaves about 9,200 square feet for the library\u2019s temporary location.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, though, regional staff have to renovate to add washrooms and program rooms and to accommodate the library\u2019s collection. The plan is to move the library there before the end of the current lease in December. It\u2019s currently in the Rossignol Centre in downtown Liverpool, which is for sale.<\/span><\/p>\n

Susan DeChamp, who was one of three members of the region\u2019s library steering committee, was at the council meeting Tuesday evening. She said it\u2019s probably the best option for now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo for what we have to work with, it\u2019s not a bad blank slate,” she said in an interview after the meeting. “There is still the issue of some of our walking people getting to it. \u2026 There is some concern that library usage could suffer a bit for that. We need a library and this is our best option at this point.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Finding a new home for the library has been fraught with delays and controversy since 2022, when the region allocated $3 million from an unexpected budget surplus to its construction. CAO Cody Joudry says a new library would likely cost much more than that.<\/span><\/p>\n

The library steering committee twice recommended a site near Queens Place Emera Centre. Council rejected it the first time but decided to accept the recommendation a second time.<\/span><\/p>\n

But councillors nixed that plan once more when they learned that connecting the site to existing road and infrastructure would cost close to a million dollars.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then at a December meeting, after hearing from residents, councillors rejected a staff recommendation to move the library to the call centre building permanently.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

District 4 Coun. Vicki Amirault, who chaired the library committee but voted against its recommendations, said Tuesday it\u2019s a good solution to ensure library services continue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a long process to say the least,\u201d Amirault said. \u201cIt\u2019s been quite a process but I just think we need to overhaul a little bit and move on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The vote on the temporary location was not unanimous. Mayor Darlene Norman voted against it. She said the region could have bought the building where the library is now, and keep it there until a developer could be found to put housing in that location.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, it was not a wish of council to do that,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne would hope that during that refit that the CEO of the library and the library staff are consulted very closely and that we\u2019re simply not creating office space, because it\u2019s my feeling that once the library is there, the library will stay there. It would be very difficult for a future council to justify a million plus on renovation and then flip around to build a new library.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

CAO Cody Joudry estimates the work on the call centre will cost from $1.05 to $1.26 million. He says that he\u2019ll work with the library\u2019s CEO to ensure users and the rest of the community are consulted on the design and renovation of the space.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He said that with this council\u2019s term ending in October, it would be difficult to complete consultation, site selection, design and tendering before then. Joudry suggests letting a newly elected council develop a long-term plan for the library.<\/span><\/p>\n

But some councillors want the process to begin before a new council is elected in October.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

District 6 Coun. David Brown said he wants public consultation to \u201cstart sooner rather than later\u201d so that the incoming council will have something to work with.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/libraryfolocouncilfeb2824.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Library users in Liverpool will be checking out books in a new location by the end of the year. Region of Queens councillors voted Tuesday night to move the Thomas H. Raddall library to the Liverpool Business Development Centre until a permanent site can be found and built. The Global Empire call centre and Belliveau […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[692,1427,79,793,1796,792,39,760,24,1788,795,96],"class_list":["post-6797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-belliveau-veinotte-inc","tag-cody-joudry","tag-darlene-norman","tag-david-brown","tag-global-empire","tag-library","tag-liverpool","tag-liverpool-business-development-centre","tag-region-of-queens","tag-susan-dechamp","tag-thomas-h-raddall-library","tag-vicki-amirault"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6800,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6797\/revisions\/6800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}