Library project contested

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

Plans for a new library in Beaconsfield are making waves in the city, as the municipality’s administration and members of the Beaconsfield Citizens Association (BCA) do not seem to see eye to eye on the project.

During the last city council meeting in February, Mayor Bob Benedetti addressed citizens, explaining that Beaconsfield did not put aside $500,000 in the 2008 budget for the new library and studies relating to it, as news reports and comments made to council have indicated. The city hopes to instead acquire funding for the $4 million project through government grants and corporate funding, he said, thus making it an “essentially free” project for Beaconsfield residents that would not happen otherwise. If the plan does go ahead, the library would be built on the site of the former water treatment plant, which has been out of service since 1992. In 2007, Beaconsfield commissioned professionals to demolish the purification tanks still located there. The library would also be built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, including a geothermal heating unit, to be extended to city hall and the recreation centre. The project would go ahead between 2009 and 2010 if everything goes according to plan. The old library, located next to city hall, would be converted into office space.

“I’m astonished that anyone would be against it,” Benedetti told The Chronicle last week. “Basically, the concept, as we see it, is essentially free. The impact on people would be minimal, if anything.”

A Feb. 25 BCA letter addressed to the mayor, however, expressed doubt the project would receive any government funding at all: “While the Mayor has briefly outlined his goal for this project, he has yet to provide even the general guidelines for how it will be carried out. Given the province’s current fiscal situation, that it generally awards funding to communities that are in greatest need and the relative wealth of this city, it seems doubtful from the very outset that any type of provincial funding would be forthcoming,” it read.

BCA executive member Karin Essen added she believes a bigger library and converting the old space into offices would incur additional costs. She also said she was suspicious about the motivations behind building a new library, following the city’s building use assessment, which indicated the municipality is lacking building space.

“So, what you’re saying is, in fact, what you’re doing is you’re not building this because we need a new library; we’re building this because we need space everywhere else and you want to free up space,” Essen said. “Those are completely the wrong reasons for doing it. The right reason would be we have a library that’s crumbling or the books are stacked all over the floor. But, they’re not.”

Benedetti, however, said this is not the case: “We have a huge space deficit all over. But, the thing is, the worst deficit is in two places. The space in the library and the cultural and recreational facilities is totally inadequate,” he said, adding the geothermal unit would offset additional costs as well. “It falls within our responsibilities. If we can’t provide them (adequate services), then it’s our job to make sure we can provide them.”

As for why the debated library project was not included on the recent Leger Marketing citizen satisfaction poll, like the Soccerplex project was, Benedetti said: “That’s a good question, and sometimes I say, now, why wasn’t it?”

He added the two projects have “completely different concepts” – the library will tentatively be funded by grants while the Soccerplex will be privately funded. “We just didn’t think of it.”