Shhh! Library board quietly discusses East End micro-branch

After seven months of secret deliberations, Sault Ste. Marie Public Library's proposed closure of its Churchill Plaza branch finally got a thorough airing this week at a public meeting of its board of directors.

One week ago, the library board got clearance from City Council to enter talks with Algoma District School Board about moving the Churchill branch to the former Alexander Henry High School site.

Councillors asked for more data about the scheme to be presented at the next regular City Council meeting on April 25.

On Monday of this week, library board members spent much of a three-hour meeting discussing how that data should be presented.

But they also got into a broad-ranging confab about strategy for winning City Council approval for relocating the Churchill branch to the Henry.

Public consultations

There appeared to be consensus Monday among library board members that a series of public consultations should be held around the city before accepting what's regarded as a very favourable offer from the school board to move into the Henry.

It was proposed Monday night that City Council be advised of those upcoming open-house consultations.

It was further proposed that councillors be told that the library board will look into ways of addressing the concerns of East End residents about the proposed Churchill Branch closing.

Both ideas were shot down.

City Council will essentially be given little more than what it asked for: some numbers.

Conscious that every councillor's vote could be critical, Director of Libraries Roxanne Toth-Rissanen and her board have been dancing with exquisite caution around City Council, trying to accommodate or address every expressed concern.

Splitting the question

At a meeting at Churchill Branch on April 4, Ward 1 Councillor Susan Myers suggested that potential closure of the Churchill branch library and the new Alexander Henry project should be dealt with as separate issues.

Ever since, the library board has complied with that request.

At last week's City Council meeting, a library board presentation about "Item 5.2 Sault Ste. Marie Public Library - Relocation of Churchill Branch" contained almost no references to closing the Churchill Plaza branch.

The presentation was pretty much limited to whether or not to pursue the school board offer to build a public library branch into the Henry site, sharing space with a daycare and a junior-kindergarten-to-Grade-8 French-language immersion school.

Points of service: three or four?

Alternatives for servicing the East End mentioned at Monday's library board meeting included a mobile library and self-serve library kiosks - what board member Luke Dufour referred to as a "micro-branch."

Possibly financed through monies saved by leaving the expensive-to-run Churchill Plaza location, the micro-branch would essentially increase the number of library service locations in the Sault to four:

• the main downtown Centennial Branch
• Korah Branch
• the new Northern Avenue branch
• the East End micro-branch.

That idea drew strong flak from other board members, who believe there's not a snowball's chance City Council is going to approve four library service locations.

Why confuse the issue by mentioning anything about a fourth service point when what the board wants is three locations?

Can't look indecisive

"We made a decision at the board level to move forward," said board member Wayne Greco. "We're not getting four branches in any shape. I don't see it. All we'll do is jeopardize the success of this by putting it on the table," Greco said. "I just don't want to look like we're trying to get four when we're just trying to hang on to three."

Greco said that having the school board pay most of the cost of establishing a new branch is an opportunity too good to pass up. "This is an option that's very good and I don't want to jeopardize it," he said.

"What Wayne's saying is correct," Dufour responded. "If we look indecisive, then it's not going to fly. But on the other side, if this is all a foregone conclusion and the library board does whatever the library board wants to do, it may not fly that way either because you're not going to have the support of councillors."

"I'm wondering if there should be no reference to alternate things - kiosks and so on, because that suggests four service points," added Doreen Simard. "Just not talk about it in this presentation, but we could still do it."

Is it safe to put a public library in a school?

The Churchill Plaza location is rented month-to-month and the library could be asked to leave at any time.

"We're going to lose Churchill whether it's next year or the year after. That's a foregone conclusion," Simard said. "It's costing us too much money and they're going to cut us off. So if we don't get Alexander Henry then we're going to be down to two service points in a couple of years. That's my prediction."

One question that must be addressed during negotiations is whether adult library patrons and schoolchildren can safely coexist in an elementary school.

Any public library branch at the Henry site  would have its own entrance and parking area, separate from those of the planned elementary school there, says Lucia Reece, director of education at Algoma District School Board.

"The building . . . would allow for a completely separate parking lot," Reece said. "We have a significant amount of land at that particular site. So we'd be looking to have a completely separate entrance to the library for the community. And then we'd also have the ability on the inside to create a separate entrance that could be sectioned off from the school, however accessible when we chose to do so."

Bilingual librarians?

Reece said she believes it would also be possible to keep school busses away from the side of the building housing the library. 

Another delicate point will be the school board's intention to have no school library at the Henry site, using the public library for that purpose.

The problem is that the elementary school will be French immersion, raising issues of French-language staffing and content.

After considerable discussion, the library board finally decided on Monday to leave out all references to public consultations and possible East End accommodations, and simply provide City Council with the data it requested.

The library board is expected to quickly arrange a series of community consultations, after which City Council will most likely be asked on May 25 to approve the move to Northern Avenue.

The school board is wanting a quick decision so it can proceed with design and construction.