Library building in serious disrepair

(October 13) - The timing is either ironic or inspired.

City council meets next Tuesday to look at its capital projects. They may shuffle the timetables. They may take some things off the table. They may push some projects so far into the future that they might as well have fallen off.

One of the projects under consideration will be the new downtown library. There is an interesting series of coincidences surrounding this. The discussion will take place on the Tuesday of Ontario Public Library Week. The week ends with the third annual giant book sale sponsored by the Friends of the Guelph Public Library. The book sale will be held in the old Wyndham Arts store, one of the properties the city will buy to make room for the new library.

Our library is now 126 years old. Its first permanent building was donated by Andrew Carnegie in 1901. It cost us nothing. It lasted until 1964 when it was demolished and replaced by the present building which cost $555,145.64. So far, that is the sum total of capital expenditures we have put into library bricks and mortar. An average of $4,405.91 per year. I’d say we’ve had our money’s worth and more.

In the city’s 2009 capital expenditure budget, the new library had a cost estimate of $31.5 million, plus a related capital cost of $15.75 million for a parking garage. Look at the library expenditure, and project it forward for an estimated life span of 60 years. That makes $32,055,145.64, or $172,339.49 per year, for 186 years worth of library building.

Fifty years from now our grandchildren will sit in their library and marvel that their grandparents bought it so cheap. They will thank us just as eagerly as we now thank our parents and grandparents for investing wisely and providing for us. With interest rates where they are, now is the perfect time to finance the building.

What happens if the library is put off for another five years? The Norfolk Street building is running on fumes right now. Without sinking significant cash into things like the elevator, the washrooms, the roof, the basement and other areas of building integrity, it won’t have the gas to make it.

It is not fair to expect the men and women who work in the building to endure these working conditions for another five years.

As one example, the computer systems are set up in the basement. Directly above them is the public walkway leading to the front door. It will soon be dug up and repaired.

Before that happens, the computer systems need to be protected in special containers. Staff will need to wear hard hats and safety boots when running them. Some staff will have to move into the boardroom upstairs next to the children’s story room. Inter-library loan, reference and audiovisual staff could all work from the boardroom at one time or another while the walkway is repaired. There is nowhere else to put them. It is the last few square feet of usable space there is.

How many of us had an old beater of a car that needs a new engine? Should we fix it or invest in a new one? My old Intrepid carried me almost 400k. It got so that gassing up doubled its value. When the engine started to go, I ran out of options. I borrowed money for a new one. At some point we realize we will be nickel and dimed to death if we don’t move forward.

With the library, we have reached that point. Standing pat is penny wise but pound foolish.