City may turn page on West Kildonan Library

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This article was published 06/05/2022 (1489 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WEST KILDONAN

The West Kildonan Library may be checking out of its location at 365 Jefferson Ave. and starting a new chapter at Garden City Shopping Centre.

A city report recommends moving the library from the 13,960-square-foot building it has occupied since 1967 to a 14,962-square-foot space within the mall. The new space was used for the Lights of the North exhibit this winter, but is otherwise empty.

The costs of renovating the space at the shopping centre is expected to total more than $2 million, meaning council must approve the recommendation. The vote will take place on May 9.

Rent for the shopping centre location would run the city $217,000 per year for the first five years and $232,000 per year for the latter half of the 10-year lease. The report says the city may be able to recoup about $1 million if it sells the West Kildonan Library building.

The city’s capital budget had earmarked $3.7 million for a new library.

Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski) said he had advocated for the city to build a library in the Amber Trails area, in order to accommodate growth in Coun. Devi Sharma’s Old Kildonan ward.

When it was clear a library would not be built in Amber Trails, Eadie said, he turned his attention to relocating the library to an accessible location. The relocation proposal would mean moving the library from Eadie’s ward to Sharma’s.

“We do have to provide accessible library service … I insisted it shouldn’t be any of the inaccessible strip malls on McPhillips, nor should it be Garden City Square, which for pedestrians is inaccessible. But Garden City Shopping Centre has excellent bus service,” Eadie said.

He said bus service should make it easier for some of his constituents to access the library. For others, Eadie said “it’s not much” to go down Salter Street to St. John’s Library, which reopened after renovations in July 2019.

In an email, Sharma expressed her support for the library’s relocation to Garden City Shopping Centre.

“This new location boasts improved accessibility with the existing transit hub, and because it is more central within the Mynarski and Old Kildonan wards, residents can walk, bike or enjoy the ample parking on site should they choose to drive,” she wrote.

Sharma went on to list several features of the proposed location, including accessibility and parking, programming for adults and children, and extra space for displays related to community partnerships. She also mentioned the outdoor reading space, which the mall would create with consultation from the city’s library branch.