The township has allocated $40,000 in its 2009 budget for renovations to the library which has been closed since May, 2008.
Council voted on April 7 to appoint Chief Building Official, Natalie Moroz-Cornell, to liaise with a task force to be formed by Mayor Marc Coombs. The committee is expected to draw on her construction expertise.
She will report the group’s findings back to council regarding the renovations it recommends and requests. The task force will include representation from the Cramahe Library Board, Heritage Cramahe and the residents of Castleton.
In her background document to council, the Chief Building Official outlined the recent history of the library which was closed due to health and safety concerns during renovations done upstairs in the hall last year.
She reminded council there has been “much discussion and various meetings with the (Cramahe) Library Board and residents to discuss the future direction of the library”. Possible renovations were also considered.
The current plan has the township moving ahead with plans in 2009.
Cramahe Library Board Chair Ed Gereenwood is throwing his support behind a quick return to service. "The Township of Cramahe Public Library Board is committed to providing local library service to Castleton residents, and intends to work with the township, drawing on library reserves set aside for this purpose, to reopen the Castleton library branch as soon as possible," he commented on April 13.
Castleton Town Hall is the home of the closed library.
Talks heat up
Talks about the future of the library began to heat up last September.
Close to 50 people showed up at a September 10, 2008 meeting hosted by the Cramahe Township Library Board. It was clear from the start, the people in attendance wanted to keep a library in their community and they wanted to see some changes.
The board hosted the meeting, hoping to find a focus group of people from north of the 401, and to collect ideas for the group to discuss.
In his welcome at the September meeting, Board Chair Ed Greenwood advised the group that the option of having the library in the planned new public school was not viable: the township's share would be $200,000.
Numerous suggestions were elicited from the crowd, including the addition of high-speed internet service and changes to the opening hours.
Since then, Heritage Cramahe has expressed interest in using some of the space for historical archival material.
Some progress was made to clean the room up using volunteers and a call was put out in January, 2009 by the Library Board for someone in the community to take the lead on the re-opening and renovation plans.
At the time, Mayor Coombs stated, "I would see the proposed person (or persons) that would spearhead this as being in charge of setting meetings, interfacing with the board and the township, and driving the project forward with enthusiasm. My own feeling is that we want to see more Castleton involvement and input, but not so much from a follower role, though that's important as well, but more from a leader role. "
Library Board Chair Greenwood seemed to concur, stating, "We need Castleton people to be very much part of this discussion. We don't want to decide for them what an appropriate saw-off between costs and what library service will be in Castleton. We want them to be the spearhead of the process. So, yes, ideally we would have someone (or someones) from the north of Cramahe to become the leader and coordinator of this project, and the library board and the township (probably through the Chief Building Official) will work with them.”
Costs
Since the January meeting various numbers have been tossed forward regarding possible costs.
The Library Board advised council on January 16, 2009 that it might cost between $30-40,000 for renovations, plus additional funds to remediate moisture problems. The estimated cost was reached after a study of the situation by a focus group and consultation with the Chief Building Official.
Library Board member Peggy Klem suggested in March, 2009 if the area has a bank of computers with high-speed Internet access, additional books on the shelves and the kind of furniture people have stated they wanted, the costs would reach $100,000.
The township has over $50,000 in reserves which it can allocate to the project.
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