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If you take officials from Okanagan Regional Library and the City of Vernon at face value, considerable progress has been made on trying to get a new branch.
However, all discussions have been behind closed doors because that’s where property talks occur, and very little concrete has been provided to the public.
“We are working with Vernon to identify locations,” said Don Nettleton, ORL’s financial manager, during a recent presentation to the regional district.
“We want to keep it downtown,” added Mayor Wayne Lippert.
So if downtown is truly the goal, what’s taking so long because there aren’t large lots hiding around every corner.
In fact, there is only one parcel that will accommodate a 30,000-square-foot branch and the required parking and that is the old Coldstream Hotel site.
I say that for a number of reasons, including it’s central to transit and main roads, near other public services, flat and largely vacant.
And because zoning dictates the library must be downtown, it is incumbent on the city to provide the land at as fair a price as possible instead of simply demanding fair market value. Put your money where your mouth is, or untie ORL’s hands and let it construct a facility where ever it wants, even if that means at the north end.
It should also be pointed out that city taxpayers forked out $919,266 for the hotel, $729,000 for an adjacent gym building and $800,000 for the North Okanagan Youth and Family Services Society office. If ORL was charged full price, Vernon taxpayers, as part of the regional library system, would be paying again. Talk about double-dipping.
Officials have insisted before that the property is crucial to downtown redevelopment, and cultural complexes and residential/commercial towers have been tossed around. But year after year, none of these grandiose concepts materialize and all taxpayers have for their investment is a parking lot.
Now, the city is dragging things out further by initiating a plan that will look at long-term land uses downtown, including the Coldstream Hotel site.
That means library patrons and staff will continue to suffer with inadequate space for Internet, resources that don’t keep pace with the population base and children stacked up in the story time area like fire wood. Anyone who visits the branch regularly has experienced the leaking roof during rain storms or the meeting room that is hotter than a blast furnace during the summer.
It is time for the city to get down to business or climb off the pot. Does it want an expanded library? Does it want it downtown? Is it serious about adding some vibrancy to the central core? If it is, then cut the closed-door sessions and make the hotel property available.
Doing so doesn’t preclude other uses on the site as some commercial space can be included or a couple of floors of residential units constructed. But no matter the design, the bottom line is that a library move ahead.
But based on previous trends, publicly owned land will continue to go to waste and councillors elected in 2011 will be talking about how a new library is a priority.
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