Jennifer Smith

I wanted to share a couple of things with you as a follow-up to my last post.

First, an interesting anomaly. The Library Master Plan document from 2008, which determined the locations and service areas for the new main library and future branches, based those needs on a standard of .6 square feet per capita. This chart shows how each new branch will bring our library facilities up to that standard as our population increases:



It all lines up rather neatly, with each new facility adding just enough square feet to service the new, higher populations. In this plan, the new Main Library would add 40,000 square feet, which, when you subtract the 19,000 square feet from the old Bruce Street Library closing, leaves us with a net gain of 21,000 square feet.

There's just one problem. The new library is only going to be 30,000 square feet, leaving us with a deficit of 10,000 sq ft below the service standard they have set.

One would think that the obvious solution to this discrepancy would be to keep the Bruce Street facility open, with the extra square footage possibly allowing the construction (and costs) of the new south-west branch to be delayed. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think so.

I also wanted to share some of the comments people have been sending me through Facebook and email. This issue has really touched a nerve with a lot of people that goes beyond the loss of just this one facility.

Sylvia: "I think it would be a huge mistake to close this library, the admin building could be used for some kind of other income perhaps, but there must be something that could be done to save this branch!"

Carla: "I want to say that one of the reasons we built our house in this area was because of the vicinity of the library. For me, it would be worth at least $50. extra in yearly taxes to keep a branch on Bruce St. I would say that with intensification of the downtown area in the planning, the Town would be well advised to have a branch here.

If, and only if, it is not at all possible, the least the Town could do with the property is to have either a seniors or community centre in the building, so that the population could enjoy the space in other ways - maybe a youth or children's centre? An adult education centre?"

Diana: "That's insane! I love that library - and the other one is bloody far away for people who walk and at the moment it has a terribly small selection. I know I'm hardly ever in Ontario anymore, but still! :'C"

Ramblin' Frank: "It'll be sad to see it go...and I'll miss it. But it's funny that many years ago there was talk...and I guess that's all it was... that a library/living arts facility would be built somewhere in the Woodward/Wilson area (St. Peters/R.Baldwin school/kinsmen park area).

The growth of Milton has been so fast and furious; with government money floating every-which-way as well, that its left my head spinning. Perhaps even more than that, I feel I've been left in the dust. Where once I might have felt I had a connection and/or public spirit with the town (meetings, public forums, celebrations, etc) now seems (to me) to be so distant; so alien, gone with the wind so to speak; a distant memory. In other words, I don't feel like a Miltonian; and just as important, I don't even know where Milton is anymore. It's become more of a conglomeration of villages. The villagers may identify themselves with their respective villages (whether it's Campbelleville, Moffat or the new villages built recently, etc), what do we have to identify with when it's been so diluted? Maybe I'll call myself a 'Ward 4'er' now rather than a Miltonian.

It's hard to put in words just how one feels; or of the feeling of being included and a part of something. I'm hoping some of this has made a bit of sense. Anyway I can say for sure that the new location of the new Library really doesn't matter to me any longer.. I hate to lose the old library building but it does have a severe parking problem."

David: "We walk there in decent weather fairly often. I only drive to the library when its raining or if I am on my way by. Its worth the couple of bucks in tax.

Additionally, it is also a spot to bring kids for story time - something we are just about to start. Without a functioning bus, I don't see my kid learning to go to the library too often on his own - thats still a few years away.

I don't get it to be honest - I haven't seen the parking lot so full that you can't park. yet it can be pretty busy in there - many people are walking. I don't see it as a main branch but certainly it works as a remote one.

Downtown businessess should be screaming about this - downtown is hollowed out and rapidly no longer becoming a destination. Those businesses might as well start shutting down - perhaps extreme, but better to get out while their property has some worth.

I think that this is a great place but its often its own worst enemy. Bring some sanity Jennifer!"

I spent a lovely afternoon yesterday knocking on doors with my friend Joan. We handed out lots of cards and talked to quite a number of people who live within a few blocks of the Milton Public Library.

Guess what the number one issue on their minds was?



If you were surprised to find out that the current main library on Bruce Street would be closing, you're not alone. As a member of Milton's arts community, I've been following the the development of our new Main Library and Arts Centre pretty closely over the years and even I didn't know anything about it until a few months ago.

Mind you, it's not like anyone has gone out of their way to let people know.

Just to be sure I hadn't missed something, I did a thorough search of the Milton Champion's archives for any hint that the Bruce Street facility would close when the new library opens. I found nothing. Even in the Town's own meeting minutes and planning documents, I was hard pressed to find any explicit statement of their intention to shut down Bruce Street. The only mention I found was buried deep in the Library Master Plan from 2008.

Of course, the position of the Town and the Library Board is that they aren't "closing" our library - they're replacing it with something bigger and better. Which is true, in a way. However, when you replace a facility in the heart of downtown with one that by all reasonable definitions is in the east end of Milton, you can hardly blame the people of Ward 2 for feeling that something important is being taken away from them.

Such a decision surely warranted greater public consultation, or at least notification. And I don't mean this kind of notification, either:



I have spoken to several members of the library board about the possibility of keeping at least a section of the Bruce Street Library open as a branch. While some are more sympathetic than others, they all agree that the problem ultimately comes down to two things: geography, and money.

The Milton Public Library Master Plan, which was presented to Council back in 2008, shows the location of the new Main Library, the Beaty Branch, and potential locations for future library branches. Each is given a 'service radius' showing the areas meant to be served by each facility, much like the catchment area for a school.



A couple of things are worth noting about this map. One is that the neat, circular 2.5 km 'service radius' shown for the new main library is really only practical if one happens to be a crow. For the rest of us land-based life forms, the actual travelling distance from locations like Bronte Meadows is closer to 4 kilometres. A more accurate representation would be a diamond, not a circle, but in either case about half the people of Ward 2 and all of south-west Milton will be outside of the service area for any library until and unless a branch is built in the south-west part of town.

Another item to note is that the location for the new Main Library/Arts Centre was not chosen because it was in some optimal location in relation to the town's population distribution. It was chosen primarily because the land already belonged to the Town and could be made available. So the fact that the current Bruce Street Library falls within it's service area and is therefore considered "too close" is largely accidental.

One other argument I've been given is that (according to a survey) 84% of the library's patrons drive there, so it wouldn't be much of an inconvenience for them to drive a little further. But what that really means is that 16% of library patrons DON'T drive there, either because they choose not to or because they can't.

How much is 16%? The Milton Public Library has about 30,000 active patrons, so that's 4,800 people who currently walk, bike, or take transit to the library, most of whom won't be able to do that any more. At least not from Ward 2.

Then of course, there's the money.

Obviously, keeping the Bruce Street Library open as a branch would cost money. Exactly how much money, nobody seems to know. The Library budget offers scant clues, and since the plan is to close the place anyway, nobody seems to have bothered to work it out. But here's one way to put it in perspective: for every dollar you spend in property taxes, the entire Milton Public Library budget accounts for about seven cents.

There are all sorts of ways the Town could potentially mitigate the costs, whatever they are. Leasing out the former administration building, running child care, seniors and/or teen programs from the space, finding funding from other sources to install a proper town archives in the building... and those are just off the top of my head.

But even with creative approaches like these, it would still cost something. So my question to you is this: what's it worth to you?

What would it be worth to keep a branch library in your neighbourhood? Two dollars a year? Five? Ten? Maybe nothing - maybe it really is an indulgence with a newer, bigger library opening just a couple of kilometres away.

But did anyone bother to ask you?