At least one Niverville resident is not happy with town council’s decision to keep library funding to a minimum over the next few years. And given public inquiry over the lack of a community library in recent years, she’s likely not alone.
Bonita Garrett of Niverville is a semi-retired church pastor. When news surfaced about council’s intent to fill the community library void with a “take one, leave one” model in the coming year, Garrett had words for council.
“I read the suggestion of a ‘take one, leave one’ library and, as a taxpayer, I’m furious,” Garrett told them in an email. “[It] feels like a copout… and a complete failure to commit to library services.”
Garrett and her family are well-versed in the important role that a library plays in the educational well-being of a community.
Her grandfather helped create a public library in Killarney back in the 1950s when he served as mayor.
Her husband Stephen has worked as a librarian for almost 27 years, first at the Louis Riel Library in Winnipeg and, more recently, at Fort Garry Library. Stephen’s stepmother was employed as head of the provincial library systems until her retirement.
Garrett has earned two master’s degrees, and she says libraries were formative in her education.
“We moved here with an understanding that a very committed group of citizens had done the necessary groundwork for a library,” Garrett continued in the email. “Many years later, and with a substantial increase in the population, nothing has changed. It is incredibly disheartening and disappointing that the town council seems unable to recognize the value a library brings to a community.”
For Garrett, and many other public library users, access to books is only a small part of what a library provides.
In recent decades, libraries have become purveyors of literacy programming for all ages. They offer safe public spaces for book clubs and special interest groups to gather.
Libraries also provide new immigrants with opportunities to learn the language and seniors a chance to spend time in quiet public settings alongside those of all other ages.
Among the resources of a library are e-books, audiobooks, electronic devices, internet access, and databases for research.
In Garrett’s mind, the lack of a public library in Niverville is the result of years of council members who just don’t understand the important role they play. Instead, she says, councils have focused on recreation programming, as seen in the CRRC.
“The town has built a physical literacy centre and now it’s time to build the educational literacy centre to prepare children, youth and adults for the future,” Garrett says.
The Mayor Responds
First and foremost, Mayor Myron Dyck says, the community needs to understand that council’s idea of a “take one, leave one” library has little connection to the small Little Free Library boxes residents occasionally install at the front of their properties.
Instead, he says, council’s version will be housed inside a comfortable indoor space. The location, though, has yet to be determined.
In the new year, council will assign the task of researching the best library option to the Niverville Recreation and Wellness team. It’s a natural fit for this department since they already organize a host of arts and culture events for kids, including Neighbourhood Storytime at the CRRC.
“A primary goal of council and staff is to provide the residents of Niverville with ever expanding opportunities in the resource, wellness, and recreation realm,” Dyck says. “This, combined with a goal of being fiscally responsible, says that council is looking to start small and envisions a multi-use and consistent space with a defined schedule.”
Having recently engaged in fiscal planning for the upcoming year, council isn’t shy about stating their mission to practice great responsibility over the next three years of their term.
In this case, it means paying down debt in order to prevent saddling the next council, whoever they may be, with a massive debt load.
The most obvious example of this is the $3.4 million still owing on the CRRC. In the coming years, council hopes to double down on their payments to help make that happen.
“The CRRC was a $20 million project with a segment to be paid by other levels of government, some through municipal taxes, and the rest through donations,” says Dyck. “With the COVID years and now inflation and higher interest rates, the donation amounts have not come in to pay down this debt as was planned. Thus, this is being paid through general taxes collected each year and will take a little bit longer to pay down than was planned.”
Dyck says it’s also important to note that, sometimes, it’s the kind of exponential growth that Niverville’s experiencing that actually stalls some services in order to make room for others.
Bearing the weight of the title of fifth fastest growing community in all of Canada means trying to make sure local infrastructure keep up with housing starts.
“Communities that are stagnant or growing slowly have decades go by between having to upgrade a water treatment plant, wastewater treatment plant, more roads, and so on,” Dyck adds. “Niverville does not. Because of this high rate of growth, we operate pretty lean and have a higher debt load than some other communities.”
Also weighing heavily on council’s mind these days is the costs that will soon be incurred by a new RCMP office and the need to expand Niverville’s fire and emergency services building as well as the facility used by the operations department.
So, in short, council’s not saying no to an eventual full-sized library. They’re just saying it won’t happen right now. In the meantime, finding the most cost-effective means to provide some library services is the goal.
Dyck hopes that the “take one, leave one” model can help bridge that gap for the time being.
“This concept is trying to take advantage of present programming and space we already have at the CRRC with the goal to try to find an underutilized, inviting and comfortable space to not just exchange books but also where patrons will want to stay and study or read,” says Dyck. “To date, many books have been donated to the town and part of the plan would be to roll out a model by which more book donations could be made. Book lending will be on an honour system for now. Residents can come and leave a book they have read or wish to donate and take one which they would essentially own until such time as they wish to return it.”
Conversely, he adds, the prospect of collaborating with the Hanover School Division to provide public library services out of the Niverville High School library is not off the table.
Council had the unique opportunity to meet with the HSD board this fall to engage in dialogue about further building upon the relationship between the division and the community. Dyck says that scenarios were presented which would see an exchange of public library services for added use of CRRC amenities for high school students.
“We’ve had these discussions before,” Dyck says. “But, for whatever reason, we just never receive any traction from them on that.”
He encourages residents to petition their local HSD trustees to help further this conversation.
