Library Worried About Future of Verner Branch
"Possible building closure" brought to council to address concerns.
At last night’s meeting, council had further discussions about the future of the Verner municipal building. Councillor Fern Pellerin highlighting that in the Library board’s recent meeting minutes, they included an item titled “Verner-possible building closure”.
Pellerin who represents Verner said that his constituents are worried about the future of their library branch. Seeing this in public minutes as a valid concern of the independant library board also raised serious concerns.
Councillor Kaitlynn Nicol who sits on the library board confirmed with council that the topic came up as many patrons are expressing the same concern brought up by Pellerin. Library board members are obviously worried about the future of one of their most important branches.
In November, during the 2024 budget deliberations, the topic of the Verner municipal building was questioned by some councillors. After council was told that the building required $315,000 in repairs in 2024 with an additional $2 million likely in the coming years, Mayor Kathleen Thorne-Rochon first asked staff if there was another location to put the library in Verner. Then Thorne-Rochon opined that:
“It’s a whole lot of money to invest short term if the building is not viable long term.”
But when she was asked to address the valid concerns of Verner residents and the library board last night, Thorne-Rochon discounted these concerns as a result of “social media misinformation”. Appearing visibly upset, Thorne-Rochon said that the library board should not have had this discussion or put that in their minutes.
Assuming she forgot about the November capital meeting, she said that council had never had any discussions on closing the Verner building.
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