Library process seen as flawed

Dear Editor: Well that’s the end of this city council. It might not officially be the election until next year, but they won’t make it past then.

I would even suggest that city management get their resumes updated, because their involvement in this disaster, and the continual miscommunication surrounding it, is not going to be conducive to maintaining employment. They are likely going to be sacrificial lambs as council does what it can to save face in this mess.

The sale of the Yorkton Public Library has to be one of the most mishandled deals in the history of the city, a cascading pile of bad decisions that managed to fill the council chambers with angry voters before telling them that, surprise, they have no actual say in the matter and the deal was done long before they found out.

This might have been okay if the plan didn’t involve a dramatic downsizing and move to a location that isn’t remotely central. The Gallagher

Centre is a cheap place to locate a library, it’s also a hilariously bad one. There are major accessibility concerns, significant traffic concerns, space issues and so on. Plus, it would put the library next to a swimming pool. Because, as we all know, putting books right next to a major source of humidity is a great idea and will not damage the paper in any way.

The Gallagher Centre is the kind of location you pick when you have put in no thought towards the requirements and use cases for the facility. Which isn’t surprising, since absolutely no thought was put into this deal in the first place.

But at least there was no chance of public feedback about what should happen with this vital public resource. And then they pretended there was a chance for about a month - enough that people showed just how much they wanted to keep this resource viable, before going “well actually the deal is done anyway, oops!” The flagrant lack of respect for the residents of Yorkton and users of the public library is not something you want to see from the people in charge of a city.

There are two options going forward, neither of them cheap. One, kill the deal, take the loss, bear the burden of the legal price tag that would inevitably come with such a bad decision. The financial burden is going to be severe, but that’s their own fault. Maybe the inevitable financial loss should come out of the pockets of the people who made the decision.

Two, find an alternate home that’s actually viable, which would mean a major real estate deal that is going to wipe out the $1.5 million from the sale. The Gallagher Centre is not viable for reasons I outlined. While I don’t have an alternative myself - is the former liquor store up for grabs? - it should be a central, easily accessible location that doesn’t have a major source of humidity right next to it, and it’s going to have to be roughly the same size as the current

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