{"id":23438,"date":"2019-04-04T19:32:39","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23438"},"modified":"2019-04-04T19:32:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:32:48","slug":"23438","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/23438\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is great\nexcitement in the Town about Library Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 21, Council\nmade the decision to move forward with the design for the Square and new\ncultural building. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I share this excitement.\nI have put aside my concern that the process did not have a public meeting to\ncomment on the building design and use. (Council received the schematic of the\nbuilding early last summer.) I was worried about the negative implications of\nbuilding in an area with underground water so close to the surface. The\nPlanning Partnership is completely confident that it can be done without\nramifications. I am relieved to know that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One major concern\nthat can not be taken lightly is parking in general; and parking for the\nthousands who already attend our Library yearly including those with\ndisabilities. The design does provide more than the required accessible spots\nfor the Square and new building. However, it does not compensate for the two\nspots currently at the Library; and parking provided on Victoria Street does\nnothing to help people with disabilities access the Library. Aurora has one of\nthe largest growing senior populations. The parking design still needs to\naddress this reality and the needs of young families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder if we are\nbeing overly optimistic about the use of the theatre and rehearsal space. Many\nof our consulted community groups expressed support for use; but not did not\ncommit to be able to pay, especially full price. Most of our community\/cultural\ngroups struggle to make ends meet. Some are subsidized by the Town. The\nsmall size of the stage was mentioned as a limiting factor. I am not sure that\nthere is room to accommodate storage or dedicated use requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A word of caution:\nshould the Town consider using this venue to expand its programming in dance,\ntheatre or visual arts, we must be careful not to compete with our local\nbusinesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do groups outside of\nAurora need our space? My understanding is that the theatres in Newmarket and\nRichmond Hill are not fully booked. And would groups want to use a venue of\nthis size; and with the parking constraints? Our theatre consultants are\nknowledgeable and experienced. They are enthusiastically expressing their\nsupport; and predicting future success. I was pleased to hear this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that it\nwould be wise though to have a financial contingency plan in place if the\npredicted revenues are not realized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council does have an\ninitial operations funding strategy. The estimated yearly cost for Library\nSquare is $720,000. The initial cost would be phased onto taxes over the next\nthree years, $240,000 or 0.5% per year starting this year. Also approved on\nThursday is a 20-year debt financing plan. It will be repaid in part by a\none-time tax levy increase of 1%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have reserved my\nsupport for the Square until we know how much money will be received in Grants.\nThis knowledge is necessary to form a financial investment strategy for the capital\ncost of $37,908,700 + possible options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Wendy Gaertner
Aurora<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is great excitement in the Town about Library Square. On March 21, Council made the decision to move forward with the design for the Square and new cultural building.  I share this excitement. I have put aside my concern that the process did not have a public meeting to comment on the building design […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3D2k4-23438","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 05:58:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}