{"id":23929,"date":"2019-06-05T20:06:39","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T00:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23929"},"modified":"2019-06-13T14:12:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T18:12:03","slug":"library-square-bridge-gets-the-green-light-from-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/library-square-bridge-gets-the-green-light-from-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Library Square bridge gets the green light from Council"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora\u2019s ambitious\nLibrary Square project expanded its vision last week with the approval of an\nabove ground bridge to link the Aurora Public Library with the new addition\nplanned for the Church Street School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bridge will\nprovide a link not only between the two buildings, but will include connections\nto a new entrance vestibule at the Library, and a caf\u00e9 space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost budgeted\nfor the bridge, caf\u00e9, and library entrance vestibule clocks in at $4,101,000, bringing\nthe total budget for Library Square up to $42,429,700.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All three components\nwere hot button issues at the May 21 General Committee meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There, Councillors\nJohn Gallo and Wendy Gaertner voiced support of the bridge link in principle,\nbut raised significant concerns over both the caf\u00e9 and expanding budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As The Auroran\nreported last week, both Councillors expressed misgivings about going forward\nwith a caf\u00e9\/concession space, in consultation with Niagara College\u2019s Canadian\nFood & Wine Institute, rather than going out to restaurants and other\nvendors to see how the space could best be a draw to bring people to Library\nSquare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Gallo, in\nparticular, offered additional worries over Library Square\u2019s cost estimates,\nquestioning how any future financial shortfalls could be covered if a Federal\ngrant, a cornerstone of the Town\u2019s Library Square financial plan, fails to materialize. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these\nissues, expanding Library Square\u2019s scope passed on consent last week without a single question being raised. At the end of the meeting,\nhowever, Councillor Gallo said he was remiss not to pull the items for future\ndiscussion so Councillors could weigh in on the matter in a recorded vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am still a little\nconfused with the process and I erred when you asked for [Agenda Item] S1, if\nanyone wanted to pull anything,\u201d Councillor Gallo told Mayor Tom Mrakas during\nthe New Business segment at the end of last week\u2019s Council meeting. \u201cI am not\nasking to pull it back now because I wanted to pull [the item] simply to have a\nvote because I am still not yet there to approve Library Square and everything\nthat is involved in it. I don\u2019t want to go back [into the agenda] but I just\nwanted to make it public that I made that error and would have voted against\nthat for now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bridge link was\nnot the only item related to Library Square that was signed off on by Council\non May 28. Council also received an updated report outlining the total approved\nbudget sources earmarked to bring Library Square to fruition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This report was\nrequested at the previous week\u2019s meeting following the concerns outlined by\nCouncillors Gaertner and Gallo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirstly, it is\nimportant to note that the Library Square\u2019s total approved budget to date was\nnot approved through a single decision by Council,\u201d said Jason Gaertner,\nAurora\u2019s Acting Treasurer. \u201cRather, it was approved by Council in increments\nover the course of the past three years. Prior to Council\u2019s March 21, 2019\nLibrary Square increment budget approvals, a total of $2,340,100 had been\npreviously approved to date by Council for Library Square. This budget was\nfully funded through draws of $840,100 and $1,500,000 from the Council\nDiscretionary and the Hydro Sale Investment Reserves, respectfully. The\nrecommended funding sources presented in both the March 21 and May 21 Library\nSquare reports to Council related solely to the incremental funding decisions Council\nwas making at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of this $42.4 million\nprice tag, Council and staff are hoping $14.1 million will come from Federal\ngrants. $7.1 million is approved to come from the sale of municipal lands;\nprimarily business lands in the Leslie Street corridor. Additionally, a $2.6\nmillion draw from the Community Benefits reserves, $3.5 from outdoor recreation\nand library development charges, $800,000 from Council\u2019s discretionary\nreserves, and $7.6 million from Hydro funds are approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The balance, $6.7 million,\nis a tax levy funded twenty-year debenture, a one-time tax increase of one per\ncent spread over 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Hydro Sale\nInvestment Reserve Fund balance presently sits at $30,991,700,\u201d Mr. Gaertner\nnotes. \u201cThis balance is after all previous draws from this reserve relating to\nthe Armoury renovation project as well as $1.5 million in draws previously\napproved by Council for the Library Square project have been applied.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funding sources are set to be formally approved\nby Council this fall, he concluded.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora\u2019s ambitious Library Square project expanded its vision last week with the approval of an above ground bridge to link the Aurora Public Library with the new addition planned for the Church Street School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6dX","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 13:54:34","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\/23929","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=23929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}