{"id":24312,"date":"2019-07-25T11:20:17","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T15:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24312"},"modified":"2019-08-02T12:15:22","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T16:15:22","slug":"5-million-library-extension-clears-first-council-hurdle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/5-million-library-extension-clears-first-council-hurdle\/","title":{"rendered":"$5 million Library Extension clears first Council hurdle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A $5 million corridor extension to the Aurora Public\nLibrary, the latest addition to Library Square\u2019s construction plans, cleared\nthe first hurdle last week, receiving Council\u2019s approval at the Committee level\nTuesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision, which is due to be ratified at this week\u2019s\nCouncil meeting, would serve to both connect Library Square to Yonge Street and\ncreate more space within the Aurora Public Library (APL). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan, which clocks in at $5,465,300, would create\nthat connection to Yonge Street, while providing two multipurpose rooms, a\nreading garden, and an elevator which would increase accessibility for both\nLibrary patrons and those looking to access the bridge that will connect the\nLibrary to the addition planned for the Church Street School. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAurora Public Library and community programming is\ncontinuing to grow in parallel with the growth of the Town,\u201d said Robin\nMcDougall, Aurora\u2019s Director of Community Services, in her report to Council.\n\u201cWith that growth, the recent development charge study is showing significant\nfuture growth as the Town continues to attract a diverse population.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Ms. McDougall, the APL has the highest\ncirculation per capita for a population between 50,000 and 100,000 people in\nOntario, while site visits and demand for meeting and study rooms within the\nfacility are also on the rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe six study rooms are all full almost every operating\nhour,\u201d she continued. \u201cWhile the recent interior renovation of the Library has\nrevitalized existing space and created new spaces for residents, the demand\nwill continue to exceed the supply. The addition of two new meeting rooms\napproximately 1,500 square feet each, an outdoor garden and a board room would\nhave a remarkable impact on the Library and their ability to better serve and\nmeet the needs of Aurorans. It would allow the Town to build on current\nprogramming levels and advance rich, meaningful educational and\ncommunity-driven programming as we navigate alongside the community in an\nincreasingly complex and technology-driven world. It would further allow the\nTown to provide more spaces for the residents to gather, meet, learn and engage\nas they undertake the fulfilling activities of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans for the corridor extension were presented to\nCouncillors by Roland Rom Colthoff. Making his pitch, he said that in order for\npatrons to get into the Library from Yonge Street, there is a staircase and a\nramp leading up to the front doors which, in and of themselves, present a\nbarrier. A corridor extension and a new elevator would remove that barrier\nwhile opening up many further opportunities, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proposing that we would do some additional\nrenovations on the ground floor of the building to provide that the elevator be\naccessed directly from sidewalk level,\u201d said Colthoff. \u201cIt is a much more\ngenerous and accessible way of getting into the structure itself. You would\ncome in off the sidewalk on Yonge Street, enter into the elevator [and] you\ncould go up to the Library floor proper, or you could proceed up to the second\nfloor where there\u2019s a suite of two new program rooms, the reading garden, the\ncorridor itself, and, also in conjunction with that, a new board room or lounge\nspace on the Yonge Street frontage of the building.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would, he said, be a \u201cbeacon onto Yonge Street.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council was receptive to the idea last week, but had\nquestions as to the amount of work the proposed corridor extension would\ninvolve. Councillor Rachel Gilliland questioned whether the cost to relocate\nexisting HVAC systems had been factored into the cost. It hadn\u2019t, but that was\na figure Ms. McDougall said would be on the table in time for this week\u2019s\nCouncil meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Michael Thompson, on the other hand,\napproached the matter from an accessibility standpoint, asking how removing the\nramp and replacing it with a sidewalk-level elevator would impact requirements\nset out under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). In\nresponse, Ms. McDougall said the existing ramp is fine, but if the ramp were\nbuilt today, the existing structure would not be up to code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile maybe it is better [to look at this corridor\nextension] down the road, I come back to the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex\n(SARC),\u201d said Councillor Thompson. \u201cWe talked about putting a gymnasium into\nthe SARC and, from my perspective, that should have been done when the SARC was\nbuilt. But now we\u2019re here 10 years later and talking about doing it again.\nCosts escalate, it becomes more problematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was pleased to learn it is not a significant cost to\nadd the elevator to the ground floor. I was concerned it was a million or so,\nbut I think the overall benefits of it all \u2013 granted, it keeps bring the\n[Library Square] price up and we\u2019re close to $50 million now, I think from a\nlong-term perspective it is a significant investment in our downtown core and I\nwill be supporting tonight\u2019s recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A $5 million corridor extension to the Aurora Public Library, the latest addition to Library Square\u2019s construction plans, cleared…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24308,"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":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2019-07-25-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6k8","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 09:12:25","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\/24312","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=24312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}