Expand or move? That was the dilemma weighing on Kingston city council Tuesday night as it looked at the future of the Pittsburgh branch of the Kingston, Frontenac Public Library.
The branch, which opened in 2000, is located in a historic building at the corner of Highway 15 and Gore Road.
There were two options being considered by council members: renovate and expand the current location or move a couple of blocks away to the proposed East Kingston Community Centre.
In the end, council voted to keep the library where it is.
The vote would sit well with most of the residents in Kingston east, according to Pittsburgh District Coun. Ryan Boehme.
Library patron Dave Campbell was against a move.
“I use the library a lot, and they put a lot of money into it through the benefit fund and through the city, so it doesn’t make sense to replace it. Expand it, yeah that would be good.”
The plan to expand the current building comes with a price tag of $5.4 million compared to $5.1 million to move into a new space in the proposed community centre.
Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson says going with the more expensive option means the city won’t incur any costs of maintaining a vacant property.
“There’s an upfront cost that’s a little bit higher if we were to expand on the existing site. But if we move the library services to the community centre instead, then we would need to look at how do we upkeep the existing building and what would we do with it? Because I don’t think anyone would want that building to lay dormant or vacant and decay over time.”
Council had originally approved $4.6 million for the Pittsburgh Library Branch expansion as part of the 2018 capital budget and approved an additional $835,000 from reserve funds for the project on Tuesday night.