[Keith P.]

Having now plowed through the entire 65MB (!) report on the Committee of the Whole agenda today, I have to say my worst fears have been realized. This is a grease job by Judith Hare and the HRM Library management.

The entire report is full of very questionable statements and assumptions. When a consultant tells you to borrow money to build something and repeatedly calls that "debit" financing, you know you have a problem. Such is the case here.

It appears to me that Ms. Hare and her staff have done a very good job soliciting ideas from every other library they could find. They also solicited more ideas from their regular customers. They threw all those into a pot and said they were done. Then they presented that dish to their existing clientele who all said, "oooh, look what's for supper!" without even bothering to question how much the bill would be.

The report quotes survey results. Fine. But they only surveyed their existing users. Those results would be fine if they were the ones paying for it. But they aren't. This involves reaching into the public purse for $42 million (more on that later). Unfortunately, the public at large wasn't asked how they felt about that. This is a huge gap in their argument.

A few public meetings involving existing users resulted in some interesting comments as all public meetings do. Some were the usual off the wall type things like wanting water views, etc., while others were the usual special interest sort of thing -- the artists wanted a gallery, the performers wanted a theater, and everybody seemed to want a coffee shop. But as things progressed, theire were a few voices in the crowd who began to question what this was all about. Was it a library? A school/univerisity? A performing arts venue? Those questions were largely ignored in the final product, because without any limits, Judith Hare said she wanted it all.

Let's talk costs for a moment. The $42 million number is largely a fiction. That is today's cost estimate, but the thing won't get built for at least 4 years. Add 30%-40% to that. Then there is LEED certification. They estimate $800K for that, which is wildly optimistic. Add another few million there. The thing nobody has attempted to quantify are the operating costs. The report says that the library will go to a 7-day per week operation. There is a minimum 20% increase in your labor costs. The report also recommends extended hours. Add another 15%-20% there. Then you are operating a space nearly 3 times bigger than your existing space. What will that cost to ruin? I dunno, but it is something. Let's say 25% at minimum. So you are looking at a minimum of 50% increase in labor alone, a number I suspect will eventually be much higher, plus all the rest of the associated operating costs. Frightening.

And let's just forget about using the proceeds from the commercial space (the cafe) to pay for things. They are proposing a 1000 sq ft space for that, or 1% of the building's floor space. That won't get you very far. There were also comments on a proposed "library shop" from the patrons, and those were almost universally negative, since they don't want to sell out their precious library to the evil corporate interests. That sounds extreme, but read the comments -- that is exactly the tone they have. And it doesn't surprise me in the least. Any larger commercial cohabitation is, naturaly, dead in the water.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the report is that, like everything Judith Hare has proposed on this project for the last 10 years or so, it only provides one choice -- hers. Aside from all the programs and services it proposes, it pays lip service to how the thing will actually get designed, built, and paid for. They do not want an architectural competition. they do not want any kind of private sector partnership (i.e. shared commercial space except for the cafe, unless Judith wants to run that too). They do not want design/build. The report says that HRM Library Services should pick the architect, pick the design, and that HRM should borrow the money to pay for it. Full stop. I find that outrageous. Where is the courtesy, if nothing else, to pay respect to those who are going to pay for this? Where is the accountability? I see none. But I did see that the plans call for underground STAFF parking. Free, presumably. I worked downtown for over 20 years and never got parking provided. But I guess when you are shooting for the moon, you might as well get a little gravy for yourself too.

I was down on this project before reading the report. Now I am even more down on it. This needs to be stopped and put on a much more realistic and practical path. I have nothing against a new library. I do have something against building monuments to a person's ego. This Judith Hare Commemorative Library is exactly what that looks like.