By Lindsay Jones - The Weekly News
Selling the old library building on Spring Garden Road to help pay for a new one is ruffling the feathers of some who say the building shouldn't be sold for commercial use.
Downtown Coun. Dawn Sloane says she and others in her area believe the building should be retained because it was built as a memorial to Halifax's First World War and Second World War casualties.
Sloane is holding a public meeting on Nov. 18 to discuss turning it into a history of Halifax museum.
"We have to have a sober second look at what we do with some of these old, treasured buildings, especially one that is a war memorial," Sloane said.
"It was put there as a memorial to people that gave their lives so we could live the way we do today. That being said, do you allow war memorials to turn into a Chapters? I'm just hypothetically throwing it out there, but it concerns me. Do we cheapen our memorials to that point?"
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IF YOU GO WHAT: A public meeting to discuss turning the Spring Garden Road library building into a history of Halifax museum |
The city expects to raise $21 million from some of its downtown properties to pay for the new $55-million central library. Its land includes the current library site on Grafton Street at Spring Garden Road, two parking lots on Clyde Street and a piece of land on the old Halifax Infirmary site on Queen Street.
The small park in front of the current library site cannot be developed because it's sacred burial ground.
The federal government recently pledged $18.3 million for the project. The province has promised to chip in $13 million and the city still has to come up with $23.7 million to pay for the construction of the complex at the corner of Spring Garden Road and Queen Street.
It's still unclear when the 109,000-sq. ft. complex will open.
When asked how the city will come up with the cash for the project without selling the current library building, Sloane said the sale of the parking lots should cover the cost.
"If we can't get enough money out of those things, then we're not selling our properties properly," she said.
However, the 58-year-old building is plagued with mold, heating and cooling problems and will need costly retrofits. Sloane says there are grants available from Canadian Heritage's Cultural Spaces Canada fund that could help pay for that. A private developer may even want to step up, she adds.
"If the air and heat quality isn't good for the library, it can't be good enough for a museum," she said. "It has to be brought up to standard."
Sloane hopes people will come share their vision for a history museum and consider partnerships with the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and the Black Cultural Centre of Nova Scotia.
The public meeting is Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. in the multi-purpose room of the Bloomfield Centre, 2786 Agricola St.
"The ground swell is there," she says, referring to the Halifax Needs a History Museum Facebook group, which has 369 members. "Our civic pride has been marred ever since we became HRM. What we need to look at is having a place to display some of the wonderful history that we have in our city.
"Do we have enough gusto in this city to show off our civic pride? I'm challenging people to come to the table."
ljones@hfxnews.ca
