County council will reconsider options for two properties it owns on Newcastle Street in Minden, after a motion to reconsider won the day at a June 25 meeting.
Coun. Walt McKechnie asked for a rethink; it was seconded by coun. Murray Fearrey and supported by coun. Bob Carter and warden Dave Burton.
After a lengthy debate, council eventually passed a motion for staff to get an appraisal of the former land registry office at 12 Newcastle St., and costings for an expansion at the existing council office at 11 Newcastle St.
It flipped a May 28 decision to essentially spend about $1.145 million on the current headquarters, with $600,000 being for accessibility upgrades.
Even before they got to reconsideration last Wednesday, deputy warden Liz Danielsen was all for squashing McKechnie’s suggestion. She said council had been talking about the project for years and the motion to renovate had been passed 7-1. “I would wonder why we are going to discuss it again? I don’t believe that we should be.”
Fearrey said, “I’m telling you what I’m hearing on the street: to spend that kind of money over there (12 Newcastle St.) in these times, when there’s maybe an alternative, maybe, maybe not, it’s not very smart.” He pressed for an exploration of expanding out the back of the current building.
Coun. Lisa Schell said “her head was going to explode” as council had voted against doing anything with the former land registry office for now but to spend money at the existing building for more offices.
And coun. Cec Ryall said “the relevancy is how much space do we need here for staff to do their job effectively. We’re being told, categorically, they need more room to do that. We need the room in here for staff. Case closed.”
Carter said he would like a clear list of needs, and then council could look at the options again. CAO Gary Dyke said the information had been presented, and he was unclear what council was asking for.
Fearrey suggested getting 12 Newcastle St. valuated, and looking into an addition at 11 Newcastle St.
McKechnie agreed with Fearrey’s assertion there’s room to expand at 11 Newcastle St. He would prefer selling 12 Newcastle St. as well. He also wants to keep the County council chambers at the current office, not share a space with Minden Hills, which was discussed at the May meeting
Danielsen said they appeared to be “dinosaurs. Just gone around and around and around in circles. We’ve given clear direction to staff and now we’re back to the beginning, square one.”
Dyke said they would have to cancel an RFP for the job council voted to do a little over a month ago.
Carter said, “let’s all get on the same page and do it right.”
Library report
Haliburton County Public Library CEO Andrea Brown told council they had six significant achievements in 2024 as she presented the annual report.
She said they hosted their first community ‘touch a truck’ event; welcomed 92 class visits to Cardiff, Minden Hills and Wilberforce branches, reaching approximately 250 children; participated in a province-wide transition to new interlibrary loan software; implemented new book club set reservation software; proposed and implemented a staffing model review to achieve significant targeted savings; and celebrated the Dorset branch grand opening Oct. 25, 2024.
She noted that in the fourth quarter, circulation in Dorset more than doubled, with the branch making up 21 per cent of new users across the service.
Other highlights were: a Diwali festival, teddy bear picnic, mandala art, make your own monster, an author visit by Phyllis Bordo and Café Espanol.
“We organized 584 programs at library branches throughout the County, welcoming attendees of all ages,” Brown said. Their online presence saw 66,640 items digitally circulated. Annual physical circulation for 2024 was 80,487 items and 155 book club set checkouts, or 1,240 books. The number of cardholders rose to 7,402 from 6,973.
Board chair, David O’Brien, thanked the County for its annual funding.
“It makes a very big difference to this community that we can keep our libraries going strong. We’re not all about books anymore…we always will be…but we’re about a whole bunch of other things we do that kind of go under the radar; things the community looks for from us. We’re a small library. We do a great deal of work in the community and the numbers are pretty significant, what we can accomplish.”
Consider four-way stop
Following a serious motor vehicle accident in Eagle Lake June 24, McKechnie asked the County to consider a four-way stop at Eagle Lake Road (County Road 6) and Haliburton Lake Road (County Road 14).
McKechnie said, “I’ve seen a lot of close calls over the last 30-40 years. I sure as heck don’t expect the County to put in lights. I do believe in four-way stops. The one in Fenelon Falls is a great example of how a four-way stop works.”
A report will be brought to a future council meeting.
