Vernon Mayor Wayne Lippert and ORL Chair Ted Bacigalupo look at artist rendering on the 11 million dollar new library for the City of Vernon.
At a press conference held on Monday morning, February 22, the Chair of the Okanagan Regional Library (ORL) Board, Ted Bacigalupo, announced that the ORL will build a new library branch to serve the Greater Vernon community. Thanks to partnerships with the City of Vernon and the North Okanagan Regional District (NORD), the ORL has the land and financing options needed to construct a new building at 2808-30th Avenue to replace its current undersized library on 32nd Avenue. The new branch is targeted to open by 2013.
“The ORL Board is very happy that this community will be able to receive the level of service it deserves,” says Board Chair Ted Bacigalupo. “The current branch is 13,000 square feet, and according to ORL guidelines, it should be approximately 30,000 square feet for the population base it serves.”
The construction of a new branch is feasible thanks to a partnership with the City of Vernon. The City is selling the land to the ORL for $10 and waiving fees associated with necessary zoning and bylaw issues. The site where the new branch will be built was originally purchased by the City in the 1980’s, and has been a parking lot for many years.
“The City is glad it’s able to do this, and in some respects has to thank the vision and foresight of previous Councils,” said Vernon Mayor Wayne Lippert during the press conference. “This piece of land was purchased for an intersection that, at that time, they anticipated would be needed. Since then it has been surplus land, and I can tell you our Council is pleased it is now going to such an excellent use at no extra cost to the taxpayers of this community.”
The NORD Board is also supporting this project by applying to the Municipal Finance Authority on the ORL’s behalf to borrow up to $11 million for construction costs. The new branch will have room to expand its collection and more room for programming, study spaces, and computer stations.
“Our customers are crowded in every corner of this building. For example, we squish 80-100 children and parents into our small children’s area for Monday’s storyime,” says Vernon Branch Head Maureen Curry. “We are absolutely thrilled we’ll be able to offer our customers more comfort and expanded services in the new building.”
The ORL serves 350 thousand people in five regional districts in the intereior of BC including Oliver, BC