The Jensen Lakes branch of the St. Albert Public Library turns five in January, but it just got an early birthday present.
City council added 17 hours per week of service to the growing community hub in the city's north during budget talks Monday, Nov. 25.
When the change will take effect is still unclear, but there's no doubt it is "desperately" needed, according to a “thrilled” Stephanie Foremsky, SAPL community engagement and Jensen Lakes library manager.
There's excitement in her voice as she runs through the library users the expanded hours will help: Families looking for story time space in the morning, or study time after school in the evening; seniors who access not just the library's catalogue, but other programs and services offered at the newer branch.
"We even host settlement services sometimes," Foremsky said, describing her branch as the "most accessible" of SAPL's two. "The distance to the door is a big deal for a lot of people, not just seniors, but anyone with mobility issues."
The branch is also a safe haven while the city’s Extreme Weather Response is activated by heat, cold or air quality as it was “at least five” times in 2024.
Members of the library's board of directors pitched a five-per-cent increase to the SAPL budget earlier in the 2025 budget process. Donna Kawahara, board co-chair, said Jensen Lakes is growing in every direction.
Memberships are up 13 per cent and program attendance is up seven per cent; meanwhile, in-person visits at the Jensen Lakes branch are up 200 per cent since 2020 opening. Demand for digital material such as the increasingly popular e-audiobooks is “just exploding,” and there is a wait list of 126 people for programming at the Jensen branch.
The added hours will help the branch pare down the wait lists for those programs and others, Foremsky said.
The motion’s backgrounder indicates the new hours will total 52 per week, up from 35 and still short of the downtown branch's 63:
- Monday - Closed
- Tuesday 10-9 p.m. (+5 hours)
- Wednesday 10-9 p.m. (+5)
- Thursday 10-9 p.m. (+3)
- Friday 10-6 p.m. (No change)
- Saturday 10-5 p.m. (No change)
- Sunday 1-5 p.m. (+4)
Foremsky told the Gazette that people trying the doors and turning away while the branch is closed is a regular occurrence. Comments from the 2023 Library Community Needs Assessment Survey seem to back that up:
- "Very restricted hours that Jensen Lakes Library is open;"
- "The hours at Jensen Lakes aren’t very user friendly;"
- "It would be nice if Jensen was open the same times as Downtown;" and
- "I’d use Jensen more often but it is closed when I have tried to use it."
“We all know where the growth of our community is going,” Coun. Ken MacKay, who brought the motion, said. He pointed to Jensen Lakes, Riverside and Erin Ridge, all in the north. “Using a few more hours, I think that will have a strong impact on the community in that area.”
The new hours will tack $117,000 on to the library's budget, bringing it to $4,827,800.
The vote passed with only councillors Sheena Hughes and Shelley Biermanski opposed.
Gimme shelter
City council pared the proposed tax rate down from 4.4 to 3.6 per cent Monday, but not without adding a few things along the way.
They supported a $74,000 motion from Coun. Mike Killick to add bus shelters around the city — five or six, depending on how much each specific site costs.
The locations will be taken from a list of requests submitted by transit users, according to a city document.
There are currently about 480 bus stops and 57 transit waiting shelters in St. Albert, including those at NAKI and St. Albert Centre Exchange Transit Stations.
“The potential locations are prioritized according to usage and the ability of the immediate area to accommodate a shelter,” according to a backgrounder.
The city has an agreement with a company that will build a shelter with illuminated advertising if it serves their business purposes, but it “does not compel them to install at any location thus requiring additional capital funding for locations where the installation would be the responsibility of the city.”
Upgraded streaming equipment
Council voted 5-2 to upgrade the equipment used to broadcast or stream meetings online. Coun. Natalie Joly, who appeared remotely, and Mayor Cathy Heron voted against.
Hughes said the city’s information technology staff have been asking for the investment for years.
She said the meetings would be more accessible with cameras that could do a better job of covering the room. The upgrade should also address malfunctions which in the past year have included muted microphones and “things freezing.”
The IT department presented council with good, better and best options for the upgrade. The “better” option was selected by city managers and will see a $175,000 upgrade in chambers and $118,000 of work in the Douglas Cardinal Boardroom, where committee meetings are typically held.
It means touchscreen discussion stations for councillors and non-touchscreen stations for staff and the station where members of the public present. More details on all three options are in a document available on the city’s website.
Selling Servus
A new contract marketing position for Servus Credit Union Place should more than pay for itself with additional memberships. The $90,000 motion passed 5-2, with Heron and Joly, who worried council was “getting in the weeds” with this level of direction, opposed.
Hughes said the recreation centre is competing with other centres, private and public, and needs a boost.
“If we want to give ourselves the best opportunity to increase our memberships, we need to have best marketing campaign possible,” she said. “To me, this is an attempt to increase revenue and go at it with the big boys with the same tools they have.”
The benchmark for success is adding at least half as many new memberships in 2025 as the centre has been seeing post-pandemic, which city staff said is “achievable.”
The centre has sold about 400 new memberships in 2023 and 2024, setting the benchmark at 200 for the year coming.
The contract is valued at $90,000 and will be funded by the city’s capital reserve. The individual will be tasked with developing and implementing “a marketing and incentive campaign that will assist in improving the overall revenue and memberships,” according to a city document.
Their work would include completing a “customer communication channel and feedback analysis” and “customer facility usage pattern analysis” in 2025 that would help the department “re-imagine the communications and marketing strategies for Servus Credit Union Place” in 2026.
“This is not a motion in my opinion to spend money, but to invest in our facilities so people can see what our facilities have to offer,” Hughes said.
