City council's priorities are a little confused: they've reduced funding for St. Albert Housing Society grants by $10,000 but discussed extra funding for the food bank and ‘volunteer’ co-ordinator position at the Community Information and Volunteer Centre? The overall objective seems to be to eliminate the need for social services while providing more information on the lack of programs. The new library building gets the green light, however.
I spent a half-hour at the library last Sunday: there was a mere trickle of patrons at what must be peak time, and only four of the computers were in use, two by children watching games.
I now have a fairly extensive library of my own but when I used the library I expected to, and did in fact, often wait two to three months for a popular book. But St. Albert residents want resources, and they want them now, apparently. What was the impetus for a new library except for the lobbying of the library itself? Two hundred emails out of a population of 60,000 plus is hardly representative: I easily get as many over 10 days.
I haven’t read anything comprehensive on the actual necessity of this branch: the quoted figure of one million visits per year and services provided is highly suspect and needs backing and clarification.
The logic behind the St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce is also interesting: they want/wanted to construct a building to include 40,000-square-foot office space at a time when there is glut of same (check Calgary, for instance) and a parking lot where one now exists. Mike Howes claimed that research (and his own personal survey) shows the need for additional parking, which there certainly will be when the present space is occupied by his building! Council showed competence in its handling of what would seem to amount to a Katzian enterprise, the sweetest deals in history.
We're in a recession people: Calgarians know it and so will we, soon. Doris Wrench Eisler, St. Albert
