Why the need to save the Library?

(April 8- look for update on this article in the next few days. -Heather)

It needs a new home. The Town hasn’t the money to provide one. So we will.

The backstory:

The current home of the Hantsport Public Library (HPL) is the Hantsport School. In a room shared with the school’s library. It has been in this school since it was built by the Town in 1961. 

In 1989 the Town relinquished control of the school to the Kings County District School Board which in turn became part of the amalgamated Annapolis Valley Regional School Board in 1996. Throughout this the HPL has remained in the school.

Maintenance of the HPL is taken care of by the AVRSB. This has been a very good arrangement for the Town. Typically, the costs of having a Branch of the Annapolis Valley Regional Library are shared between the host municipality and the AVRL. The host provides the structure and the furnishings, and covers the costs of maintenance. 

As well, like every town/municipality in the Valley, Hantsport pays an annual mandatory contribution to the AVRL that subsidizes the AVRL’s operating costs. The AVRL provides each Library Branch with staff, all its library materials, the computers, and the internet connectivity. 

For the past 18 years the HPL has enjoyed the hospitality of the AVRSB and Hantsport has only had the mandatory contribution expense to worry about. That hospitality has come to an end.

The Hantsport School is undergoing renovations. In planning these renovations the AVRSB let the Town know that, should the Town like to have its Library in the school it will have to cover the $170,000 cost of the renovations to accommodate that … and contribute to the yearly maintenance of the space as well.

In July of 2013 the Hantsport Town Council unanimously voted “No” to that proposal. The Hantsport Public Library must be out of the school by August 2015.

To date:

On October 7, 2013 Hantsport’s Library Advisory Committee (LAC) had its first meeting. Represented on the committee were Hantsport’s Town Council, the Municipal Councils of West Hants and Kings County, Glooscap First Nation, the AVRL, and the citizenry of Hantsport. The LAC looked at all possible options for relocating the HPL … including the option of not relocating at all. A new building on Town-owned land? Purchased land?

Renovate a Town-owned property? A purchased property? A donated property? 

After all was said and done, the option that was most feasible, structurally and financially, was to renovate the Town-owned Royal Canadian Legion building at 10 Main Street. De-commissioned in 2011 the Lucknow Branch 109 is used a few hours a week for Tae Kwon Do and exercise classes and is otherwise empty. 

On entering the building one can take a short flight of stairs up or down to access the two levels of the building. The LAC would like to house the HPL in the large open space of the upper level. The lower level has two rooms. The one is currently being used for storage

by the Hantsport and Area Historical Society (HAHS) and the other, which includes a functioning kitchen, is unused. To satisfy the building codes, the requirements of the AVRL and to make the Legion wheelchair accessible the LAC estimates, after much research and consulting, that the renovations will cost approximately $175,000.

On March 1, 2014 the Save Hantsport Public Library (SHPL) fundraising group met for the first time. A subcommittee of the LAC they are volunteers from the community determined to raise the necessary dollars to renovate the Legion and save the Hantsport Public Library.

On April 1st the Town Council passed the motion to support the proposal to renovate the Legion to be the Library with the stipulation that the money must be raised prior to starting the renovation.

Let’s get started!

-submitted.