The Lloydminster Public Library has a new lease.
The lease was approved in city council, keeping the library where it currently sits, in the basement of the Atrium Centre for another five years.
The city is currently undertaking a review of all major facilities as part of its Facilities Master Plan, and councilor Larry Sauer says that’s the reason they chose a five-year term.
“There is a Facilities Master Plan, of which the library would be one of the facilities that we’re talking about,” Sauer said. “If there are recommendations that we look at some other facility, that’s going to take time, and this will be in the interim. We feel it’s a fair agreement.”
Not everyone in council was in favour of the lease. Councilor Linnea Goodhand says the term makes her uneasy.
“A five-year lease without an exit strategy means that the library will occupy those premises in the basement of the Atrium [Centre] for the full life of the lease,” Goodhand said. “We’re undergoing a review process right now to see what the new library could look like – where it would be, how big it would be – and my concern was ‘Was there any sense of optimism that we could have a new library underway before the five years are up?’  Five years seems like a long time to have the library stay where it is.”
However, Goodhand says that while she feels the term is too lengthy, it does make economic sense to keep the library where it is, as she doesn’t feel the city could afford to move it right now.
The library has been in the Atrium Centre since 1992.