Ituna liquor store turned library back at centre of legal battle
After opting to keep its library in a former liquor store, the Town of Ituna is facing another day in court.
SLGA sold the liquor store to the town after closing it in 2014. This February, Justice Richard Elson found the town had bungled a referendum over its fate. He quashed a 2016 council resolution that rejected three private offers to buy the building.
But council voted on May 8 to keep the library there. Mayor Doug Scully said the offers are now expired and council has no plans to sell. “It’s our property,” he said outside council chambers. “We have to have a library somewhere.”
Ituna resident Sandra Barbour, the plaintiff in the earlier case, is determined to see the building go back to tender. She believes the town is disobeying Elson’s order. The issue will come back before a Yorkton court on June 11.
“Making this motion means we’re going back to court,” Barbour said of council’s decision. “The primary issue is getting that building sold. We can’t afford it.”
One town councillor, Rene Dubreuil, estimates that the building could cost the town anywhere from $240,000 to $260,000 over a 20year period, through maintenance expenses and lost tax revenue. Scully said he thinks that number is too high, calling Dubreuil’s estimate “outrageous.”
In court filings from last week, Barbour asked a judge to order the town to “immediately award the tender of the property” to one of the bidders from 2016 — or to launch a new tendering process if they all decline to purchase it. Further, she submits that the building should be vacant, meaning the library would need to move out beforeasale.
Residents first opposed the idea of a library in the former liquor store by petition in 2015. That prompted a referendum in February 2016, when the majority voted against moving the library there. The town initially complied, putting the building up for tender, but councillors soon rejected the three offers as “not suitable.”
The highest bid came from Scully,
It’s one thing to move a liquor store into a liquor store. It’s another thing to move a liquor store into a library.
who offered $35,000 before he was elected mayor. Hotelier Jim Pringle bid about $30,000. He said he might still consider opening a private liquor store at the site, but would offer far less today.
“It’s one thing to move a liquor store into a liquor store,” Pringle said. “It’s another thing to move a liquor store into a library.”
The town instructed the library to move into the building in July 2016. It remains at the site today. Elson didn’t explicitly order the town to move it — and Scully and Barbour differ over what his decision means. The February ruling focused on the referendum question, which Elson said didn’t follow the wording the petitioners urged the town to use.
Dubreuil said council made the wrong decision on May 8. He said the town should have followed its lawyer’s advice and called a new referendum. Scully confirmed the lawyer made that recommendation, but said council “decided to go in a different direction.”
When asked whether that’s a risk, Scully put it simply: “We’ll find out on the 11th I guess.” Dubreuil is more worried. “I think it’s going to put us into a lot of hot water ,” he said.