Library to add part-time security guard
There will soon be a part-time security guard at the Peterborough Public Library’s main branch on Aylmer St.
The library board voted in favour of the plan at a meeting Tuesday night.
Within 10 days of the library reopening after an extensive renovation, there were three incidents of beer cans or syringes found in the men’s room trash cans.
On Tuesday – a couple of hours before the board meeting – a bottle of malt liquor was found in the men’s room, library CEO Jennifer Jones told the library board.
Librarians know security guards won’t eradicate poor behaviour at the library, Jones said – but it will help.
“It’s a deterrant – not a solution,” Jones said.
The board voted to hire security to work evenings and weekends – when there are fewer supervisors in the library – to start as soon as possible, potentially by March 1.
The cost is expected to be roughly $26,000 to pay a part-time guard for the rest of 2018.
The money is going to come from the library’s reserve funds, since city council turned down the board’s request for guards during 2018 budget talks in November.
Meanwhile the board has other plans to increase safety at the library: they want to develop a code of conduct for patrons of the library, for example, and also pressure city council to fund the hiring of guards starting next year.
Coun. Keith Riel and Coun. Gary Baldwin are both on the library board, and they tried to convince the rest of council in November to fund security guards.
But council said no; instead, it wanted to see whether the newly renovated building, with its open concept, would discourage poor behaviour.
For years the library has been a de facto warming room for marginalized people who have no place else to go during the day.
Library staff noted an increase in incidents of violent or disruptive behaviour in recent years – but those incidents decreased for the 18 months that the library was located in Peterborough Square, where there are private security guards.
The library was in Peterborough Square while the main branch was undergoing a $12-million renovation. The renovated library reopened Jan. 30.
The new building is indeed brighter and has better sightlines for librarians, Jones said.
“But it obviously hasn’t stopped people from drinking in the washrooms,” she said.
Riel called the security guards “an absolute need” at the library. He noted that in the past, the library board paid for a communications manager out of its reserve funds for a year after council declined to fund the position – and then council changed its mind and decided to pay for the position the following year.
The same could happen here, he said. He didn’t think it was fair to ask librarians to monitor people’s drinking and shooting up in the washrooms in the meantime.
“We hire people to be librarians – not security guards or bouncers,” he said.
Coun. Gary Baldwin said he was disappointed council hadn’t voted to hire security back in November. He was the one to suggest a code of conduct, and he thought maybe the library board ought to consider hiring guards full time if incidents continue to be reported.
It would cost roughly $57,000 to hire two guards full time, Jones said. She also said there was about $75,000 in funds available for this purpose in the library’s reserve accounts.
Dan Maloney, a library board member, thought the board ought to hire full-time guards right off the bat. He said he has young children and he cares passionately about safety in the library.
“We shouldn’t Mickey Mouse this,” he said.
But Baldwin reminded the board that hiring guards full time would nearly drain the available reserve funds in just a year; instead, the board voted to review the decision in September and decide whether the library needs full- time security.