MARCONI NEWS GALVANIZES LIBRARY ADVOCATE
Two studies have indicated a need for a new library building
An advocate for a new library in Sydney welcomes word of plans to move the Marconi Campus to the downtown and says they will now work to refine how a standalone library could potentially fit in with that new complex.
Pat Bates chairs the citizens’ committee working to establish a new library building in
Sydney.
The province committed to relocating the Nova Scotia Community College’s Marconi campus at an announcement on Friday, with Premier Stephen McNeil saying it will become an economic driver for the area.
“We’re quite happy with the announcement,” Bates said in an interview Monday. “The premier was quite clear he wasn’t commissioning a study, per se, he had made a decision they’re going to go ahead with this and, by the way, we need to have an assessment or a professional study done as to how we best do that.
“We just take the position that, implied in that, of course, is the general approval to move with both projects.”
A government tender seeking a consultant to study the Marconi move was opened Friday. The company is to examine the move in three phases — scope of the development by consulting with stakeholders, locating a site and infrastructure requirements for the new campus, and to identify the project costs and procurement options available to the provincial government.
A replacement for the McConnell library building, which is owned by the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, was not specifically mentioned during Friday’s announcement. However, The McConnell replacement has long been discussed as a possible project to be developed in tandem with a relocated Marconi campus.
Bates said he talked with McNeil, and MLAs Geoff MacLellan and Derek Mombourquette were at the event.
“All along we’ve been talking about the federal government, provincial government and the municipality,” Bates said.
“I assured them that we’re going to be coming back now to define with clarity how we move the library in some parallel or some tandem with the work that’s going to be done on the Marconi.”
Two studies have indicated a need for a new library building.
Bates said the committee’s vision is for a standalone but complementary library building that could be located on the same compound as the Marconi campus. Bates said it’s hoped the projects will be separated to some degree, as he expects that the Marconi project will take some time.
“The challenge to us now is to we move ahead with our committee to frame the library in a way that it remains part of the larger complex but also can proceed separately without causing any harm to the general thrust,” Bates said.