Planned Whitchurch-Stouffville Expansion for 2013-2014 now at risk From: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast To: MayorAndCouncil@townofws.

ca Date: Thursday, October 25, 2012 Dear Mayor and Council, I notice that the 2013 Budget Guidelines & Approval Timetable is now available online for Tuesday's Town Council Meeting, and that approval for the Towns 2013 budget will be postponed from January to April 2013. Mention is made of pre-approval for must-do 2013 capital projects, to be identified on Dec. 18, 2012. Please remember that in the 2012 Capital Budget Forecast (p. 235), $600,000 is budgeted for Library expansion design in 2013. To wait with this large item until the suggested deliberation date of April 10 & 11, 2013 would almost surely mean postponement of the expansion design, and scuttling the expansion until after the next municipal election (Fall 2014), which would bring on further delays. I was at the Library Board Meetings a year ago (Nov. 2011) when Councillor Hilton strategically navigated the budget process to inch up the low per capita spending, and pushed for expansion plans in 2013-14 (not 2012-13) as approved by Councillors Hargrave and Bartley as well. I was at the January 24, 2012 Council Meeting when the 2012 Budget was passed and I heard the words of the mayor re: the library expansion for 2014. I told people what I heard ("as long as the housing market doesn't slow"), and that we could count on a library expansion in 2014, with planning in 2013. Earlier in Fall 2011, I had brought 406 signatures to council for a library expansion, and now went on record to praise the budget, mayor and council (I still have the emails). I was at the Oct. 25, 2011 Budget Public Consultation Meeting when the little boy asked for another skateboard park (and the Mayor's Youth Council reported as well). The mayor was clearly moved by the boy's request. But the high school students? After the delegation at that consultation, I spoke with the youth council representative in the foyer. She noted how she travels to the Angus Glen Library (25 min) to do her projects. (She is also interviewed and quoted in Kim Zarzour's library article in the Sun-Tribune in Feb). One year later, the planning for the skateboard park is in high-gear. After a $175,000 fundraising campaign, a further $250,000 will be found in the budget to fulfill the dream of the skateboarders. It's great that the mayor's heart goes out for sports-requests/ projects like this. After six years I now know and can accept that mayor and council do not get excited about the library in the same way as for a skateboard park, arena, ball park etc. Please remember,

however, that if the Library planning and building does not happen for 2013/14, the library expansion is dead in this council's mandate. Practically, that means that the kids starting high school next fall will go through their entire high school career without an adequate public library (i.e., the experience of the Mayors Youth Council Reps.). Since members of Town Council have been promising the expansion since the 2007 Capital Forecast (also promised in Sun-Tribune, Feb 1, 2007 article, and as recorded in Library Board Minutes beginning in 2007: here's one example), if the Library is not constructed before the next municipal election, it is clear that the issue has not been money or respect for the taxpayer, but the fruit of a particular set of priorities (or vision). Though the Library is not a passion for Council, I choose to take you at your word: Library expansion planning in 2013 and building in 2014. That will require pre-approval in December to get the design process completed in time for expansion in 2014. Please let me know if I have misunderstood your intentions or if they have changed for some reason. Sincerely, Arnold Neufeldt-Fast Email: neufast@yahoo.ca Blog: Whitchurch-Stouffville Library Petition