Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 12/05) - A citizen's group is pushing city council to adopt plans for a stand-alone library on the old Gerry Murphy Arena site.

Friends of the Yellowknife Public Library formed last January with a goal to move the existing library on the second floor of Centre Square Mall to a building of its own.

Pin/Taylor Architects presented a plan to council last month for a library on the Gerry Murphy site, which suites the group just fine. They plan to tell council so at its next regular meeting Aug. 22.

"We support it 100 per cent," said Tanya Kruger, vice-president of the 20-member group.

"The location right now just doesn't really represent the kind of library the city should have."

Not enough space

She said the recently-renovated library in Centre Square Mall doesn't have enough space to expand, lacks parking and is generally bland and uninviting.

Kruger said her group would like to see a library that is not only aesthetically pleasing to look at, but easier to find.

She said people new to the city often become lost when trying to find the library.

"When we had our first inaugural meeting I told a bunch of people to show up," said Kruger.

"One person had never been to the library and was wandering around the outside the Centre Square Mall, not knowing which entrance was the evening entrance."

It appears all city councillors are in support of a stand-alone library, although not all agree how it should be built.

Some support the Pin/Taylor plan while others - Couns. Bob Brooks, Doug Witty, and Alan Woytuik - would like to see a library joined to City Hall by a walkway or atrium.

"City Hall is 30 years old now," said Witty.

"It's in need of some work, so the economics of doing more than one thing at a time make sense to me.

"I would rather see us do an addition onto City Hall to incorporate a library into one footprint."

Another snag facing library proponents is that a new facility is not even in City Hall's 10-year capital plan. Other projects, such as a soccer fieldhouse are ahead in the queue.

Brooks suggested that some of the $7.25 million in Northern Strategy money recently earmarked for Yellowknife could go towards a new a library.

"Some it could," said Brooks.

"But we know the first priority is the fieldhouse because they're trying to shoot for the Arctic Winter Games deadline."