SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Ruben Silverio has spent a lot of time cleaning the library and hopes to see it cleaned up for good.

The hard liquor containers and discarded food stashed on the shelves, graffiti, vandalism and the disappearance of supplies from the washrooms are things Silverio and his employees have dealt with over the past year.

Ruben Silverio is concerned the library will continue to experience problems with loiterers, due to its location in the downtown core and the fact that it is a public facility. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo

These are things you should not have to find at a library, he said.

"You can see spit in the elevator," he said.

In the last year, RCMP have been called to the library on 39 separate occasions, for incidents ranging from public drunkenness to mischief to disturbing the peace.

"It's the same people, everyday," Silverio, owner of RS Cleaning and Janitorial Services, said of loiterers who hang out at the public facility. Despite the efforts of library staff, he added, the attitude of people misusing the place makes the problem a reality that cannot be ignored.

"What we are encountering every day, it's not safe," said Silverio.

"It's not safe for school kids to go there," he added, however, school kids were not the ones using the library so much these days.

Silverio said the problems the library encounters from loiterers are unavoidable, due to its downtown location.

"It will be a perennial problem if they stay there," he said. "Especially during the wintertime (when) it's warm inside."

Installing extra security people does not make sense to him either.

"Those people have the right to use the facility, because they are members of the public," said Silverio.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem agreed, "That's the big challenge - how do you manage a public space?"

Van Tighem said he has heard comments about loitering in the library.

He said municipal enforcement started doing hourly foot patrols through the facility to respond to the complaints.

"If (people) are not using the library for its primary use, they are politely asked to leave," Van Tighem said.

The patrols have been working, according to Van Tighem.

"It is a little bit of a quieter place," he continued. "It was becoming a gathering spot rather than a library."

Silverio had the contract to clean the library for the past year, but declined to re-bid when it expired. He sent a letter to Van Tighem and Clem Hand, manager of procurement services with the city, detailing what he was finding at the library on a monthly basis.

Soon after that, the city installed a "no loitering" sign. A couple months later, a lock was installed on the washroom door.

Silverio sent letters and spoke to Yellowknifer, he said, as a concerned citizen, and not as a contractor.

He said things have gotten a little better since.

"There is certainly less wear and tear in our washrooms," said Deborah Bruser, manager of the Yellowknife Public Library.

On Wednesday morning, the library was quiet and without loiterers. There were some haphazard stains on the carpet and the floor of the elevator was spotted with discarded gum.

Bruser, said the library has not been standing idly by.

"We are trying to ensure it is an environment very welcoming for everyone," she said. "We feel we have it well under control."

Bruser said if alcohol or drug use is suspected to be occurring in the facility, municipal enforcement or the RCMP can be called to deal with it.

"We want people to know they can be safe and comfortable here," she said.

"We feel that our vigilance, our efforts, are paying off.

"We are just mindful that the library be used in a purposeful way. As long as people do, people will be content."

The city has budgeted for a new library around 2012.

"The idea is that sometime within the next five years, we would be looking at the library as part of the Somba K'e Civic Plaza," said Van Tighem.

The plaza is to be developed adjacent to city hall, beside Frame Lake.