Bright’s Grove library hub project estimated at $8M – $10M

Estimates are it’ll cost $8 million to $10 million to renovate and expand the Bright’s Grove library building into a community hub.

Article content

Support to raise $1 million for the project through community donations already is materializing — even though a fundraising campaign hasn’t started — after $100,000 was donated and entrusted to the Sarnia Community Foundation, said Mark Moran, one of the chairs of the city’s Bright’s Grove library committee.

Article content

That’s despite the project’s future being unclear, he said recently, urging Sarnia city council to commit to funding it during the next two years so it can open in 2025.

“There will be community support for it,” he said the six-figure donation from 2022 shows.

Budget deliberations are Dec. 5.

“It is in the city’s 10-year capital plan, but it is unfunded,” Moran said about the project, calling the pending investment, or something like it, key to preserving the historical but not easily accessible Faethorne House that’s home to the community’s existing library and volunteer-run Gallery in the Grove.

Article content

Renovations for the building have been sought since a 2017 study recommending improvements to all three Sarnia branches. Those were reinforced by a County of Lambton study earlier this year.

The current 650-square-meter (7,000-square-foot) expansion proposal, bigger than 2017’s recommendations, was adopted in part to help the facility meet provincial guidelines for library demand.

In 2019, Sarnia matched a $10,000 contribution from Gallery in the Grove to get the ball rolling on architectural designs.

Sarnia council blinked two years ago at fully funding the project, but then approved $350,000 in detailed design work in 2022.

Site plan work is still needed, but the building plans are done and ready to go, Moran said, arguing the city has to make its building accessible, should preserve its history, and noting the current library building is one of the only public facilities in Bright’s Grove, the Sarnia community that’s somewhat removed from the rest of the city.

Article content

There are no ice pads, sports fields, splash pads or fire stations in Bright’s Grove, he said.

Staff have $8 million in spending penciled in for the project during three years in a plan for unfunded capital projects. For that spending to happen, it needs council approval.

The project’s potential 2.7-million price tag in 2024 is part of a $52.7-million list of unfunded projects for the year in the city’s draft budget.

About $3,500 also has been contributed to the hub project fundraising campaign from a Bright’s Grove Community Center Inc. group that pushed for a community center in Bright’s Grove in the 1990s, officials noted.

The estimate to renovate and expand the building is $5.9 million, but traffic studies, utility improvements and environmental assessments, among other potential expenses, are expected to add to the cost, Moran said.

Other presentations at the recent Sarnia budget input meeting included a proposal for an inflatable dome option alternative for the city’s estimated $35-million multi-use recreation facility — also on the unfunded projects list; a request to prioritize line painting to alter the extra-wide Brock and Vidal streets corridors, to make the areas more livable and feasible for active transportation; and for fee breaks for planned community events in Mitton Village.

All were deferred to Tuesday budget deliberations.

[email protected]

Article content