Sunnyside
Branch on Library Closure List
Sunnyside
Rally Pictures from Sat. Mar. 13
Leo
Doyle's Video of the Rally
The library was SAVED in the final budget meeting, March 24/04
My Ottawa Includes Libraries:
"Books Should not be out of Reach for Children"
Community Rally - Monday, March 15th
Festival Plaza, City Hall - 6 p.m.
(Ottawa, 15 March 2004): The weekend rally that drew 1200 Ottawans to the Sunnyside Library was only the first step. This evening, library supporters from across the city will be gathering at City Hall’s Festival Plaza, in advance of the Library Board’s first of three scheduled Library Closures Town Hall Meetings, to stand up for an Ottawa that includes libraries.
The rally will be MC’d by author Phil Jenkins, and include speeches by authors Alan Cumyn, Janet Lunn, and Charlotte Gray, along with journalist Clyde Sanger and young book-lover Katy Long. There will also be music from the folk group Finest Kind, and actors from the Broken English Theatre Company are going to animate some of the EarthRisePlayers Environmental Street Theatre’s life-sized to giant puppets.
"Books should not be out of reach for children," notes Glebe Community Association President June Creelman. "The proposed library closures are not an acceptable response to budget shortfalls. Libraries represent in a very practical way the link between community and learning - you can’t rip the two apart."
Continues Councillor Clive Doucet, "Ottawa needs a new main library, we need new libraries in our suburban communities, and we need renovations to our older libraries. Ottawa’s libraries are already among the lowest-funded in the country, and by every measure the most efficient. We should be increasing funding, not reducing it."
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For more information:
June Creelman (President, Glebe Community Association): 232-7826
Jenny Haysom (Old Ottawa South Community Association): 730-6459
Jennifer Knight (Old Ottawa South Community Association): 730-1182
Councillor Clive Doucet, Capital Ward: 580-2487
Ottawa
Public Library - Town Hall Meetings
The plan for holding town hall meetings to gather public input is subject to
Board approval. Meetings are scheduled to take place from 7 - 9 p.m. at the
following locations:
TONIGHT Monday,
March 15, 7 p.m. - rally at 6 p.m.
Champlain Room, (may be moved to main chamber)
Ottawa City Hall
110 Laurier Avenue West
Support our Libraries Rally - pictures
Saturday, March 13th, 11 a.m. Sunnyside Library - 1049 Bank St.
(Ottawa, 12 March 2004): Residents, community and political leaders will be gathering on Saturday morning in Old Ottawa South to show their support for libraries and call on the Mayor and Council to reject the proposal to shut three neighbourhood branches.
The rally will include appearances by prominent speakers, including columnist and author Jeffrey Simpson, Ottawa Centre Candidates Ed Broadbent, David Chernushenko, and Richard Mahoney, as well as messages from the Chief Librarian of Canada, Roch Carrier, and author Elizabeth Hay.
The City is recommending that three of its libraries close, for a total savings of $1.3M, to comply with the ‘No Tax Increase’ Draft Budget scenario. Sunnyside, Vanier, and Blackburn Hamlet are on the chopping block even though preliminary analysis indicates that some of the background data used to create the shortlist – namely catchment area and demographics - is flawed.
"Ottawa’s libraries are already
among the lowest funded in the country and by every measure the most
efficient. Ottawa’s libraries deliver core, quality of life services
to children, adults, the elderly, and the poor. We should be increasing
funding, not reducing," states Clive Doucet, the Councillor for
Capital Ward. "There is something wrong with the way the city
is creating its budget when there is $400,000 to add lanes to an intersection
at Woodroffe and Fallowfield and $30 million for railway underpasses
in Barrhaven, but not enough to keep libraries open."
"Sunnyside Library is a model for an environment-friendly, pedestrian-based, low-cost city facility. It’s the face of the future. The city needs more Sunnyside libraries, not less. The lack of vision and commitment by a city for its citizens, now and in the future, is truly staggering. This should never have happened," notes Jenny Haysom, a rally organizer.
"There are four schools within walking distance of the Sunnyside Library. The largest middle school in the city is two blocks from it. Large seniors’ residences are nearby – Colonel By, Glebe Centre, Clementine Towers, Billingswood Manor, Billings Lodge – all of them a walk or a short bus ride to the library," remarks Jennifer Knight, OSCA Board Member.
"Sunnyside Library has the 7th highest circulation in the city. The Bookmobile operates out of it, the basement is a children’s library, the first floor for adults, and the attic houses offices for the City’s district redistribution services. There’s not an inch of space that isn’t used," states Mike Jenkin, President of the OSCA.
"Recently the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario did a marvellous thing: he collected books from all over the province to send to isolated communities in the far North so that they could open libraries and give books to children. But here in Ottawa, the national capital of Canada, they actually want to CLOSE libraries and TAKE books away from children," comments Glebe resident Elizabeth Gordon.
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For more information:
Jenny Haysom (Old Ottawa South
Community Association)
730-6459
Jennifer Knight (Old Ottawa
South Community Association)
730-1182
Councillor Clive Doucet, Capital
Ward
580-2487
BACKGROUND
The Ottawa Public Library Board reported on March 5, 2004 that the Sunnyside Library, on Bank Street in Old OttawaSouth may be closed as a cost saving measure.
Tuesday, March 16
Orléans Client Services Centre
255 Centrum Boulevard
Thursday, March 18
Hall B, Nepean Sportsplex
1701 Woodroffe Avenue
page updated March 12. 1:00pm