A local volunteer details the 35-year fight for the Brights Grove library and calls on council to save the project from the mayor’s recent veto.
Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley used the strong mayor powers to move the Brights Grove library contribution to the unfunded capital projects list. His statement read that: "It is recommended that decisions related to the Brights Grove library be deferred until clearly defined project parameters are established. In the absence of a decision from the federal ministry on the grant application, city funds earmarked for the project are better allocated to immediate maintenance needs of existing infrastructure." Firstly I'd like to point out that the project parameters are extremely well established because the building is fully designed and ready to be tendered. We're not sure if the federal grant application will be successful, but we are sure that the Faethorne House and current Brights Grove Library require immediate maintenance needs to the existing infrastructure.
1. It really is now or never for citizens (and council members) to speak up loudly and insist that the Brights Grove Library Project go ahead. I've been involved with this for four years now but this project was well under way when I came on board as a volunteer. Citizens have been asking to have this building made accessible for over 35 years. Now that we're at the finish line, the mayor has chosen to use strong Mayor powers to effectively kill it. It is taken this long to finally have the building designed and ready to go to tender. Waiting six months or a year or three will not work, and I'm sure the mare is fully aware of that, and I'm sure that he does not care.
2. This design for the library and community room building was completed in April. It is ready to go to tender at which point we would know the real cost, how much a construction company will build it for. The city has apparently spent the last six months negotiating with the architect to pay them $211,000 and staff will recommend that council authorize that at the next council meeting. If that doesn't sound frustrating enough, this is not the only time over the last four years that it's taken the city over six months to agree on the terms of reference with the architect. The only other thing holding it up as far as I know is that the city wants to change the entrance off of Hamilton St. so that it lines up better with Kaymar St. This is not part of the library project or budget but they want to do it at the same time.
3. There's currently over $4 million in a reserve fund specifically for this project that the city has authorized, including a council decision a year ago to budget $2 million in 2025. $2.06 million had been allocated to the 2026 budget but Mayor Bradley not only removed it from that budget, but moved the project itself to the list of unfunded projects with zero dollars. Our committee has not had the opportunity to fund raise because we don't know the final amount because the project has not gone to tender. Nonetheless, without even making a phone call, we have a $100,000 donation from Sue Park already, I found foundation that would like to know in a quarter million, the Bright Grove optimist club which has said I would like to donate and other organisations as well. I would guess that we could all already have reached 3/4 of our $1 million goal, again, without starting to fund raise. The $4.5 million grant that we were told had been approved by the minister of housing, infrastructure and communities back in April has since been rejected by the ministry on the basis that the building is not net zero, despite that announcement having been made already. We have asked the ministry to reconsider it and are hopeful that there will be some dollars coming from it. If not however, our plan should continue as it would have had the grant program never existed. It may still come through. There may be future grants that would apply to this project.
4. Council has supported this project at every stop along the way. They have voted to complete this project on more than one occasion but the administration has rowed in the opposite direction of our committees efforts and the council members directive. The mayor is not omnipotent. Like many other people, I don't agree that strong mayors powers should exist, but if six councillors insist that this project, which is ready to be tendered be included in the 2026 budget, it would override the mayors veto and the Brights Grove library project will finally become a reality.
Mark Moran
