Council only discussed Hastings centre closing in private

Trent Hills Public Library assumes control of the whole building next week

Psst. Over here. I have a secret for you.

Well, actually it’s not much of a secret since it’s been on Facebook and I actually wrote about it last week, but apparently as far as the municipality is concerned it’s still supposed to be secret.

The secret is that the Hastings Civic Centre is soon to be no more. Starting on September 2 the entire building will be operated by the Hastings branch of the Trent Hills Public Library.

If you’re thinking, well, that’s a boring secret, I agree. The most puzzling part of this whole story is why the municipality tried to keep it secret and how it didn’t think people would notice.

The change in status was first reported on Aug. 16 on Hastings Matters on Facebook by resident Dennis Forbes. He had heard about the change from a seniors’ group that faced a big jump in rental fees under the library’s fee schedule.

Forbes wondered why no one had been told about the transition and tried to find out. He asked me what I knew since I have been attending council meetings for the past nine months and we both figured this should have been discussed at council. I knew it hadn’t been discussed in public or on any agenda that I’d seen.

It turns out we were right, sort of. The issue was discussed at two council meetings, but in closed session, which is normally used to discuss HR issues involving staff, or negotiations on the purchase or sale of land, such as the regular sessions in recent months over the sale of the former Hastings Arena land. As far as I can tell, this change doesn’t involve those areas since the property was owned by the municipality and remains that way.

Doug Irwin, Director of Legislative Services and Clerk, said the topic was discussed Feb. 13 when it was listed on the agenda for the closed session as Potential Lease of Municipal Facility and on May 14 when it showed up as Municipal Facilities Status Report. No other details were offered, then or now.

As I mentioned in my earlier story, I also assumed the issue had been discussed by the library board, which is also a public body that spends about $650,000 of our tax dollars. At first, I was frustrated in my efforts because minutes of the board meetings were not posted online.

Chief Librarian and CEO Graeme Peters sent me the relevant minutes and ensured the missing minutes were posted online. The only problem with meeting minutes is that they are barebones, just recording decisions or actions, not the discussions or differences of opinion. In this case, the minutes show that on March 18 Peters was given instructions to negotiate with the municipality a memorandum of understanding about the transition. And the minutes of May 27 show that the transition was discussed under old business.

Old secret business would have been more accurate.

In an interview, Peters said the idea for the transition to the library board came from the municipality.

“They used to have staff in the Hastings Civic Centre. They no longer do, so it was being administered from afar.  So, they thought it just makes more sense for the library to administer the space because we have staff there.”

Peters said the Hastings branch has been the smallest of the three, but that will change as it expands to use more of the available space. The branch is also increasing the hours that it is open.

“The Hastings branch is going from 18 opening hours per week to 29 opening hours, the idea being that the increased hours will help us to effectively administer the Hastings Civic Centre space (which will be known as the Trent Hills Public Library - Hastings Branch),” Peters says. “At least initially, we're going to keep programs and room rentals largely during library opening hours. In future, as we get more comfortable with the facility and after some changes (like rekeying the building,) we'll likely expand to offer room rentals and programming outside of opening hours.

“Our goal is to transform the facility into a thriving and active community hub with a diverse range of activities and programs going on. We're really excited by the potential of this change!”

Peters said he is working on a statement to the community explaining the changes and what will happen, but he has to co-ordinate this with municipal staff.

“It's officially happening September 1^st, but logistically some of the changes we're going to see, it's going to take a lot longer,” he said.   

I am willing to grant the council the benefit of my doubt and assume it had a good reason to discuss the transition in private. But I fail to see why it didn’t report back publicly once it made a decision. The change was going to happen, why wouldn’t you tell people if you thought it was a good idea? I find it especially odd since three of the six council members are from Hastings.

Instead, council is leaving it to the library to explain the changes.

Along the way of trying to find out what was going on, I emailed councillors Rick English and Rob Pope, who are on the library board and also attended the private council discussions, which I didn’t know about at that point. Neither responded to my query seeking information about the changeover. I guess they are good at keeping secrets.