Rural areas consider funding for library

by Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star posted May 6, 2016 at 8:00 AM

Rural politicians want to keep Vernon’s library open Sundays but the cash must be found. Mike Macnabb, BX-Silver Star director, and Bob Fleming, BX-Swan Lake director, are considering a request from the City of Vernon to assist with Sunday hours at the Okanagan Regional Library branch from October to April. “We are looking at how we may do it but we don’t have a funding service place,” said Fleming. “I think the library service is a good one and Sunday openings are worthwhile.” ORL had insufficient financial resources to keep the branch operating for four hours Sundays so the city took over the payment in 2015 and has decided to do so in 2016. But because the branch is also used by residents of Coldstream and the two electoral areas, the city is asking those jurisdictions to contribute. Coldstream recently agreed to provide $3,255 for 2016. The city asked for $5,417 from the two Greater Vernon electoral areas as well as the electoral areas in Cherryville, rural Lumby and Enderby. However, it’s unlikely there will be funding from the non-Greater Vernon electoral areas. “Each of those already has a community library that they support,” said Fleming, who says BX-Swan Lake and BX-Silver Star could possibly pick up the entire $5,417. “It’s not a massive amount of money to extend the service.”