Kitty Pope, Ron Dunn and Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens announce the sale of the Windsor Public LIbrary Central Branch on Ouellette Ave. Kitty Pope, Ron Dunn and Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens announce the sale of the Windsor Public LIbrary Central Branch on Ouellette Ave.
Windsor

Windsor Central Library To Be Sold

The Downtown Mission is buying the Windsor Public Library Central Branch from the City of Windsor for $3.6-million.

The sale of the Central Library location has been part of the city's plan to modernize the library system since 2015.

Mayor Drew Dilkens says this gives them an opportunity to right-size the branch.

"We've actually engaged an architect, we're working through what designs would look like and to make sure we build a library that's appropriate for the community that includes technology and everything you would expect in a modern library," says Dilkens.

A new location for the library has not been selected.

"The board has discussed several options," says Dilkens. "Let's just say it is going to stay downtown, we're looking at options that include city ownership of buildings to try and minimize costs."

The sale to the Mission will be final in June 2019. Dilkens says they hope to have a new location purchased and renovated so that there will be no interruption of library services.

The Downtown Mission plans to sell its current location on Victoria Ave. to help offset some of the costs of the new location.  But they will also be launching a new capital campaign to help fund raise.

"Our kitchen was built to serve 100 people, we're serving 726 a day on average so that's just that space," says Ron Dunn, executive director of the Downtown Mission. "The services that we're being called on to deliver are different then they were when we bought Victoria and I think it's fair to say...we've outgrown that residential community."

The mission plans to move its meal service and administrative offices to the first floor of the library building. Dunn says in the second phase of construction they hope to transform the second floor into transitional housing.

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