The Central Branch of the Windsor Public Library is temporarily moving to the historic Paul Martin Building downtown. Apr 16, 2019. (Photo by Paul Pedro)The Central Branch of the Windsor Public Library is temporarily moving to the historic Paul Martin Building downtown. Apr 16, 2019. (Photo by Paul Pedro)
Windsor

Paul Martin Building in downtown Windsor has new life

The Central Branch of the Windsor Public Library is temporarily moving to the historic Paul Martin Building downtown.

The new chair of the Windsor Public Library Board, Rino Bortolin, said the move-in date to Ouellette Avenue and Pitt Street is unknown. However, the Downtown Mission takes over the current branch on Ouellette Avenue near Elliott Street June 28.

The temporary branch was to go inside the new city hall but Bortolin said council and the library board felt the Paul Martin Building would be a better temporary home than city hall.

"I think it's a good location, it's very central, it's bigger with more square footage than the temporary location at city hall would be," he added.

Bortolin said the new location will be more than 11,000 square feet compared to a maximum of 8,000 square feet at city hall.

Bortolin said the relocated branch is expected to be at the Paul Martin Building for at least three or four years until a permanent downtown location is found. Renovations to get the building up to code are expected to get started right away.

"There will be workers in there immediately. We'll have to see what timeline the construction will be. The library will move-in as quick as possible," Bortolin said. "A permanent location is years out and there's no way we're going without services in the core. So, it was always a temporary location for the city hall location."

Bortolin said negotiations with the federal government have been going on for a while and the city had to satisfy certain conditions before the decision was made. He added the deal was finalized this week.

More details are expected to be revealed at a news conference on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at the Paul Martin Building.

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