A last-ditch effort to avert closures at five Annapolis Valley libraries has cleared the first hurdle.

Kentville Mayor Andrew Zebian asked July 6 for a special meeting to be held to consider pausing the Annapolis Valley Regional Library board’s decision to close the Hantsport, Port Williams, Kentville, Middleton, and Lawrencetown branches effective July 20.

Janet Ness, who chairs the board, has called a meeting for Monday, July 13, at 6 p.m. in Wolfville council chambers.

“I am pleased we got to this point,” Zebian said July 8. “We’re giving it everything we can right now.”

Zebian’s cousin Abraham Zebian is the mayor of the West Hants Regional Municipality. He too is supporting the push to keep the branches open.

“Near and dear to us is Hantsport, obviously, but it’s a Valley-wide system. You fight for one; you got to fight for them all,” he said.

“We’re hoping that the board does pause these closures to allow actual time for the municipalities, the province, everybody to sit down and see what the best way forward is to make these things sustainable, with no … closures at all.”

Facing a $600,000 deficit, the library board asked the eight municipalities on Jan. 5 to increase their contributions in 2026-27 by 50 per cent. They provided a combined $702,900 annually from 2020 to 2025, but were asked for a combined $1,054,350 this year. It would have allowed all the branches to remain open until March 31, 2027.

West Hants, Kentville, and Annapolis Royal approved the requested amount while the remaining five municipalities agreed to provide between 26 and 67 per cent of the requested increase.

It apparently wasn’t enough to keep the system afloat.

On June 1, the library board announced its decision to close five branches effective July 20. Nine full-time equivalent positions are also slated to be eliminated.

The board has been making its case for more sustainable operating funding publicly for the past couple of years. It pushed for a new funding formula to be implemented, but suggestions to the province have not been implemented.

In response to the pending closures, residents have held rallies outside MLA’s offices.

Abraham said he has heard from residents passionate about the topic. He compared it to the discussions leading up to West Hants and Windsor amalgamating in 2020.

“Library trumps it tenfold. That’s how important these institutions are for people,” the West Hants mayor said. “Libraries are something for everybody. … They are very valued.”

Andrew, who was appointed as the town’s representative to the board on June 22 in the wake of the pending closures, said he’s not sure what will happen on July 13, but he will attempt to put a motion on the floor to pause the closures.

“That will give us a little bit of time, hopefully, for each individual council to go back and look at their funding contributions and what they may be able to do to keep all 11 branches (open),” he said. “We need time.”

Andrew said the board’s executive committee, which he is not a part of, met with provincial representatives July 8, but he had not received an update on what transpired.

Andrew said while he pushed for the board meeting, the next step will take support from other municipal representatives on the board to share his plea to halt the closures. If that happens, more actions can be taken.

“You’re going to need the municipalities to step up. And then eventually there has to be discussion with the province about what this looks like for the future.”

The July 13 meeting was originally scheduled to be a virtual meeting. Andrew asked for it to be an in-person, public meeting, given the magnitude of the decision. He is glad the change was made.

One person online noted the chambers don’t hold a lot of people and suggested anyone attending the meeting to get there early.

“Even if there is an overflow, and if people have to congregate outside, it would show them just how much support there is to keep libraries open,” Bunny Bennett added on Facebook.

While no one knows what the board will decide, West Hants’s mayor said it will do all it can to prevent the planned changes.

“We’re going to fight tooth and nail to the last breath and beyond to prevent any closures.”

Source: Annapolis Valley Register