Kentville’s mayor says a key meeting to pause five Annapolis Valley Regional Library branch closures still has not been scheduled, and he is worried time is running out.

Branches in Kentville, Hantsport, Lawrencetown, Middleton and Port Williams are still slated to close July 20.

Mayor Andrew Zebian has been pushing for a special AVRL board meeting to pause the closures and give funding partners more time to secure the money needed to keep the branches open.

Zebian says the library system told funding partners Monday that all 11 branches could remain open until March 31, 2027, if the full funding top-up requested earlier this year is provided.

He says the request totals about $350,000 across the funding partners.

According to Zebian, Kentville, Annapolis Royal and the Municipality of West Hants committed to the full ask.

But with the closure date approaching, Zebian says the next step is still not locked in.

He says a Doodle poll has been sent out to check board member availability, but no date has been finalized.

“This meeting should have been called Monday,” Zebian said. “A date should have been set in place Monday afternoon, and it should have happened this week.”

Zebian says he expects a meeting will happen, but he is concerned about the process and the timing.

He says AVRL’s bylaws require board meetings to be public, and questions remain about how that will be handled if the meeting is held virtually.

His goal is to put a motion on the floor to pause the closures before July 20.

“My intent is to put a motion on the floor to pause the closures so that there’s no closures on July 20,” Zebian said.

He says a pause would give municipal partners time to revisit the funding request and try to keep the full system operating until the end of March.

Zebian says the stakes are high because closing the branches could make reopening them much harder.

“Once those branches are closed, they’re closed,” he said. “Once the shelves are emptied, they’re emptied.”

He says setting a library back up could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Zebian is also worried the five planned closures may not be the end of the problem.

“I’m afraid that we’re going to close five this year and then we’re going to close one next year and then two the next year,” he said.

He is urging people concerned about the closures to contact their municipal representatives or appointed AVRL board members.

Zebian says the next major update will be whether a special meeting is scheduled, whether it is public, and whether the board agrees to pause the closures before July 20.

Source: YourTriCounties.ca