Library expansion to start this summer

New space should be ready in 2027

By : Francine Bastien

It’s been a long time since the initial pre-feasibility study was carried out in 2018. At long last, the Pettes Library’s expansion project will begin this summer.

It will be considerably different from the first sketches made public in 2020, but it promises to be a striking landmark in the Town of Brome Lake.

“A place for the community to gather, a place to learn and where many new activities will take place,” says Jana Valasek, the Library’s Executive Director, with pride.

The new structure, which will span from the existing building into Coldbrook Park, is “an inspiration from the old building where locally sourced materials like wood, brick and stone will prevail,” says Jane Livingston, President of the Pettes Board of Directors. Involved in the project since the beginning, Livingston confidently says, “We don’t anticipate any surprises; we are right on track and within budget.”

New Structure

The new structure will stretch from the lower floor of the library and will have a green roof.

It will house:

• a new children’s section
• a reading room
• a multipurpose room for gatherings
• the media lab, which will be housed in the existing building’s basement and harmonized with the new structure

In addition to an outside terrace, “there will be plenty of nooks and crannies throughout the new space to curl up and read,” adds Jane Livingston.

There will also be an additional circulation desk in the new space, to be shared with the Town’s tourism department.

Revisited Budget

The total cost of Phase 1, the addition, stands at $4.1 million.

• The Town contributed $1 million
• $3.1 million comes from community pledges and donations

The renovation of the old building, part of the original plan, will happen later in Phase 3, says Livingston.

Because of increased construction costs that exploded since the pandemic, and the loss of the $2.1 million grant that was expected from Quebec, “executing the entire project at once would break the budget now,” says Livingston.

Of note, the heating system of the old building will go from oil to electric as part of Phase 1 of the project.

Phase 2 — parking and landscaping — to which the Town has committed an extra $600,000, will be executed concurrently with Phase 1.

Schedule

Construction will start at the end of August and should continue throughout the fall and winter.

The library expects to remain open during construction, and the book sale will take place as usual this July.

More volunteers will be needed to keep up with the expanded space, which will hopefully open in the fall of 2027.

Quebec grant refusal leaves library $228,500 out-of-pocket

To meet the requirements of the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications in order to obtain a $2.1 million grant, the Pettes Library incurred expenses of approximately $228,500.

These costs covered, among other things:

• soil and site tests and studies
• the hiring of a project manager

However, in May 2025, the Library was denied the grant.

At the time, the Minister and Member of the National Assembly for Brome-Missisquoi, Isabelle Charest, indicated to the Library’s Board of Directors that “the matter had been discussed with a member of the Board. It was too early to make a decision. MNA and Minister Charest continues to follow this file closely.”

A year later, Tempo asked the Ministry when “the Library will be reimbursed for these expenses which it would not have incurred had it not been for the government subsidy?”

In its email response, the Ministry stated that “expenses incurred by an applicant for project planning, including studies and fees, are eligible only if the project is receiving financial assistance.”

The Ministry further indicated that the program expired on March 31, 2025, “and that the budget allocations for the current fiscal year at that time were exhausted. This is why the application for the Pettes Library had been closed.”

However, this was not the message the Library’s Board of Directors had received just weeks before Quebec’s decision to refuse the grant for the expansion project.