'Were they just trying to mollify us?': Confusion in Yorkton over library sale timeline

Learning the relocation of the Yorkton Public Library is essentially already a done deal came as a "gut punch" to city resident Tamara Hall.

She was one of dozens of residents who packed into the Yorkton city council meeting on May 15 to speak against the sale of the downtown building that houses the library. City council plans to move the library to a smaller space in the Gallagher Centre, a recreation and convention complex on the west end of town.

But while the meeting was advertised as a "public hearing" on the downtown property sale, residents learned this week that the deal on the sale was signed in April.

"I understand the legal process is that you can't disclose a buyer for a public property," Hall said. "I just feel that it could have been handled much differently, because a lot of people got [their] hopes up, and then very, very much dashed and it just felt — it didn't feel good."

Hall sits on the library's advisory board, but she emphasized she was not speaking on behalf of the board, just sharing her own opinion. She has many concerns about the proposed new location for the library, including that it will be smaller and won't be as accessible as the downtown location.

Conflicting messages

Before the public meeting, the city placed a notice in the Yorkton This Week newspaper stating "its intention to authorize an option to purchase a city-owned building for $1,500,000," and identifying the building as the library.

"City council will hear all persons who are present and wish to speak to the proposed sale," the notice said.

Hall said she now wonders why people at the May 15 meeting were led to believe their opinions would matter.

"You kind of wonder, were the mayor and the councillors, were they just trying to mollify us? Were they saying that they were listening, just to try and make us feel better? Or did they really not know [the building was already sold]? And if they really did not know, why didn't they know that we couldn't make a difference?"

On May 24, Yorkton Mayor Mitch Hippsley spoke with CBC Radio's The Morning Edition and told host Stefanie Langenegger there was an offer on the table, but that the city hasn't "gone fully ahead" with the sale.

"Because it wasn't publicly advertised at first, we thought, well we should come and we should divulge the fact that we're going to consider selling it for $1.5 million to the public. It's your building. What do you think?" he said.

LISTEN | Yorkton's mayor discusses future of city's library

Done deal?

This week, the newspaper Yorkton This Week published a story quoting Yorkton city manager Lonnie Kaal, who told the paper, "the deal is done," and the May 15 hearing was actually just to see whether there were any other buyers who wanted to pay more than the $1.5-million deal the city had struck with an unnamed business.

CBC News requested an interview with Kaal and an interview with Hippsley, but the requests were both declined. CBC also reached out to all six members of city council, and two councillors agreed to an interview.

Coun. Quinn Haider said he feels sad about how the issue has been handled.

"We didn't do anything to deceive people or to hide information from people," he said on Wednesday. "I know that there are some who are saying information was withheld from them. In a property deal like that, it's a little bit different than other city dealings that we do. When it comes to property matters and things like that, a lot of that is confidential information, so I don't know how that could possibly have been done differently."

Coun. Chris Wyatt said that he knew at the May 15 meeting that the building was sold.

"I knew that we had an offer. We had accepted the offer. The public hearing was on the sale of the building to just basically advertise that we're selling the building," he said.

He said the sale of the building to a business that wants to expand is a good thing for the city, and there were drawbacks to the library's central location, including complaints from staff about safety.

The next council meeting, on June 5, is when council is scheduled to vote on the sale decision. Wyatt said he is glad he will be at the meeting in person — he had to attend the May 15 meeting via Zoom — and he plans to respond to the speakers.

"I don't think there was much of a response from us last time, but we had agreed to listen to any presenters. But that won't be the case the next time."