EDITORIAL – Putting library into an ice rink is not the best, but it’s something

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

STICKING A LIBRARY into a hockey rink in Aberdeen is better than what we’ve got now but it’s still second best. And just what that second best will include remains vague.

The City and TNRD jointly announced Monday (July 14, 2025) that the City would be “creating room for a library space, offering increased access to all Thompson-Nicola Library resources, including books, digital resources, the ‘Library of Things,’ community passes, and library programs, in an area of the city previously underserved by library facilities.”

How is this being done? By using the space allocated for the City’s controversial ice arena in Aberdeen.

A new library for Aberdeen has actually been totally the initiative of the Thompson Nicola Regional District, which has been working on it for years. The district’s library facilities master plan identified Aberdeen as a priority for the next location. In 2021, a tentative location was found in the parking lot across Hillside Drive from Aberdeen Mall.

It would have been ideal — convenient and comprehensive, at 24,700 square feet the largest in the Thompson Nicola Library system. It would include condos above, a cofee shop, community meeting rooms, a drive-thru book pickup, plenty of parking and room for the mobile library service.

It was one of more than half a dozen properties studied, and came out as the best choice.

For one reason or another, the land deal didn’t work out, and plans for the new library fell into limbo. In the meantime, the TNRD opened up the Tiny Library inside Aberdeen Mall, which proved highly successful and confirmed Aberdeen as the logical neighbourhood for a new, full-scale library.

But now, along comes the City’s ice rink, approved though an Alternative Approval Process by City taxpayers whose silence was taken as support.

Details on how it’s going to work are sketchy. There’s no concept drawing for the new library, no floor plan, no cost, no information on what kind of financial sharing arrangement there will be between the City and the rest of the TNRD. Will the City build it within the $140-million budget and lease it, or will the City and TNRD be partners?

How it will fit in among four sheets of hockey ice, food and beverage outlets, walking track and fitness facilities remains to be seen. Keep in mind the original plan for the arena was scaled down to four sheets from six to make it fit onto the property. And what happened to all those other properties the TNRD was looking at for the library.

But, it’s now a “key foundation” of the Build Kamloops program, an innovative “Not Just Ice” new way of doing things.

One good thing is that the ice rink plans are also so vague that there’s plenty of room for creative thinking on how to squeeze an extra 25,000 square feet into this already cramped piece of land. It will almost certainly have to go up rather than out.

Which will be better than no Aberdeen library at all, because that part of Kamloops certainly needs one.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.