Leftover funds from the Essex County library strike will stay with the County of Essex.
After some debate, County Council voted in favour of keeping the $790,000 in a reserve for future branch upgrades.
Kingsville Mayor Nelson Santos brought forth the motion and says the money will be made available to municipalities through grants to be used on specific projects.
Santos says it's now up to municipalities to come up with renovation plans.
"Municipalities, lower tier, actually own the buildings. So we've been hearing in recent months that some of the municipalities are looking to refresh their existing buildings to keep up with a lot of the modern times that we're seeing the transitions that we're seeing in library branches."
He says some branches are in need of improvements.
"We know there's some facilities, some branches in our system that require accessibility improvements, roof replacements. So each municipality will have their appropriate share of the total amount to be utilized for their specific building projects that they identify, that they proceed with."
Santos adds, he's confident municipalities will take advantage of the available funds.
"So it's a facelift, a total interior renovation to bring it up to speed. We can actually gain more traction by having the funds used as an incentive for the municipalities to start to make those improvements now."
County library workers walked off the job in June of 2016 to back contract demands.
The strike lasted 231 days.