The Windsor Public Library Board of Directors is turning to the public for input to help shape the future of the Central Branch.
The board will hold a drop-in public information centre (PIC) on Sept. 23, where display boards will showcase three unique layouts and amenity options to be considered for when a future location is determined.
At the beginning of the year, the Central Branch was asked to leave its temporary location inside the Paul Martin Building to make way for the ongoing construction of a boutique hotel.
The Central Branch had been located inside 185 Ouellette Avenue since Feb. 2020, after leaving its permanent location at 850 Ouellette Avenue.
Ward 4 councillor Mark McKenzie, and chair of the Windsor Public Library Board, said time is ticking to come up with a plan as the developers want to move forward with their project.
"The uniqueness of the Paul Martin Building is that to start working on say the third floor, you've got to access it from the second floor, you've got to kind of go from below, right, because it is an older structure. It's a heritage building, and so the sooner we can get out of there, the sooner they can finish up their renovations and get that hotel open to the public," McKenzie said.
McKenzie said if it were up to him, the board would have already vacated the premises.
"There's a lot of buildings downtown too, and this was the other conversation that we've been having as a board and I've been open about it, like do we need to go spend $50 or $60 million building a brand new Central Library Branch? Or can we repurpose a building that's downtown, and I mean with all the open space that we have downtown, I think it just makes sense to repurpose one of those buildings," he said.
McKenzie said library leadership will be on hand at the PIC to gather input and answer questions, but no presentations will be made.
"We kind of have three options here, so we can say you just want a central library, and that's it. One of the other options is okay maybe you have Central Library and maybe you have admin in that building, or maybe you also have a Central Library and then you can bring some of those programming things, like the adult literacy program for example into that Central Library. Maybe we bring our archives into that Central Library," McKenzie said.
The PIC will take place in the lobby of the Windsor International Aquatic and Training Centre on Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
For those who cannot attend, the materials, including a survey, will be available online at windsorpubliclibrary.com from Sept. 23 to Oct. 5, 2025.