Library withdraws its bid to move to Chilly Willy's

Sault Ste. Marie Public Library officially withdrew it's application to move the East End Public Library and Chief Executive Officer and Director of Public Libraries Cindy Weir announced her retirement at this evening's City Council meeting.

"I regret that circumstances in Southern Ontario have prevented me from moving my household to Sault Ste. Marie," she said. "I will be ending my 30-year career in libraries when I retire at the end of the month."

Weir said the initial decision to move the East End library to the John Rhodes Centre was meant to be positive but that the will of Saultites has indicated otherwise. 

She also told Council members the library would continue to be housed in the Churchill Plaza while the library board reconsiders plans for it.

This leaves the fate of the space in question in the John Rhodes Community Centre that it was going to move into up in the air, said Sault Ste. Marie Chief Administration Officer Joe Fratesi.

He presented a number of alternatives that could be considered, several of which included continuing to lease the space to the proprietor of Chilly Willy's.

SooToday's Darren Taylor will have more on this story later.