Langdon has the books, shelves and supplies for a library, but no building

Langdonhas the makings of a library, with books, furniture, and computers sitting ready, but the clock is ticking to catalogue the southern Alberta hamlet'sdream.

The Langdon Library Society secured a physical donation worth $150,000 from the Municipality of Cereal, which will dissolve and permanently closeits library this year.

The collection will only stay on hold for Langdon if the hamlet has a plan in place before the end of June, when the Cereal library closes for good.

Books don't store well indefinitely, so before the time is out, this group needs the go-ahead from Rocky View County to help run a library.

"We've pretty much got a full intact library sitting there waiting to be moved to a new location," said society chair Debra Carrobourg. "Before the beginning in July would be ideal to know and notify them that, yes, we're able to accept it. We're working on some logistics. We're going to store it for a couple of months. We can't store it for very long."

Even though the community is close to Calgary and other library systems, Carrobourg says kids in the Hamlet would benefit from a local facility.

Community eyes fire hall as potential location

Rocky View Council heard the Langdonlibrary business case at the end of April.

As part of the research, Carrobourg said the society explored options for buildings, a proposed budget, examined how many users the library may have and what kind of fundraising the hamlet would need along with other grants and levies to keep the branch open.

The ideal spot has opened up: Langdon is getting a new fire hall soon, so the old building could be taken over temporarily by the society for a steal. To bring it up to code, Carrobourg estimates it would cost just $9,700.

The other options include building a modular site on the same land or putting up ATCO trailers. Acommercial lease could work as well. But, the society found each of these options is more costly.

In the long-term, rec centre should include library

Because the community is growing and has been advocating for a rec centre, Carrobourg said these locations could be temporary with a permanent plan to integrate the library into a future amenity.

"Right now we don't have any amenities," Carrobourg said. "Libraries used to be about the books, right?But now they've expanded their more remote learning and growing your knowledge and continuing to educate yourself and learn, right?So they bring the communities closer together. They bring people together."

Division 3 Coun. Kevin Hanson, asked his colleagues to move the business case forward by having administration work on it.

"I'll be supporting this. I think it's important to get administration involved to make sure we are looking at some solid numbers," Hanson said. "The more information the better, I think this is a good idea."

Council will consider administration plan

That motion passed unanimously. Administration will return to Rocky View County with a formal plan including the potential costs to the county for council's consideration.

It's encouraging, Carrobourg said, but the clock is still ticking. She's thankful for Cereal's donation and doesn't want to see this opportunity wasted.

"I really hope that the county will take a look and realize that this is something that is needed in our community and that is missing and that will help our community," Carrobourg said.