Teslin’s community library should re-open in a new location by early April.
The library closed three months ago, after the librarian complained mould in the building was giving her headaches and breathing problems.
The dilapidated building that houses the library is more than 50 years old and leaks.
The library will move to the old Nisutlin Trading Post building, the territory announced Friday.
This location was first proposed by the library’s board more than a year ago, in February of 2008.
It took this long for the territory to make a decision because it was conducting a “master space plan” to catalogue its buildings, said Doris Wurfbaum with Highways and Public Works.
“We wanted to wait for that whole thing to be completed and it took longer than we thought,” she said.
The department also had to wait for a request for proposals to be done, said Wurfbaum.
But it remains unclear why this work took so long - especially when the territory effectively had about 18 months to find a new space.
It first received notice in October of 2007 from its landlord, the Village of Teslin, that it needed to move out of the old building within a year.
But by October of 2008, when the bank and post office that occupied the same building had found new homes, the library stayed put.
At the time, the territory said it couldn’t find suitable space. So it received an extension until the end of March.
The territory is now poised to narrowly miss this deadline.
Contact John Thompson at
johnt@yukon-news.com.