Mayor Stephen Mandel questioned reno spending on the downtown Stanley A. Milner Library.

“I think $10 million to replace the north facade is an exorbitant amount of money,” said the mayor during Wednesday’s council meeting.

The community services committee recently approved looking at a design of the library’s north wall to help with efficiency and security.

Linda Cook, Edmonton Public Libraries CEO, said the goal is to do $1 million worth of design plans for the entire building, not just the north facade.

The mayor says that’s “excessive.”

Cook said the costs for renovations to the entire building is a projected $44 million.

The mayor claims that is not what he was previously told.

Cook said the building is 45 years old. Design and construction wouldn’t start until 2015-2017.

Mandel asked what the cost benefit is. He called the library one of the “real negatives of downtown.”

“I do believe we need to fix the library,” he said.

“I don’t think that’s even an issue. But it would be nice to know ahead of time what we’re getting ourselves into.”

catherine.griwkowsky@sunmedia.ca

@SunGriwkowskyC