Library moves closer to Casey

By Shaun Inguanzo
COASTAL townships and growth areas in Casey are one step closer towards a mobile library.
The City of Casey will next week discuss whether it should purchase the City of Greater Dandenong’s prime mover and trailer.
Greater Dandenong dealt a deathblow to its mobile library service this week amid a haze of controversy that still surrounds its patronage figures.
While the council reported that just 55 people were using the service, figures obtained by councillors from the State Government showed as many as 49,000 people used the service in the 2005-06 financial year.
Councillors voted to axe the service in December, and this week the minority of councillors supporting it had one final bid at saving the mobile library from extinction with a notice of motion to reinstate the service.
City of Casey River Gum Ward councillor Wayne Smith was in the gallery on Monday night to witness a narrow 5-6 vote defeat of the notice of motion.
Cr Smith, an advocate for library services, said Greater Dandenong’s decision was disappointing, and he felt the city hadn’t marketed it properly to ensure residents were aware of its service.
But he said the prime mover and trailer – both in good condition, with the prime mover having travelled under 50,000 kilometres – would provide an excellent start to a new mobile library service in Casey.
The News first reported Cr Smith’s intentions for Casey to purchase the truck and trailer early this month when he became aware of the Greater Dandenong service’s pending fate.
At that time, and also this week, Cr Smith said a new mobile library would service coastal townships such as Warneet, Blind Bight and Tooradin, as well as growth areas not yet established enough to warrant a static library branch, such as Berwick South and Narre Warren South.
Cr Smith said he would put forward a notice of motion at next week’s Casey council meeting for the council to consider purchasing the prime mover and trailer.