When the new aquatic centre is built at Pearson Park, the Grantham library branch will be included inside, nearly doubling the size of the branch and locating it in an ideal spot near a school.

The current branch is about 4,800 square feet, not including the basement, which has inaccessible washrooms and is mainly used for administrative space. However, the tiny branch is second busiest one in St. Catharines, next to the central location, with 140,170 of the 468,337 total library visitors in 2007.

As well, the north end of the city has the most people, with the most library users as a result.

Even though the move from the plaza into a city building would save the library about $48,000 in rental fees, the borrowing costs to pay for its $1,760,000 price tag would mean an increase to the overall budget.

But building within an aquatic centre, much like the MacBain Centre in Niagara Falls, would be a lot cheaper than a standalone structure.

And building it at the same time, rather than adding it on later will save even more money.

Addressing councillors, library CEO Lilita Stripnieks said a 7,000 sq. foot library addition in Burlington cost about $3.4 million. The St. Catharines library, meanwhile, will be an even larger 8,000 sq. feet.

"It was twice as expensive to do it after the fact," she said.

Coun. Andrew Gill expressed concern about how the addition of a library, while cost effective, will still add to an already pricey project, which is expected to cost between $12 million and $16 million.

"In a perfect world, a library and a pool would be a perfect fit," he said. "But we have to be cognizant of the ability of residents to pay."

He suggested that if the library goes ahead, the city use the civic project fund to pay for it. Treasurer Shelley Chemnitz warned that would result in the city going beyond spending the interest generated by the fund and dipping into the principle.

Councillors ultimately decided to put the amount on the capital budget. Council will decide at a later date whether to follow the city policy of putting 10 per cent down. As there is no money for that in the 2008 budget, the down payment may have to come from the civic project fund.