Eight years after Tom Vegh broke his promise of a new Library and Seniors’ Centre, the Library Board is at last looking at a second location. 
The Board was hardly bubbling with enthusiasm last night when it spent a few minutes considering the issue before moving on to next business.
On 4 August 2026 the Library went out to the market, requesting a quote from consultants to draw up its next Strategic Plan covering the period 2026-2031.
The project objectives said nothing specifically about a second branch or satellite.
New Branch a "strategic plan objective"
On 30 September 2026 the Library Board
“Endorsed Lennova Consultants for strategic planning”.
And in a presentation that was circulated at last night’s meeting I learned that the fourth strategic plan objective (out of six) is to:
“Test the second location opportunity.”
The Board member leading the strategic planning exercise, Neila Poscente, said in as many words that with a new council being elected it was right the Board should look at the second location issue. This caught some Board members off guard.
The cost of a second location cropped up. But if Mulock Farm was financed in an innovative way, then why couldn’t they look at the library in the same way. The group-think was palpable.
Seems to me the last thing the library board wants is a second location. The most unenthusiastic of the lot is the Chair, Darryl Gray, closely followed by the Chief Executive, Tracy Munusami, who always gives me the impression of being programmed to do his bidding.
I shake my head.
The Board will consider Kelly Brome’s proposal to stream Library Board meetings at its next meeting on 16 November 2026.
(Photo right: Victor Woodhouse and Board Chair, Darryl Gray)
Update on 22 October 2026 from Newmarket Today: Board may consider if a second library branch is needed
The exchange on the second branch
Victor Woodhouse: Quite frankly, I was happy to get it (the library) open on Monday. That took a long time, right? So, a second location is going to be, again, as pointed out, if the council of the day should say, this is important, and we're prepared… 
Neila Poscente: And you can do anything with money, right?
Beth Stevenson: And we’re still working on the book mobile as well, too, which gives us outreach and still gives us (indistinct).
Rex Taylor: A second location can mean a number of things.
Neila Poscente: And that's where they (Lennova?) homed in that and said, yeah, it was more than a pop-up shop.
Beth Stevenson: Like it has to be something that ongoing, that the community has…
Neila Poscente: Reliability…
Beth Stevenson: Yeah, exactly, yeah.
Rex Taylor: But it doesn’t have to be a ten storey building.
Beth Stevenson: That would be a second, yeah. Yeah, I think we should have a branch first… the location.
CEO Tracy Munusami: And that is sort of testing that question, right? So, there's been a lot of talk about it, but what is it that we're missing here that would require us to have a 2nd location and just gather in that data to mean so that, um, evidence-based decision around that.
Rex Taylor: Evidence based. Evidence based.
Chair, Darryl Gray: That’s just what I was going to say. It's a big decision. It’s ultimately up to us to make the decision based on something not what we hear in social media or the media.
Neila Poscente: Right. And we need to know how we are going to pay for it….
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