Library set to move

By Shaun Inguanzo
THE City of Casey will initiate formal discussions with the City of Greater Dandenong about purchasing its mobile library.
The prime mover and trailer were put out of service by Greater Dandenong councillors in November, and despite community pressure to reinstate the mobile library, each attempt at council has failed.
Casey’s River Gum Ward councillor Wayne Smith raised a notice of motion at Tuesday night’s council meeting that the council investigate the condition of the mobile library and also talk to Greater Dandenong about a price with the view that Casey would purchase it to service coastal townships and those out of reach of static libraries.
Casey councillors supported Cr Smith’s notice of motion unanimously, and agreed that if Greater Dandenong at any stage during the process wanted to reinstate the service then Casey would withdraw its interest.
“The motion is quite clear: If Dandenong decides it is not going to close its service down and the motion gets up, we’ll live with that,” Cr Smith said.
He said he was happy that Casey councillors had supported his views on investigating another mobile library.
“There was private concern about it being a big expense, but it is early days right now,” Cr Smith said.
“My view is let’s look into it first then worry about the financing of it later on, if we choose to go ahead with it.”