With the recent closure of Six Nations Public Library, HPL's Bookmobile will change its bi-weekly visits to weekly starting Friday, March 13.
Starting Tuesday, March 17, Court at Rushdale moves to bi-weekly on Tuesdays (10:30am-11am), instead of Fridays.
HPL's original phone number is back in service. Please call 905-546-3200. The 289-779-7588 number, created due to the 2024 cybersecurity incident, is also working.
From March 23 until April 12, Valley Park Community Centre will be closed for renovations, reopening April 13. Pool and changerooms will remain closed until early summer 2026.
Valley Park Branch will remain open during the renovations for your library needs.
As of Monday, March 2, Sherwood Branch's 2nd floor is closed due to renovations. Makerspace, Children and Teen's collection are temporarily available on the 1st floor. All programs will be held in the basement program room. Renovations are expected to be completed in late Spring. Thank you for your patience.
As of Monday, March 2, Concession Branch's Living Room and Makerspace areas are closed. (The next nearest Makerspaces are Sherwood and Terryberry Branches.) Seating may be limited at times. Renovations are expected to be completed in late Spring. Thank you for your patience.
Starting Tuesday February 10, the First Floor Living Room is closed due to renovation preparations. Study and work spaces are available on Floors 2-4. Thank you for your patience.
Please note the following Bookmobile visit updates.
Friday, March 6
Winona: 11am-Noon - Cancelled
Queen Victora: 3-4pm - Cancelled
The accessible washroom at Carlisle Branch is not working. We aim to get it fixed quickly.
Renovations in 1914 saw the door to the long room painted and varnished. The assessor, John Nelligan, wrote out the Lord's Prayer in shorthand on a piece of paper and had the painter put it on the door before it was varnished. The door was later moved to the room where the Board of Control met and still later it was taken down to made way for the parking meter division of the City Treasurer's Department (44). The next year, a furor arose over secret sessions of the Board of Control. The announcement was made that this practice was to be discontinued immediately. Within three hours a workman arrived at the city hall, went to the Board of Control room and placed blinds on the outer door windows of the room, on which was painted in large white letters "Private Session" (45). 1922 brought an upset over phone bills. The enormous phone bill of the previous year of $8,474.27 prompted calls for more financial control. However, there were no suggestions for the discontinuation of phones in the homes of all members of council, Board of Control and city officials with whom it was necessary to provide easy communication for convenience in transacting business (46).
That same year concerns arose over the amount of space available in the council chamber for pictures of former mayors. The plan was to reproduce the mayors in a smaller format and place them in panels. As the Spectator reported, "[d]ifficulty may be experienced in reducing the photos of some of the old-time mayors to small enough size, it is feared. The present yard square frames seem scarcely large enough to contain the luxuriant growths of whiskers which are sported by many of the past chief magistrates...When finished, it is expected that the arrangement of pictures will enhance the dusty grandeur of the council room, instead of giving it the mausoleum-like air it possesses at present" (47).
In 1927, an addition was made to the decor of City Hall with the presentation of an elk's head to the city council by the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Calgary Lodge No. 4. By 1949, however, Elmer, as he was familiarly known, was looking a bit the worse for wear. Alderman Malcolm K. Heddle, chairman of the property and license committee of City Council, pointed out that Elmer had lost one of his glass eyes, looked a bit mouldy around the mouth and one of the two brackets fixing him to his post was broken. Staff were divided in their opinions about what should happen to Elmer (48).
