Right: Heather Carroll, manager of the Cardinia Mobile Library, stands inside the mobile library which could be making its way to Casey.
By Sarah Schwager
A BUS full of books, CDs and magazines could be making its way to Casey’s coastal villages.
Casey Council has renewed calls for a mobile library after the newly completed Emerald Library sparked the possibility of extra days for Casey.
The Cardinia Shire-owned mobile library had spent two days in Emerald, but now those days are free.
At a Casey Council meeting last week, council decided to convene an urgent meeting with Cardinia Shire Council officers to discuss the possible use of their mobile library now that Emerald Library has opened.
Councillor Colin Butler said even if it was not possible to access the library for those two days, Casey should still consider getting its own library for the coastal villages, Pearcedale, Devon Meadows and other surrounding suburbs.
“Selling off the mobile library was the worst thing Casey ever did,” Cr Butler said.
Cardinia Shire general manager community wellbeing Fiona Hodges said council was still working in conjunction with the Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation to finalise assessment of the needs and options for provision of the mobile library to Cardinia residents.
“The service would only be made available to Casey residents if there was time remaining that was considered superfluous to the needs of the Cardinia community,” Ms Hodges said.
“Once the revised schedule for Cardinia has been finalised this will indicate whether there is any possibility of the service being provided to the Casey coastal villages.”
Councillor Wayne Smith said that when council decided to get rid of its mobile library 11 years ago, he lobbied persistently to keep it.
“I said at the time we were going to regret this,” Cr Smith said.
He said there was still a possibility the State Government might consider partial funding of a mobile library for Casey.
