After more than two years without a place to truly call home, the Fraser-Hickson Institution could be reopening at Trinity Memorial Church, just outside of Westmount, by early 2010, says the chairman of the library’s board of directors.

The Fraser-Hickson was forced to shut and sell its former building on NDG's Kensington Avenue in March 2007, following years of struggle brought on by a dwindling endowment.

The library's administrators saw no choice but to sell the building to a private school and seek out a new location. The library's archival collection has been placed in storage at Meldrum’s warehouse.

As part of a $6 million development agreement unveiled last year by the library in partnership with Trinity Memorial, most of the documents and books would once again become available to the public in a 9,000-square-foot space on the church’s lower level.

“We have what is called a shovel-ready project,” board chairman John Dinsmore told The Monitor. “We have our plans and specs all drawn and the definition of all the details is all but complete.

“We’re hoping very much to be considered admissible for one of these so-called shovel-ready infrastructure projects that the federal government is trying to get going this summer,” he added. “We have an application that has been placed in the hands of the ministry involved in Ottawa and we’re waiting for word.

“If we could call tenders by the first of July, and we still have our fingers crossed, we could be in there in the early part of 2010. If we’re delayed, then it’s just a case of extending that deadline.

“It all depends on our receiving that grant, and as soon as we get it then we can start calling tenders. What we’re biting our nails about at the moment is getting word that we can be considered for such support from Ottawa.”