BROWNSTOWN — It wasn’t a very merry Christmas for the Brownstown Public Library staff.
On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, the extremely cold temperatures caused a pipe to burst in the ceiling on the west side of the building at 120 E. Spring St. Library Director Sherri May said the pipe was for a water spigot outside the building.
That wasn’t discovered until around 4 p.m. Dec. 27 when a janitor entered the library, which had been closed for the holiday.
“My janitor called and she said, ‘Uh, I think we’re going to be closed today,’” May said.
She immediately rushed over to the library and saw the extensive damage.
“We had at least in some part an inch to 2 inches of water throughout the library. There was not a room that did not have water. When I came in here, every window was steamed up, so you couldn’t even see in or out because of the humidity in here,” she said. “It was devastating, to tell you the truth. I shed a few tears, but we’re on the upside now.”
May said the plan is to begin offering curbside service for library patrons today. The library will activate all of the holds people have placed, and they will receive notifications to let them know when they can stop by and call the library when they arrive for a staff member to bring them their items.
“We’ll even do copying if someone needs copies made,” May said. “We don’t have our patron computers up working yet, but we do have wireless access through the parking lot, so they have that capability if they need a wireless connection. They can always sit in our parking lot and use their device.”
The hope is to reopen the building once construction is complete. Mark Clark Construction was hired to do that work. May said Clark recently replaced electrical outlets that were on the floor and removed metal shelving that was rusted, and he planned to put up scaffolding on Wednesday.
At this point, May said she doesn’t have an estimate of the damage cost.
“We’re in the process of figuring that out,” she said. “I have to first get every single (book) title on a list and information that (the insurance company) wants, so that’s taking a little time. I hope to finish in the next couple days and get that to them. We have 180 days to get it to them, and I want to get it done as soon as possible. We can’t order the new shelving units or anything until I get this done, so I’m hoping I’ll have it done this week.”
The first thing the janitor did when she arrived at the library Jan. 27 was turn the water off, and when May got there, she called Jackson County Water Utility and a plumber and began searching for someone to take care of the wet carpet.
“I had a terrible time finding anybody to come out because almost all of the equipment everybody had was already dispersed,” she said, referring to others experiencing issues from frozen pipes. “I called someone in Columbus and they said they had equipment as far as Memphis, Tennessee, out, so they were just not able to help us.”
May wound up calling the library’s local carpet cleaning business, MasterCare Cleaning Services, and they were able to come that day.
“He doesn’t normally do a job this big, but he has been cleaning our carpets for years, and he said because it was me, he would come out, so I am so grateful because I couldn’t get anybody else,” she said. “My board was calling other companies. No one had anything to help us.”
After getting rid of the water on the carpet, they used blowers and dehumidifiers to dry it out. May said they picked up the last of their equipment on Tuesday.
Fortunately, most of the carpet, which was installed in 2018, was saved.
“We have a couple spots, they are squares that need replaced, but nothing like it could have been,” May said. “I thought we were going to have a lot of loss, more than we had.”
On Friday, a representative of PuroClean Home Emergency Services checked the library for mold.
“He had a meter and he went around and he checked how much humidity was in the air, in several areas on the carpet and even on the walls, just to make sure that we were OK, and he said he couldn’t guarantee that we wouldn’t have any issues but that he didn’t think there were any issues,” May said.
The biggest loss at the library was wooden furniture.
“We lost 12 of our shelving units. They are quite expensive. They are double-sided, and we got them years ago for about $1,000 each, and they are almost double that price now,” May said. “And we lost several wooden tables, we lost 16 wooden chairs, we lost a couple desks. We got a dumpster and we filled it up already, and we’ve got a second dumpster now of just big items.”
Also, nearly 1,000 books have been thrown away due to mold that developed on them. For insurance purposes, May has to make a list of each book title, edition and price.
“I’ve been doing this for two weeks. I have 50 pages, and I’m probably down to the last 10,” she said. “The first thing was to put them in our system that they were damaged so no one was trying to put them on hold. I wore gloves and a mask because they were already starting to mold. Then we wanted to dispose of them.”
Some DVD inserts that were on lower shelving units were damaged, too, along with some ceiling tiles, drywall, a display cabinet and an audio cabinet. May learned that type of ceiling tile isn’t made anymore.
“The plan is to take some out of the office and use them in the main library and then get new ones for the office,” she said.
Fortunately, all of the damaged items can be replaced.
With the water in the electrical outlets on the floor, water had to be sucked out of them so they could be replaced.
“Then that compromised our wiring and our network switches. They were even rusted,” May said. “And our phones were compromised. We just got these up a couple days ago. Our battery backups for all of our computers were compromised, so all those have to be replaced.”
Sanders Technology Group was able to get the phones and circulation desk computers working this week. That allowed for the library to begin offering curbside services while construction continues.
May praised her staff, which consists of eight people besides her, for all they have done so far.
“They have stepped up and been wonderful,” she said. “They are the ones that have just kept the library going because we’ve got to get this place back in order, and they are the ones that have been doing it as I take care of all of the other end of insurance and making lists.”
All programming is on hold, too. A book club for adults, however, is going to meet at a local church until the library reopens.
May also praised the library’s patrons and board members.
“They have been wonderful,” she said. “I’ve had several calls just saying, ‘We’re thinking about you’ and ‘If you need any help.’ I’ve had it from patrons, past board members, current board members. They’ve all stepped up and offered to help. Our board threw us a pizza party one day when we were in here working. The community has been very understanding and wonderful.”
The Jackson County Public Library also reached out about bringing its bookmobile to Brownstown to help customers, but at the time, the staff was overwhelmed with trying to get damaged items out of the library.
“At that time, we didn’t even have our circulation working, but since then, we’ve got it working,” May said. “I appreciate that they offered. That was just wonderful.”
May, who has been director since 1995, said she’s glad to see the library moving in a positive direction since the incident.
“At first, I cried, but now, I can see everything is going to work out fine. That’s what insurance is for,” she said. “We’re on the upswing, and I’m hopeful that it won’t take long for this construction to get done and that we can open again fairly quickly. But until then, we’ll do the curbside service.”