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The Rockbridge Regional Library remains closed as it undergoes maintenance after a water pipe burst on Christmas Day.
The burst pipe caused significant damage to the book drop room of the lobby, the Piovano meeting room, and the children’s section. To work on these areas, the walls and floors have been stripped and book stands and furniture have been displaced, creating unavoidable clutter throughout the rest of the library hindering the library’s use.
“The biggest problem is we don’t have storage,” said Rockbridge Regional Library Director Julie Goyette last WORK by contractors, library employees and volunteers has been taking place at the Lexington headquarters of the Rockbridge Regional Library ever since a pipe burst on Christmas Day, causing significant damage. Among those hard at work that first week was contractor James Hiiggins, photographed removing drywall in the children’s area. The library system’s Facebook page has been featuring updates, with one yesterday showing new drywall in place. (photo courtesy of the Rockbridge Regional Library.) week. “When you talk about the whole children’s collection, we have to get that out, so the flooring can be put down. The meeting room flooring has to be redone and the children’s story room and the bathrooms have been affected. We’re just trying to get everything cleaned up and back to where we can use it and that means displacing a lot of stuff. When you walk into the library it doesn’t look junky, but when you start pulling things out of closets and rooms and everything is not where it belongs – we just can’t open, we don’t have any storage!”
While Goyette doesn’t have an exact total for the cost of damages, she believes the library has lost about $5,000 in books so far. Many books were completely destroyed by water leakage, but even books that weren’t directly in the line of fire – or water, in this case – are experiencing tremendous amounts of moisture, forcing the library to dispose of those books too, Goyette said.
However, the library’s director remains optimistic. With insurance coverage by Virginia Risk Sharing Association, the library will recover many of its losses.
“[VRSA] is doing a great job. They were here on Tuesday, and we just got right to work; I think we’re going to be in good shape. Once we get that checked and we can go ahead and order those replacements, we should be able to get those books back pretty quickly,” Goyette said.
The library has had tremendous community support in its efforts to reopen. Workers and volunteers have had to clean up ceiling tiles and debris, remove drenched carpeting, and go through stacks of ruined books.
“We are very fortunate to have James Higgins from Rockbridge Flooring Professionals, Davenport Insulation, and Greg Richards from Lo-Ke Electrician Services,” Goyette noted. “They all just rushed here to do everything they could, and they made arrangements to get the drywall guy in. James put out a call for volunteers on Facebook and they came and helped clean up the ceiling tile. They were working right alongside us.”
Additionally, the Washington and Lee University library loaned RRL six book carts.
The first step to reopening is hanging dry wall, which being done now. Next, new ceiling will need to be hung and carpeting, which was drenched and stained by rusty pipe water, will need to be installed. An entire day will be dedicated to sanding the server room, Goyette noted.
Amid of all this mayhem, the library team is still maintaining their services. Lexington Presbyterian Church has reserved spaces for the library to hold its regular children’s activities and passport processing services, Goyette said. In fact, the library is hosting its youth program from yesterday, Jan. 10, through Jan. 19 at the church.
Beginning on Jan. 6, the library launched curbside services. Library patrons are able to reserve and check out books via the website and/or by phone. Upon arrival to the library, readers must call the front desk and a librarian will be ready to assist. The curbside feature may also be used to return books as the “book drop” is still under repair after the water damage, but Goyette hopes it will be available in the next few days. The curbside library will remain in use until the server room undergoes repairs, which will cause all library services to cease at that time.
Goyette insisted that the library will make a quick recovery.
“We affect a lot of people. There are a whole lot of people that make that trip [to the library] every day and they’re missing coming in here … We’re trying to do this in the safest way possible so that we can still pull holds for people and get people back in the library as soon as possible,” Goyette said.
There is still no estimated timeline for when the library will reopen, Goyette said yesterday.
