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Repairs are nearing completion for the Lexington branch of the Rockbridge Regional Library, while the Buena Vista branch has temporarily closed for repairs, with services moving temporarily to the education building of St. John’s United Methodist Church on East 21st Street.
Rockbridge Regional Library Director Julie Goyette told The News-Gazette last week that the repairs at the Lexington branch, which were made necessary following a burst pipe that flooded the library on Christmas day, were almost finished.
The main thing that still needed to be done was replacing some of the flooring, materials for which have been ordered and should arrive soon. The goal, she said, was to reopen the library the week of Feb. 13, even if the full range of services may not be available to all customers at that time.
The Buena Vista library, meanwhile, has temporarily moved to its new location at St. John’s United Methodist Church, officially opening in the new location on Tuesday.
The move is to allow the city to make repairs to the building, including sealing off a superfluous upstairs bathroom that doesn’t work, repainting the building and sealing off older, lead-based paint, and doing some testing of areas of the floor. The goal, Goyette said, was to ensure the safety of the building.
Buena Vista branch manager Elaina Skovira told The News-Gazette that, while there wasn’t space in the new location for the library’s entire collection of books, they did move as much as they could, including their entire collection of children’s books. The toys and furniture in the children’s room also made the move to the new location.
The library has been partnering with the church to use space in the education building for the library’s home-school program. That room has, for the time being, been repurposed as the adult room, housing the library’s computers, adult fiction and nonfiction books and DVD collection.
“The church has been very accommodating,” Skovira said. “This space wasn’t being used much and we’ve breathed some life into it.”
The one service that isn’t currently available at the new location is copying and faxing, but that will be available once the machine is moved into the library. Programs have also been temporarily suspended while everything gets settled in at the new location.
