Sewickley Public Library open after HVAC problem forced a 6-day closure

Sewickley Public Library is open in a limited capacity following a heating and air conditioning system malfunction caused flooding in its community room and nonfiction area.

Spokeswoman Richelle Klug said they were fortunate most of the books and other materials were not damaged when a heating coil failed Sept. 19.

About 100 items in the non-fiction print and audio collections were damaged.

Most of the flooding affected the ceilings, drywall, shelving and flooring.

The library reopened Thursday afternoon and resumed normal business hours on Friday with some modifications to operations and programming.

Operational changes

The community room on the second floor and the nonfiction area on the first floor are closed until further notice.

Private study and meeting rooms are still available through reservations.

The nonfiction collection includes about 13,000 items. However, only about 200 to 300 items are accessible.

Patrons will have access to more items via request. The library is part of the Allegheny County Library Association, meaning it can request items and have them delivered to Sewickley.

Computer availability was reduced from 20 to 12 machines. Times were also reduced from two hours to one hour to allow more patrons to use them.

Many of the library programs like storytime and meditations have also restarted in different locations throughout the facility. The recently renovated children’s room is being used to host more offerings due to those changes.

People can search for their favorite activities via the event calendar of the library’s website.

Patrons’ item requests that were set to expire during the closure have been extended through Monday.

Items are usually on hold for seven days before they are returned to sender for failure to pick up.

Klug said the library has contacted those patrons about the extended hold.

Celebration postponed

One event library officials said was postponed due to inclement weather and not the incident was the broadside terrace garden party. It was rescheduled to 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2.

It is to commemorate the completion of a major exterior renovation project that was done over the summer.

Repair schedule

Klug said insurance adjusters and contractors have visited multiple times to assess the damage. Repair costs and a timeline of everything getting back to normal are unclear.

“We have absolutely no idea right now,” Klug said. “Insurance companies are still looking at everything. We still have people coming in giving estimates as to project costs and stuff. We have to wait for the insurance to approve everything. We’re just kind of in a waiting pattern right now.

“We do have crews on site that are moving the collections. They are doing some of the demolition work like tearing up the drywall, tearing up the carpet. Most of the damage happened to the facility itself, not the collection, which in many ways we are very grateful for but still a lot of damage. We are still in the very early stages in terms of repair. It’s just kind of been mitigation. Stopping it from getting worse.”

Library patrons should expect to hear a lot of noise when major repairs get underway.

“We just want to thank everybody for their patience as we work through this,” Klug said. “We know it’s not ideal. We don’t like it. It’s just what it is. It’s going to be a long time before we’re back to operations as usual.”