Water Issues Surface Again At Glenwood Public Library
Books from the Glenwood Public Library’s Children’s Department are being housed in a dry location. Two flooding events in 2022 caused significant damage in the basement of the library building.
Staff at the Glenwood Public Library continues to deal with water issues in the ramp that leads to the basement on the south side of the building.
Library Director Tara Painter told members of the Glenwood City Council last week that the water problems in the ramp surfaced again earlier this month after a heavy rain.
“The drain is holding but the rest of it is leaking worse than last year,” she said.
Painter said water is leaking into the ramp from windows, where joints meet the buidling and from the seams of the ceiling in the ramp.
“You can tell there’s a problem with a part of the gutter that was supposed to have been repaired. The gutter joints are some of the worst spots,” she said.”And, the cracks in the wall.”
Last year, the library had to close the basement of the library to patrons after two spring flooding events, caused by water that had entered the building from the ramp. The Children’s Department, housed in the basement, was temporarily moved upstairs to the main floor of the building.
No books were lost because of the flooding, but shelves, carpeting and some furniture sustained significant damage.
Painter said the Children’s Department in the library remains “stripped down.”
“We only use it for early-out Wednesday activities,” she said. “It’s not open for browsing, but we do use if form programming - stuff like that.”
After giving her report to the city council, Painter was instructed to solicit bids for repair work that will provide a long-term solution to the problem and prevent future water issues. City Administrator Amber Farnan and members of the city council have discussed using federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) dollars to pay for the necessary work.
Shelves that were damaged during the 2022 flooding have yet to be replaced but Painter said a timeline for installation could be known in the coming days.
Flooding in the basement of the library has been an issue since an addition was built in 1983. Construction of the ramp coincided with the addition being built.
“When they first opened that ramp, within a month it flooded,” Painter said during an itnerview in 2022. “They (library board) had meant to put in an elevator and decided not to and save the money.”