Besieged but buoyant
La Farge Branch Library hit hard by deluge, but staff working to replace books and reopen
Beyond the rainbow tunnel, the rain came pouring down. Not an ideal situation, when the setting is the entrance to a public library’s children’s section.
“It was like a waterfall,” La Farge Branch Library manager Kathryn Spangle said she was told by staff on duty July 23, when a major downpour exposed leaks in the roof and maybe some drainage issues outside the library in south-central Santa Fe, right in the path of a slow-moving thunderstorm.
Water seeped under a couple of doors in the 40-year-old building, Spangle said. But the biggest issue was in the children’s section. Rain streamed down the cinder blocks along one bookcase-lined wall, drenching
biographies, encyclopedias and books in Spanish.
The toll: multiple ceiling tiles and thousands of books.
The La Farge library announced Saturday that it is closed indefinitely until workers can get the building back into shape.
Staff already have sent 2,000 ruined books to the landfill, and Spangle anticipates a couple more thousand could join those.
All in all, though, it could have been worse.
“I think we’re pretty positive,” Spangle said. “At first I was feeling like, ‘Oh gosh, we’ve lost everything,’ doom and gloom. But as we’ve gone along, I feel pretty positive that we will not lose a whole lot more.”
By Sami Edge sedge@sfnewmexican.com
Library employees tried to keep the adult section of the Llano Street building open for a few days following the big storm, Santa Fe Public Library director Patricia Hodapp said, but decided to close until they could get humidity levels down and do air-quality testing.
“We want to make sure for our patrons and our staff that everything is healthy,” Spangle said. “That includes getting the air tested.”
On Wednesday, patrons continued their treks to the neighborhood library, unaware that it was closed.
Stan Czerkawski, a semiretired resident who lives a few miles away, drove up with a stack of books to return.
But the teal bins out front were sealed, with a sign telling patrons the library was closed and not accepting returns.
“I guess I’ll have to go down to the Southside [Branch],” said Czerkawski, who normally visits the La Farge Branch once or twice a week to check email on a computer terminal and stock up on reading materials.
After Czerkawski drove off, Mark Stephens remained sitting on a bench, accessing the
internet via his cellphone.
The library’s Wi-Fi was still working, he said. If they shut it off, he’ll have to take a bus, probably to the city’s Main Library downtown.
Stephens was optimistic the La Farge Branch would reopen soon. But after peeking through a window, he said that might be unlikely.
“It’s a mess,” he said. “That’s going to take a lot of work.”
Hodapp and Spangle said city workers came the day after the flood and repaired the roof, and the library staff got to work right away on tossing old books and cleaning up as best they could.
On Wednesday, the rained-out shelves in the children’s section had been pulled away from the wall, exposing decades-old carpet underneath. Above, eroded and fallen ceiling tiles left square openings in the ceiling. Below, shelves were draped in random bits of plastic, including a Winnie the Pooh tablecloth. Fans and a dehumidifier (which Spangle had to special order because they can be difficult to find in New Mexico, she said) whirred in the whimsical room. Little bits of caution tape dangled from the “rainbow tunnel,” a beloved entryway to the room.
The library’s staff remain fully employed, Hodapp said, some helping at La Farge and others filling in at different branches. Even a staff member who suffered a mild concussion when a ceiling tile fell on her head during the storm is back to work, under doctors’ supervision, Spangle said.
The city will absorb the cost of the building repairs, Hodapp said. And the library is working out how it will replace books. So far the cost is up to around $40,000, based on $20 for each of the 2,000 books already lost.
“We’ll make sure this gets replaced,” Hodapp said. “I’m not sure what insurance does. We have some money in the [Friends of the Santa Fe Public Library] for children’s books. We’re going to cobble it together.”
Since the flooding, Hodapp said patrons have graciously offered donations, some children hauling in bins of donated books. But the facility isn’t accepting those at the moment. The library prefers, for now, that people give monetary donations to the Friends of the Santa Fe Public Library, so librarians can purchase the specific books they need to replace.