Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 29, 1993 TAG: 9308290070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The library was closed Saturday as workers reshelved volumes hurriedly taken from stacks during the downpour and stored other damp books that may be beyond salvaging.
Friday's storm damaged 243 books, mostly in the library's fiction collection, said Ida Comparin, director of the Montgomery/Floyd Regional Library system.
Many more would have been soaked if two workers coincidentally had not been present at the library during the storm, which occurred on a day the library is regularly closed, she said.
The incident was virtually identical to an October 1991 storm and roof leak that destroyed books in the same section of the building.
County maintenance workers Saturday cleared a roof gutter that backed up during Friday's storm and sent water pouring through ceiling tiles onto book shelves.
Comparin said shelves that were already kept empty have been pulled farther away from the leak's source. The library has plenty of buckets and plastic sheeting, too, but no assurance the roof won't leak again.
"That's the scary thing," she said. "I'm really concerned."
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors is scheduled Monday to take its second vote on a bond proposal that if approved by voters would generate $1.8 million to renovate and expand the library.
The present building is antiquated and inadequate, and the roof leaks only underscore the need for improvements, library supporters say.
However, county voters overwhelmingly defeated a 1990 bond package that would have renovated the library. And the supervisors deadlocked 3-3 last week on placing the latest library bond issue on the ballot.
Even if all goes well with the board's vote and the library bonds gain citizens' approval in November, it will be months before work can begin on the building, Comparin said.
Meanwhile, the library will remain vulnerable to new roof leaks caused by intense rainfall.
"We can't continue like this," she said.
Also, library staff discovered Saturday that the 25-year-old building's air conditioning is malfunctioning, which may force the library to close early on hot days even if it doesn't rain.
by CNB