Edgewood commissioners took steps toward resolving structural and plumbing issues at the Edgewood Community Library and Town Hall during the Town of Edgewood Commission meeting on December 9.
In her presentation to commissioners, Community Liaison Linda Burke brought to their attention more than 20 instances of water leaks, including one currently, in town buildings in recent years. The leaks have been reported in either the library, town hall or both, Burke said.
The adult fiction section is completely closed, Burke said, and everything in the area is covered with tarps to protect the collection.
“That makes it very difficult for the public to utilize these portions of the library that are having water fall on them as a result of rain or snow melting,” Burke said. “This is a really unfortunate situation.”
The Moriarty-Edgewood School District owns those buildings, Burke said, and she has been in touch with the district. She said that although the district has responded, the problem hasn’t been fully repaired. Over the past two years, there were 25 requests.
Burke was told that the district used insurance funds for repairs that were done over the summer, but by late summer, the leaks had returned.
There have been other instances where the children’s and teens’ sections of the library needed to be closed due to leaks, Burke said. When the ceiling panels get too wet, they crumble and fall to the ground, she said, and another leak occurred in the library office.
“Thankfully, it occurred during a time when staff was there and they could cover the computers and move things out of the way quickly so that we would not be losing electronic equipment,” Burke said.
Burke said she is not sure exactly how to fix the problem yet, but she wanted to bring it to the commissioners’ attention to move forward.
“We need to think about how to approach the school district and see what kind of results we can actually achieve working together on it,” Burke said. “It’s time for us to take some additional steps,” Burke said.