Cathy Dobson
A leaky roof at the Point Edward library is creating a small flood of complaints from patrons who say it’s taking too long to fix.
The top level of the three-storey building on Michigan Avenue has been closed to patrons for eight months because of health and safety issues related to water on the floor when it rains.
Buckets are necessary in several places to catch the rain, says Andrew Meyer, general manager of cultural services with the County of Lambton.
On Nov. 1, due to concern about slipping or falling on wet floors, county officials decided to block access to the top storey, Meyer said.
The county is responsible for library operations in Sarnia-Lambton, however, library buildings are owned and maintained by individual municipalities.
Meyer agreed eight months is an unusually long time to block access to part of a library building but said Point Edward staff and council are doing their best to address the structural problem.
“I appreciate there’s budget cycles involved,” he said.
The leaky roof on the 56-year-old building was first noticed nearly a year ago and multiple contractors were hired to locate the problem, said Point Edward Coun. Tim Mondoux.
“Council was aware of the problem but the contractors could never get to the root of the problem,” he said. “We even had plumbers take a look and they couldn’t locate a leak either.”
By late fall, a decision was made to replace nearly the entire roof on the building, which houses the Point Edward fire hall as well. A new HVAC system is also part of the repair job and must be installed simultaneously, said village CAO Jim Burns.
Council approved the project in the 2023 budget and a contract for $110,000 was awarded to Galloway Roofers in June. But the HVAC contract hasn’t been awarded yet and the project can’t go ahead without co-ordination of the two contracts, said Burns.
Meanwhile, local library users are getting impatient.
“If there’s a hole in the roof, the library is an important asset and it should be a priority to repair,” said Point Edward resident Roger Gallaway, a former Point Edward mayor and former Sarnia-Lambton MP.
“A library is not just a building. It’s an integral institution in the village,” said Gallaway who visits the branch two to three times a week. “This sends a message that it’s not all that important; that we don’t value it.”
Recently, he posted a complaint about the upper-storey closure on Facebook that was “liked” by about 65 people. Prior to that, he said he sent inquiries to Mondoux. While Mondoux promptly acknowledged his email, Gallaway said he didn’t get any update about library roof repairs, so he turned to Facebook.
“It’s ridiculous that staff going to the third floor can’t turn on the lights,” he said. “They have to use flashlights to look for books.”
Until this week, books could be signed out from the closed area where all the non-fiction is kept. But that has changed now that all third-floor books have been crated and put in storage.
The closure is a concern for council and work will move ahead as quickly as possible, said Mayor Bev Hand.
“I agree it’s taking a long time. I appreciate Roger’s concern. I really do. But we don’t want to spend a lot of money without getting the whole story and we were getting conflicting information on what has to be done.”
Hand said she urges village residents not to complain on Facebook but to contact council directly.
“Call us or send email and copy all of us on it,” she said. “If you have a concern, we appreciate hearing from you.”
“Things are progressing, but this is a huge job,” said Mondoux. He said he wasn’t made aware when Lambton County officials decided to close the third storey in November.
“That wasn’t communicated to me,” he said. “Possibly, if we had known, we may have tried to move (repairs) forward faster.”
The Point Edward library is a well-used branch, according to Meyer. Despite intermittent pandemic shutdowns in 2022, more than 19,000 books and other items were circulated last year and staff responded to 707 inquiries. The branch also hosted 179 public programs that attracted 719 participants.
When the roof began to leak, a room on the third floor that was full of Point Edward archives was packed up to protect the materials, Meyer said.