I ran into an old friend (a patron) in the library yesterday, and after we exchanged hellos, she exclaimed, “Cheryl, this library just shines!” She meant the physical building, but she also meant more than that. I love hearing this because we work really hard to make sure that our facility, resources, and service reflect our love for our community and the relevance of our resources. But keeping the “shine” in our facility has been a pretty big job lately.
This spring and summer have been busy with two major project: A new parking lot, and a new HVAC system. Our parking lot project disrupted daily life for two months and we’ve had months of work inside the building on our new heating and cooling system. Both projects are set to wrap up soon. For the parking lot we are just waiting a few more finishing touches like the bike racks. The HVAC project, however, will finish with a bang. When we initially planned to upgrade our HVAC, we hoped to get another 10 years of life out of our condensers – but it was not to be. Damage from storms meant that our condensers could not be saved.
Once the decision to replace the condensers was clear, we faced a six-week wait for the new unit, pushing the project into the heat of our Indiana summer. Living with condensers that are on their last legs has been difficult. We had one scare where humidity levels in the building soared, forcing us to bring in an external condensing unit and dehumidifiers to bring the humidity levels back down. High humidity can warp and damage books if not remedied quickly. While we wait for the final piece of our HVAC puzzle to arrive, we continue to live with a air conditioning that is not well controlled. Many days it is actually too cold in the building, and other days the humidity starts to creep back up. All of this is to explain a little about how critical the final step of the process will be, and how it will affect you.
In the coming week we will assess the weather forecast for the next few weeks and choose the best time to begin installation of the new chiller unit. When this unit is being installed our existing condensers will be removed, leaving us with much less ability to dehumidify and cool the building. The danger in this process is that humidity levels will soar once again, endangering the collection. So we will be battening down the hatches, closing the library, and attempting to keep the building as cool as possible while they do the work. It is estimated to take anywhere from 3 days to a week to complete.
As soon as we know the exact dates for the closure, we will let you know. Unfortunately we have little control of the timing since it is dependent on the weather. Although this will be yet another disruption for you, our patrons, we know that the final result will be a very efficient system that will save us about $40,000 a year. Our current system is all-electric and last year cost us over $100,000 in electricity. The new system will better preserve our physical resources, and will allow your tax dollars to go even further when energy savings are realized in 2016. We so appreciate your patience through these disruptive projects. I’ve heard a lot of “it will be so nice when it’s done!” And we agree.
We are excited to see these projects completed and your library improved. As soon as the HVAC project is complete you’ll begin to see work on flooring projects and improvements to our lobby. This next phase is being funded with the same G.O. bond that provided the HVAC project, some from operating funds, and some paid for by the Friends of the Library Imagine the Future campaign. We are grateful to be able to make these key improvements to keep GPL sharp. When people walk into our building, we want them to know that libraries aren’t dusty relics from the past, but exciting, vibrant, relevant places to be. We hope you agree!