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The Demolition of the Community Room at Arlington was completed on Thursday, June 19th.
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This week work was started on the interior cement block walls. Miller Contracting did prep work on Monday, began laying blocks on Tuesday, and by The end of the day Wednesday they had 5 rows of blocks up on a major section of the project. County Electric also worked these days fitting the new walls with electrical outlets. The base /vault for the new electric transformer was Also excavated and installed this week (Thursday) between the parking garage Ramps. Work at the Arlington branch involved meeting American Electric Power to have the electric meter and service line disconnected. Charles Associates Will begging demolition on the rear section of the building early next week. We have contacted Larry Fast, a structural engineer to evaluate the remaining Portion of the building after the demolition work is completed.
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This week, Jack's plumbing spent a lot of
time and made significant progress on the |
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Progress was made this week on the interior
work. Jack's HVAC cut the concrete slab in the |
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After a long wait, major reconstruction activity began here at FHCPL this week. On Tuesday, there were workers here starting demolition work in the basement, removing old door frames and hardware, plumbing, and ceiling tile grids. Wednesday, additional work was done on exterior tasks with concrete cutting, dumpster enclosure removal, and tree cutting near the parking garage ramps. The parking garage was officially closed, and will remain closed for the duration of the reconstruction period. We learned that utility transfers to new equipment will require short interruptions in our power feed, and may require us to close the building at some point in the process for at least 2 days. --Dick Taylor
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More work was done this week on the new natural gas line and meter setting by Marlin White Contractors. They also worked inside removing many internal gas lines and chilled water pumps. We have initiated a scrap metal recycling agreement with the general contractor which will allow FHCPL to receive proceeds from all the old pipes and structural steel as the project moves forward. Ryan Guth of Miller Contracting has assured us that a construction schedule will be issued yet this week. We have decided to relocate our dumpster to the FHCPL parking lot on the NW corner of Cory and Front Streets to allow continued access thru the summer.--Dick Taylor |
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This week we learned a little more
about the time line for our major
reconstruction work here at FHCPL. Ryan Guth of Miller Contracting
said
the interior demolition will begin around May 8th, and the exterior
sanitary
holding tank work should begin by the 15th. Structural steel has been
ordered, and the main natural gas line has been excavated near the
parking
garage entrance. |
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Friday, April 18th Dave Hand
from subcontractor (Custom Home) was in and explained the
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Preliminary work and organizational meetings have been conducted this week as we prepare for the onset of major flood recovery construction in the next two weeks. Our main natural gas feed line has been re-routed by workers from Marlin White, and other workers have begun dismantling some of the HVAC components in the basement. We have decided to close the underground parking garage to all traffic through the major construction phase of this project for safety reasons. Patron and staff parking will be available in our parking lot located on the NW corner of Front St. and Cory St. as well as on Broadway for limited time slots (see signs). Thanks for your continued patience as we strive to provide a flood proof building over the next several months.--Dick Taylor |
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Work begins on the construction phase of the flood
recovery project. Marlin White and Sons Construction began work on the
new 4" gas line that will feed the new boilers in the new Mechanical
Building on the west side of our building. They had to bore through the
Parking Garage Wall, and route the new line over the entrance gate to
the Parking Garage. Work also began on the individual HVAC control boxes
in the basement level. --Dick Taylor
We are happy to report that Construction is now
underway. If we need to make changes in the Parking at the Main Library,
we will post it here. --Carol Dunn |
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FEMA approved $1,900,311.69 for construction and mitigation efforts. The 75% that FEMA will pay is $1,425,233.77. The State of Ohio will pay 12.5% and FHCPL will have to pay 12.5%. The Board of Trustee's will be meeting on March 18th to approve construction and to accept the FEMA approved and obligated dollars to be used towards the flood recovery project. The construction and mitigation efforts include the reconstruction of the lower level, remodeling of the Community Room to house Administration and Technical Services. The project also includes moving the mechanical systems above the base flood elevation level. We appreciate your understanding and patience during all of the changes.--Kelly Foust
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Week of February 25, 2008
The Findlay-Hancock County Public Library (FHCPL) has
been working with the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA)
since President Bush declared the City of Findlay a disaster area on
September 11, 2007. Many FEMA representatives toured the building to
assess the damage and to assist with the necessary steps to help FHCPL
seek funding. |
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The Main Library closed due to Street Flooding. We received 2 inches of water in the garage, and we have taken on a bit of water in the basement. We are locating the Administration and Technical Services offices upstairs till we go into construction. |
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Future plans for the lower level include: a designated Volunteer space, a new Community Room and Book Cellar. Charles Construction is the project manager. Morrison Kattman Menze is the architect for the project. |
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Week of December 3, 2007
The Main Library has reopened. We are working with FEMA to
mitigate the basement area and our Community Room. |
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Week of November 5-9, 2007
The Children's and AV departments are being carpeted this week. The
library has decided to combine these 2 desks into one and call it the
"Information Desk". It will be located in front of the Southwest Window.
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Week of October 29-Nov.3., 2007 The staff finish painting the AV Offices and the Computer Lab. A new floor is being put down in the lobby. Many caring people have contacted us to offer donations of books. While we much appreciate any offers of assistance, the best way to help your library at this early stage of our rebuilding process is to donate funds. We will gratefully accept donations to assist with recovery. You may contribute to the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library Relief Fund at any Fifth Third Bank or send a check to: Fifth Third Bank, 337 South Main Street, Findlay, Ohio 45840. The Findlay-Hancock County Public Library is funded through the Ohio Library Legislative Fund and does not receive funding via the United Way, the American Red Cross or any other local relief efforts.
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Week of October 22-26, 2007 Children's Storytime is now being held at the Stately Raven Bookstore on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. This is open to Children of all ages. 1315 North Main Street, 419-427-2814 Volunteers help move all the Childrens Books and AV materials. New carpeting comes to these 2 departments on November 5th. Library Book Truck
Brigade makes an appearance at the Halloween Parade on October 23.
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Week
of October 15-19, 2007 Childrens and AV offices are painted a bright and cheery color. |
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Week
of October 7-13, 2007
Tuesday October 9th: almost 200 patrons show
up to check out books at the Arlington Branch Library. |
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Week
of September
30-October
6, 2007 Administration continues to prepare documentation for FEMA. |
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Week
of September
23-29,
2007 |
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Week
of September
16-22,
2007 |
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Week
of September
9-15, 2007 |
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Week
of September 2-8, 2007 |
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Week of
August 26-September 1, 2007 The library employees man a booth at the Hancock County Fair August 29-September 3. WebServer is relocated offsite and www.findlaylibrary.org reestablishes service on the WWW. Main Library has been stripped of all contents in the lower level including drywall and ceiling tiles. Dehumidifiers are running in the upper level to control mold and save our 6 million dollars worth of library materials. |
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Week of August 21, 2007 As the flood receded, the library hired Tri-Weh, a recovery team out of Cincinnati to reclaim the Library. Over a million gallons of water was pumped from the building in a 2 day period. All services were destroyed or damaged in the flood: furnace, electric, internet, phones, security, paging, fire alarm, sprinkler system etc. This also included the internet at our Arlington Branch, which comes directly through the Main Library in Findlay. Early Tuesday Morning, on
August 21, as much as 9 inches of rain fell over parts of Hancock
County. To our East, parts of Wyandot County received 15 inches of rain
in a few hours. The Blanchard River began to rise and flooding took
place over much of the area. Twelve library employees showed up
for work, and spend most of the day bringing up essential materials from
the Lower Level, which included the Clerk Treasurer's Office materials.
The rest of the employees were stuck in their homes with no way out.
That evening the entire lower level went under water, and downtown
Findlay experienced the worse flood in the city's history. |
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Summary, Dick Taylor, Facilities Manager of the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library , MAY 2008
Findlay
Hancock Co. Public Library is located in Findlay, the Hancock Co. seat.
Our area was originally part of the great black swamp, thus very flat,
and drains slowly. Our building had a 15,000 sq ft furnished basement,
an 11,000 sq ft underground parking garage, and a community room and
lobby consisting of about 2000 sq ft at ground level. The collection and
main operations are on our 25,000 sq ft upper level which lies about 5'
above ground level.
On
August 21st remnants of hurricane Erin passed over the Findlay area
and stalled out, dumping almost 10" of rain through out the entire
water shed of the Blanchard river. The river runs thru the city of
Findlay, and only several hundred feet from our building. Our flat
topography results in a slow rise of river levels, our history of
flood issues had educated us to know that this unusual amount of
rain would cause massive flooding, so we closed the building the day
after the storm and began moving important items upstairs. What we
learned was that human nature had allowed us to "store" much more
inventory in our available spaces than we had time and energy to
move upstairs without a clear plan.
Only a
small portion of the staff was able to make it to the building as
roads began to close due to the rising water levels. We were able to
move most of the electronics, files, books in storage, valuable
supplies, and personal items up to the main floor. But without a
solid flood evacuation plan, we were unable to save many supplies,
NO furnishings nor any of our mechanical & electrical systems. We
received 90" of flood water in the basement, and several inches on
the ground floor community room. Along with the muddy flood water,
came sewage back up, a few small fish, and worst of all, our
elevator control room was also located in the basement, and the
hydraulic oil reservoir emptied 60 gallons of oil to the surface
coating everything with a slimy oily mud.
Our
dollar loss for clean up, mitigation, inventory replacement, and
reconstruction stands at over $2 million, but the untold loss of
community service is much harder to assess. We were "lucky" compared
to many other county and city agencies, as our history of flooding
pushed us to secure flood insurance after a more minor 1997 event.
Our insurance paid for our entire cleanup and dry out, as well as a
portion of our inventory replacement. And as a result of our
proactive flood response and insurance coverage, FEMA has come
forward with a very responsible mitigation grant.
Our
Main Library was closed to the public for over 12 weeks. During that
time we extended hours at our one branch facility ( 10 miles south
of Findlay ), and added stops and hours to our bookmobile service
through out the city and county. We opened back up for major
services on December 3, 2008, and began the slow process of
evaluating future needs and exposures. FEMA grant spending requires
an effort to move affected services up and out of the reach of
future flooding. We have worked with an architect to add second
floors in two areas, as well as constructing a new elevated
mechanical room on the outside of our building to accomplish this .
After a
summer of construction, we will have all of our staff services and
mechanical/electrical components up above our 100yr flood level. We
will also install a sanitary waste holding tank so that during
future flood events we will be able to keep our restrooms open for
staff and public use. Basement use in the future will be limited to
public meeting rooms, staff craft areas, our friends book sales
area, and maintenance operations. We will require all inventory
storage and furnishings to be wheel mounted, and sized so that they
fit into our elevator .
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