Martin De Ruyter/Stuff
Staff have been protecting books with tarpaulins at Stoke Library.
Staff have been using tarpaulins and buckets to protect books and equipment in Stoke Library when it rains heavily.
Nelson City Council’s corporate services group manager Nikki Harrison said staff resorted to these measures during “the heaviest rain events”.
“Tarpaulins and buckets are used during anticipated major rain events as a preventative measure,” she said.
“They are not a day-to-day precaution and leaks have not damaged library resources.
“During the heaviest rain events, some buckets were used to capture water overnight in areas where it was anticipated water volume might be high. Water did reach those locations but not in substantial amounts.”
The building’s “aged components” were behind the leaks, she said. The roof had been inspected and monitored over the last two years, and it would be fixed in March or April.
Last month, the council approved a $581,000 spend to fix Stoke Library’s roof, alter skylights and provide new cladding.
However, Rohan O’Neill-Stevens, acting mayor at the time, said the fix was a “band-aid”. The council needed to start planning for the future of our libraries as they were “key social community assets”.
“We can’t keep putting it off for another 10 years before we end up with a building that is quite literally falling apart at the seams,” O’Neill-Stevens said.
Harrison said Nelson’s Elma Turner Library was also leaking.
“The roof on Elma Turner Library is ageing and has experienced various minor leaks depending on rain and wind direction for some years,” she said.
In June, the library’s planned reopening was delayed after council contractors discovered damage to four trusses on the building’s south side.
While repairing the roof trusses focussed on strengthening the building, it would “improve the resistance to leaks in specific areas”, Harrison said.
Roof repair work in other parts of the building was also underway.
The extra work to address the roof trusses had set the library’s opening back seven months, and boosted the price tag of the library repairs to $2.7m.
Elma Turner Library is expected to fully reopen in February.