The shuttered John F. Kennedy Library, a department of the Gary Public Library system, has the inexperienced mild to reopen from its insurance agent.
In January, a automobile struck the library at 3953 Broadway, damaging masonry on its southwest nook.
The squabbling library board couldn’t agree on a contractor after which couldn’t attain a quorum at different conferences and its insurance lapsed Aug. 31 because the declare remained excellent. As a end result, the department closed Sept. 1.
At a particular assembly Wednesday, insurance agent Leslie Skinner-Leslie, of Haywood and Fleming Associates, advised the library board it once more had insurance protection and she or he suggested the board to reopen the department as quickly as doable.
The department reopens Monday. It will likely be open from 10 a.m. to six p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays and midday to eight p.m. on Thursdays.
On a current afternoon, the broken southwest nook of the Kennedy department remained shrouded in orange snow fencing.
“The car went airborne and hit that corner,” board president Akilia McCain mentioned of the accident.
A flier a few program to be taught chess was taped to the within of the glass door, together with different notices about library occasions that even have been on maintain. The library closed briefly after the January crash, McCain mentioned, and remained open till its insurance lapsed as a result of the repairs hadn’t been made.
Meanwhile, board member Robert Buggs, who’s butted heads with McCain since she joined the board in January, mentioned the Kennedy work might have been accomplished months in the past if the McCain-led board hadn’t balked at a bid from Pangere Construction.
Instead, McCain advocated hiring challenge supervisor Douglas Cunningham, a transfer Buggs opposed saying he’s not licensed by town.
Buggs insisted such a suggestion ought to have come by library director Diana Morrow and the library’s amenities director.
The board on Wednesday employed Cunningham to supervise the Kennedy work and repairs on the important library for water injury within the basement. The board additionally employed Shrewsberry and Associates to element the scope of engineering work on the flooding.
McCain mentioned the Kennedy department has been struck by vehicles beforehand over the previous few years and she or he’d just like the board to work with the Indiana Department of Transportation, which oversees Broadway as a state street, to provide you with a visitors resolution.
In the meantime, work on the constructing stalled.
“We received payment from the insurance, but the price continues to climb as we wait,” she mentioned, including the library acquired $160,000 earlier this 12 months however the price of the work has since elevated by $20,000. “It’s already over what the insurance has given us.”
As she spoke exterior the shuttered library, a person pulled alongside the curb and rolled the passenger facet window down. He wished to know if the library was closed.
“No, it’s not open right now,” she mentioned, including as he drove away, “People utilize this library.”
The board is holding its common assembly at 5 p.m. Monday on the important library and can evaluate its 2023 price range.
Carole Carlson is a contract reporter for the Post-Tribune.
