Mike Wolanin | The Republic A view of bookshelves in the Bartholomew County Public Library in Columbus, Ind., Friday, Oct. 21, 2022.
The Bartholomew County Public Library is expected to close for a week in March as a seven-month flooring project gets underway.
Director Jason Hatton said that while the schedule is subject to change, the current plan is for the library to be closed from March 6 to 10. This closure will allow some tilework and construction to be completed near the front entry and elevators, as well as work on tiles in the staff area.
He said in a previous interview that the floor tiles have been in the staff area since the library was built. While it is uncertain whether these contain asbestos or not, the library is closing its doors during the work out of an abundance of caution about asbestos and decided to time it so that flooring work in the more sensitive areas could take place at the same time.
Library staff hope that this will be the only period where they have to close, though certain sections are expected to close throughout the course of the project, with Sept. 21 being the estimated date of completion.
“Sometimes, when areas are being completed, there will need to be materials moved out of those areas,” Hatton told the board. “Say, the children’s department. When we’re carpeting that area, everything in the children’s department is going to have to come out, which in essence closes that department off to children. We will have some services. We will have circ (circulation) components. We will have some materials.”
The children’s department is expected to be closed for most of June. Hatton said that while it’s unfortunate timing in regards to summer reading programming, they hope to make use of other spaces and already do a lot of programming outdoors. He also suggested that they might create a tented area for the children’s activities.
Hatton said the span of the flooring project is comprehensive, with “every single flooring surface” in the library set to be updated. Since the library hopes to remain open for the majority of the project, the work has been split into a number of phases.
The estimated cost of the project is roughly $800,000. This includes $550,000 for the flooring contract, as well as other costs such as moving bookcases, construction management, contingency fees and acoustic work.
“We’ve been working with Louis Joyner and Associates to pick the materials, pick the surfaces and the colors and all those sorts of pieces,” said Hatton. “Because really, we want to be very respectful to the original design but also update it and make it appropriate for everyday use that the library sees.”
When the library was first built, it had a light-colored wool carpet, which became dirty very easily. However, Hatton said that the benefit of light colors is that they add to the building’s visual “warmth,” so the project aims at returning to that palette somewhat. Most of the walkways will be a lighter, tan floor tile, and the other areas will be a mix of browns in a carpet square.
Most of the flooring now is a blue-gray color with an abstract, dark blue design. This was installed in 2000 and is “showing every bit of its wear,” said Hatton.
Also, the current carpet was placed around bookcases, with an older tan carpet — a few versions after the original — underneath. They’ve been able to do some patching as they move bookcases, but they’ve run out of carpet and are stuck with some mismatched sections as a result. Therefore, the library plans to move every single bookcase during the project so that they can make sure the flooring underneath these spaces is consistent.
“Again, part of being in Columbus and being responsible for a building that is architecturally significant, you have to keep in mind that whatever you put down, and especially something as visible as flooring, you just want to be cognizant of what the designers originally intended,” said Hatton. “We can’t go back, and we don’t live in a museum, this needs to be a library, but we still need to be conscious of that.”
