Public Employee Press

New Lots Library
A Stalled Renovation

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

The windows at the New Lots branch library in Brooklyn are so old that they cannot be opened, and weeds are growing into them.

The boiler was replaced in late 2014. But no other major repairs are in the works.

"The money ran out," Edwin Maxwell, a Neighborhood Library Supervisor, said. "There is nothing scheduled for renovation."

Maxwell, along with his colleague Library Information Supervisor Larissa Larrier, testified about the conditions at New Lots during a Feb. 24 City Council hearing on the capital budgets of the city's three public library systems. District Council 37 is part of a coalition calling for a $1.1 billion, 10-year capital plan for upgrades and new buildings in the library systems.

"Uninviting" is how Library Information Supervisor Larissa Larrier describes the library, which opened in 1958.

Indeed, upon entering the branch, visitors can't help but quickly notice its hazy lights, missing ceiling tiles, buckling floors, cracked walls, crumbling column foundations, decades-old high wooden shelves and chipping paint.

Recently, Larrier retrieved a mop to wipe up a puddle of water - a product of a the leaky roof - on the landing space midway up the stairway between the first and second floors.

$5.35 million in outstanding repairs

"If the custodians are at other branches, I just go ahead and do this," Larrier said, as she mopped the floor. "You don't want the library to get sued because someone falls. Unfortunately, I have to do this."

Special Officer Ralson Thompson - who like Larrier and Maxwell is a member of Brooklyn Library Guild Local 1482 - points to the cracks in the small wall that runs around the edge of the roof. Even though a tarpaulin hangs down from the wall for a few feet along the exterior of the building, rainwater still seeps inside through cracks in the roof.

In 2013, the library's adult literacy center was forced to close for nearly two weeks because of a broken boiler, which still needs $5.35 million more for repairs. The building's drainage system needs to be replaced. And the interior requires a full renovation.

The library is improvising as it responds to the demand for additional services. It was forced to move the children's section to the first floor when it opened a learning center on the second floor. The new section can only comfortably accommodate 15 children. The area is not big enough to have separate spaces for different age groups.

The library's computer room and community meeting space are downstairs. Wi-Fi service isn't available in the meeting room. "How can you have a meeting room without Wi-Fi," Larrier said.

The bathrooms are frequently out of order because the library does not have enough restrooms to handle the traffic.

"What's occurring here is just patchwork," Maxwell said. "Eventually this place is going to fall apart."