Flooded Meredith library remains closed

MEREDITH — Massive damage due to flooding from a water cooler has kept the Benjamin M. Smith Memorial Library closed all week, and with the cleanup extending into next week, the library is looking to relocate its programs and activities.

Library Director Erin Apostolos said she received a call at 8:30 a.m. Monday about water coming out of the fountain like a geyser, and it flooded the fiction area before going downstairs to the meeting room and kitchen area.

The Water Department shut off the water supply and the Fire Department helped clean up the water, while the library staff removed 10,000 volumes from the fiction section, placing them in carts in the parking lot.

The books were unharmed, Apostolos said, because the water reached only about one inch on that floor, before draining downstairs.

“The meeting room was gutted,” she said, describing wet drywall and other damage that has required demolition. The staff has been cleaning and decluttering all week, she said.

The library was able to move its children’s Halloween program to the Meredith Community Center on Friday, where they also did pumpkin-carving.

Apostolos said she hopes to use the community center for other library programs, but had not finalized a schedule as of the end of the day Friday.