Officially, the Torresdale Branch Library closed without warning on July 7, but regular visitors to the popular community destination probably had a feeling it was going to happen.
The beads of sweat on their brows told them so.
The facility’s long history of air conditioning woes finally hit the critical level that day as the temperature outside spiked into the low 90s and the humidity to 85 percent, rendering conditions inside similar to a sweat box. The library at 3079 Holme Ave., which typically serves 12,000 visitors a month during the summer, reopened to the public on Monday after almost four weeks of dormancy, a delay caused in large part to an administrative snafu, Free Library officials have said.
“We’re open and ready for business,” Torresdale librarian Ann Hornbach said on Monday, adding that programs including Super STEM Storytime, youth playgroups, chess club and employment workshops will resume their normal schedules.
The monthly Friends of Torresdale Library meeting is also back on the schedule tonight (Aug. 5) at 6:30 p.m., according to the volunteer group’s president, Linda Colwell-Smith. Meanwhile, visitors once again have full, free access to the library’s computers and collections. The library is open from noon to 8 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 10 to 5 on Fridays.
The recent closure wasn’t the first time that the library has had to close its doors due to air conditioning failure, but it was the longest such period, a spell exacerbated because the actual repair work didn’t begin until July 27. Speaking at a special meeting held inside the neighboring Thunderbird Lanes that night, the Free Library’s vice president of property management, Jim Pecora, chalked up the delay to bad timing.
The administration had allowed a citywide maintenance contract to lapse, so there was no one to respond to the crisis. Typically, maintenance contracts run from July 1 to June 30, but the Free Library did not launch the bidding process to award a new contract in advance of this year’s deadline, Pecora said. The Free Library might have granted an extension to its existing contractor, Pecora said, but the contractor demanded a much higher monthly premium, so the Free Library ended the relationship. Pecora did not discuss why the Free Library did not launch the new bidding process sooner.
In the absence of a permanent contract, the Free Library awarded an emergency no-bid contract to a different company to handle maintenance for several months. But awarding the emergency contract took about two weeks to complete.
The emergency contractor, Johnson Control, visited Torresdale for the first time on July 23 or 24 to diagnose the air conditioning problem, Pecora said. The actual repair work took about three days and was followed by a couple days of testing and getting the building to proper temperature.
The air conditioning system at Torresdale is about 15 years old and has an expected service life of about 25 years, Pecora said. Based on the contractor’s new assessment of the building, the Free Library is considering doing some work on its heating system, which is about a dozen years old. According to Pecora, the Free Library was planning to open bidding this week for a new citywide maintenance contract. ••
