COLUMBUS, Ind. — It will likely be several months before the Bartholomew County Public Library’s main Columbus branch will have a new elevator installed and operational.
The current elevator has been out of service since 6 a.m. on March 24. After troubleshooting and getting inspections, library staff came to the conclusion that it cannot be fixed and needs to be entirely replaced.
Library director Jason Hatton said the library has received an estimated $140,000 quote from the company that currently services the elevator and is working to get estimates from others as well.
While he’s still figuring out what to do next, Hatton said he would like to have the board of trustees take some form of action on the project at the next board meeting, which is set for April 10. Depending on what the library hears from contractors, he may ask the board to declare an emergency in order to bypass certain restrictions and expedite the bidding process.
“The lead time is pretty significant,” said Hatton. “The elevator tech told us the absolute, absolute earliest would be six weeks. The one quote we have actually says about six months, so we’re trying to get confirmation from the company we have a quote from.”
While he doesn’t know how long the project will take, he said that the elevator will “be down for several months.”
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
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