By Jaclyn Hicken
The Orem City Library houses more than 260,000 items, checks out around 1.4 million items annually and ranks as one of the busiest libraries in Utah. It also has been functioning from two different ends of town for the last four months. However, by the end of the year 2006, the Orem Library will be whole once again.
The library building, located on the corner of the Orem City Center Complex, is about 35 years old and was in desperate need of a facelift, according to its director.
'It was built in the late ''60s, so the library was in great need of being remodeled,' library director Louise Wallace said. 'It needed refurbishing. The lighting fixtures were so old that there were no parts available to fix them. Then we realized that fire sprinklers only have a life of 40-50 years. And if you put in new sprinklers, you''ll have to take down the ceiling. If you take down the ceiling, the carpet will get covered in 35 years of dirt. It was more economical to do it right the first time.'
Organizers at the library soon realized that they would have to empty the entire south wing of the library in order to complete all the necessary renovations. University Mall, owned by the Woodbury Corporation in Salt Lake City, offered to donate space within the mall for the library''s use. The library took the mall up on the offer, and books were transported from the main Orem library to this mall branch earlier in the year.
'It really was a miracle,' said Jim Reams, Orem city manager. 'We got permission, and within three weeks we moved to the Mall Branch.'
Those books will be making their return trip before long. Once construction is complete, all the items currently in the Mall Branch will need to be transported back to the main library where many of the collections will be rearranged and moved.
The library is looking for volunteers to help with the move, and have asked those who would like to help to contact volunteer coordinator Sharon Kresege at 229-7388.
In the meantime, what began as a need for new lighting soon expanded into a large-scale, $1.8 million project. The light fixtures that prompted the original project have been updated, as has the sprinkler system. Workers using picks, shovels and five-gallon buckets in the basement have dug up a pile of dirt five feet high in order to install seismic walls. These seismic walls have been added to bring the building up to code.
'A moderate project became more than we anticipated,' said Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn. 'We have no regrets about that. ... The library is one of the gems of the community.'
The new renovations include enlargements of the library''s acquisitions room, break room, copy room, rest room, offices and repair room, all in the south wing. The library''s elevator, once located in the center of the room, has been moved against the wall.
'The old one was glassed and was no longer up to code,' Wallace said of the elevator. 'They would have had to put drywall walls all the way up so it would have been ... this big, massive thing in the middle of the room.'
Roger Laws, the contractor for the library renovation, said deciding how to deal with the old elevator has been a major headache. When the decision was made to move the elevator to a new location, it was discovered that the old elevator had a support beam that was not drawn into the original plans.
'You can''t just tear that out,' Laws said. 'If you tear that out, the roof comes down too. I''ll have nightmares about that elevator for years to come.'
The fire sprinkling system presented yet another problem. A large, 4-inch water line not readily apparent from the original plans was found to be occupying a space where a concrete reinforcement wall was supposed to be built.
Despite these problems, Laws said the work is close to being on schedule. Barring any other challenges, the renovations should be finished at the end of November.
'The biggest challenge we''ve had is unforeseen issues,' Laws said. 'When you do a major remodel of this magnitude and you start taking out ceilings and floors, you''re going to discover things that no one knew existed. That''s actually kind of the fun of the project. You open it up and you never know what''s there.'