ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — A costly repair, or savings for a new library: this is the decision the Ector County library community advisory board is tasked with.
The maintenance director says plumbing repairs alone will cost $1.5 million. Everything else from AC to windows to electrical will be $3.5-4 million.
It's no secret that this library is old, but it also wasn't even designed to be a library.
"It was the Headlee Medical office building and it was donated to the county. The library moved there in 1983 and has been in that location ever since without any sort of upgrades or refresh or anything," said Randy Ham, Ector County library community advisory board chair.
Repairs would include piping, faucets, pumps and toilets, but also windows, air conditioning and electrical.
"The library's only been in there since 1983, but that building was built in the 1950s and it still has a lot of the original plumbing, electrical, HVAC. So we're talking about a complete redo of the entire plumbing system, that there would be nothing that would be saved or reused and you're also talking about if you're redoing the plumbing, you're closing that building for months," Ham said.
So committee members are getting their facts straight first.
Now that they have the repair numbers, they're looking at other libraries around West Texas, studying their annual reports, budgets, square footage and location to help them decide the future of their own library.
"At the moment, the library has an interim director and they're searching for a permanent library director, so we're going to look at helping the county find that person as well. It's a lot more than just the bricks and mortar. It's really thinking about how this library fits into our community," Ham said. "I want the community to know that we as a committee treat this very seriously. We really want the best outcome for the community. We want to make sure that everybody's voice is heard that wants to be heard and that at the end of this, we have something that the community can be proud of and they can use."
This project is by no means going to be short and simple. It's just the beginning of a new chapter.