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Library in need of funds to repair elevator

COVID-19 has made for a rough year

The Havre-Hill County Library is in the midst of a search to find funding to repair their elevator, which stopped working a few months ago due to a broken cylinder.

Library Director Rachel Rawn said the Havre-Hill County Library Foundation has covered the down payment for a replacement cylinder to the tune of just over $18,000, and she and her colleagues are determined to fix the problem, but she’s not sure the foundation can afford to cover the rest of the $72,500 cost to fix the elevator.

“We’re going to get it working again no matter what,” Rawn said, “but I don’t know if the foundation can pay the rest of the fees that it’s going to cost.”

She said their adult fiction and children’s sections are in the basement and a lot of their collection overall resides down there.

She said while they have stairs that can be used to access the basement, older library-goers and families with children in strollers are having a very hard time getting down them.

She said this problem has been compounded by a rough year for the library due to COVID-19.

Rawn said The Friends of the Library, an organization that works closely with the foundation, normally runs a number of fundraisers each year to raise money for things like this, including a book sale in September and the pie social around Valentine’s Day, but both had to be canceled due to the pandemic.

She said she’s been looking into grants and the organizations that provide them to cover the cost of the repairs, but hasn’t heard back on any of her inquiries yet.

Rawn said she appreciates the work of The Friends of the Library as well as that of the larger community to help them, but the library and the foundation are in need.

“I really appreciate all the support we get from the community,” she said. “We know it’s been a hard year for everyone and we appreciate anything people can do to help us out.”

A letter to the editor sent to the Havre Daily News by Foundation Board Member Bonnie Williamson says the foundation will be sending out a postcard to people in the area asking if they want to renew or become a member of the Havre-Hill County Library Foundation.

The letter said people can pick up a postcard at the library, 402 Third St. if they don’t receive it or if they want to donate directly to the elevator repairs.

Beyond the current need for repairs, Rawn said, the elevator as a whole is in desperate need of modernization, which will cost even more money. She said it is so old that many parts of the elevator can’t be repaired if they break because the parts necessary for those repairs aren’t even made anymore.

“Eventually we’ll have to get that done, and that’s even more expensive,” she said.

However, Rawn said, while this is an issue that will need to be dealt with eventually, priority one is getting the elevator operational again and that’s what they are worrying about for now.

 

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