Library move delayed again

Yorkton Public Library will not be returning to its Broadway location this month as planned.

"We were waiting on carpeting, and unfortunately because of the large size of the library, it has to be factory-made. It's been further delayed," says Melody Wood, the library's manager of public services. Late last month, officials reported that Yorkton Public Library was on track to move back into its dedicated building on Broadway Street West by the end of October. Wood says she now hopes the move will be completed by year's end.

Yorkton Public Library was severely flooded during Yorkton's July 1, 2010 storm, forcing it to relocate into a smaller space in the Parkland Mall while repairs were completed.

That temporary move, originally planned to last six months, now looks like it may stretch into a year and a half.

Large numbers of books were water-damaged and had to be disposed of after the flood. Because some of the recovered books were put away damp during the rush to clear out the library, the question has lingered over the past year of whether further volumes became damaged during storage.

"We've been actually going through all the boxes that we had - we had two trailers full of boxes of books. We've now gone through about 75 percent of it," says Wood.

Yorkton Public Library is ordering in new books and books from other branches to make up for its losses. Wood says she expects to have enough books to fill the shelves in the library's permanent location once it reopens.