A water pipe burst in the Mineola Memorial Library during the recent cold snap on Monday, flooding much of the center sections of the building and basement floor. Offices were also affected. The library is currently closed until further notice.
“It’s been closed for a couple of days,” Mayor Scott Strauss said. “We have a remediation team inside working diligently, trying to get the library back on track.”
The Mineola Fire Department got the call at 10:50 a.m. A two-foot section of the pipe that fed inside the library and up into the ceiling, froze against the brick wall inside a closet in Library Director Charles Sleefe’s office before it exploded, Strauss said.
“It was a frigid day,” Village Clerk Joseph Scalero said. “As the water was running across the floors of library, it was freezing.”
The burst pipe fed the sprinkler system in the building.
“That system is automatically tied in, meaning if it ever fails, it triggers an alarm to fire services,” Scalero said. “It took that kind of extreme weather to happen.”
The pipe exploded, flooding the first floor of the library. Water leaked to the basement level through the ceiling and walls. The children’s library, however, was unaffected.
“[Water] went in the walls,” Scalero said. “We called our insurance company. We dispatched a restoration team and they’ve been working to deal with this.”
Village crews ripped up the soiled carpets, deployed air scrubbers to prevent mold and are using industrial disinfectant to combat pollution since yesterday.
“These are all the normal procedures done to prevent mold or any kind of mildew,” Scalero said. “They really gutted it.”
Village officials estimate a one week to 10-day restoration period.
“They have to redo sheetrock walls, carpet, everything,” Scalero said. The damages were extensive. We’re hoping to open [sooner]. I talked to [Sleefe]. He was hoping to open portions of the library. It may not be pretty…but the reading areas should be usable.”
Cleanup teams will be at the library today and Friday.
“It’s been a challenge but we’ll get to where we need to be,” Strauss said. “The point here is that we should all be concerned about the freezing of our pipes in our own homes. It could be devastating. With the extreme temperatures we had, what you think is warm may not be.”
