Wednesday, June 18, 2025
After being closed for a month, the Uniondale Public Library finally reopened on Tuesday, bringing life back to a space where the community comes to learn, read and more after major leaks in its roof.
The library — originally a Catholic church — opened in 1954, and in recent years the building had started to show wear and tear, especially in its roof and ceiling. In 2020, the library conducted a roof moisture assessment, with the results presented during a monthly public board meeting. It was declared in “satisfactory” condition, typical for a building of its age, including the need for maintenance issues, with leaks discovered. Some may have been caused by deteriorated mortar joints around the building’s chimney.
The library is governed by a board of trustees responsible for overseeing the facility’s operations, finances and policies, which are open to public review, ensuring community involvement. Board meetings include reports and discussions of budget and expenditures.
“We had the roof more than 30 years,” library Director Mara Marin said. “I don’t know when it started to fail us — we ended up with a lot of issues coming from the ceiling of the library. We came to a point where we cannot patch it anymore.”
Last spring, Marin put together a packet outlining the extent of the damage. Even after a technician patched the ceiling, a roof replacement was recommended.
“Every time it would rain, they would end up with a garbage pail with the leaks,” Marin recalled, which wasn’t very appealing to library patrons.
The board approved the replacement of the roof, and the library awarded the contract to the lowest bidder, PTS General Construction for a capital project costing $923,000.
During the closure, which began on April 1, patrons used the East Meadow Public Library.
The Uniondale facility’s
interior design presented some logistical challenges. In the main area, above the bookshelves, exposed ceiling beams allowed debris to fall through during the roof work, creating hazards below and making it necessary for the area to be covered in plastic. The service and administrative areas have a drop ceiling, which provided protection from debris and made it feasible for some of the staff to remain in the building during the closure. They used the basement as well, where the computers are housed.
Despite the closure, many programs continued online. “If we had programs that we could move virtually, we moved them to a virtual platform,” Marin explained. “We had children’s programs … and we had some adult programs virtually.”
Events like Storytime, trivia and creative writing were held on Zoom.
“We certainly learned from Covid how to actually switch gears mid-ride,” Marin said. “When we have a situation like this, there’s no, ‘Oh, my God, how are we going to do this?’”
“We knew that roof construction is coming, everybody was informed. The community was informed. And I have to say — except for the weather, we were pretty much ready for anything coming our way.”
The only inconvenience during the month-long closure was a weather delay that no one could have predict. The delay cost one week, lengthening the initial plan for a three-week project.
And as of Tuesday, everything was back to normal — minus the buckets.
