June 15, 2020 at 5:08 p.m.
Rhinelander District Library expected to reopen in early July
Rhinelander District Library expected to reopen in early July
The library's board of trustees voted June 9 to allow Roberts the latitude to fully reopen the building once the staff has undergone more training and rearranged the library to ensure more social distancing.
The trustees met in the City Council chambers so there would be enough room to meet in person and still practice social distancing.
The move came as several area libraries have opened in the past week, making Rhinelander one of the last to allow patrons back inside the building.
Roberts presented a draft plan for phasing in more normalized services to replace the curbside service currently in place.
"After meeting with department heads, none of them are recommending opening before the Fourth of July," Roberts said.
Devising a plan to open the library is not as simple as it might seem, she added.
"Curbside was something I thought was a pretty obvious plan and it has turned out to be not an obvious plan," Roberts said.
The library is also seeking to acquire more cleaning supplies.
"We are still having a hard time getting hand sanitizer," Roberts said. "We're trying to get enough of that built up so when it comes time for the library to reopen (there is plenty of sanitizer available)."
She said she will be meeting with her staff over the next couple of weeks to put more details into the plan and figure out how to carry it out. Some items to be discussed include whether the children's department will be open, or if children will even be allowed in the building immediately after it reopens.
"There's a lot of moving parts in this plan by sheer necessity," Roberts said. "We have to do what we can with the tools we have. We don't know what's coming up next. Even the plans we had in place when we closed changed."
To allow for social distancing between patrons, computer stations will have to be spread out, while other services will have to relocated around the building. There is also additional safety training the staff must complete.
"(The reopening) could happen sooner, but I want to make sure my staff is ready," Roberts said.
Trustee Harry Whidden said protecting the staff was important because there have now been a couple of community transmitted cases of COVID-19 in Oneida County.
"You have to protect the staff because we have a growing population, not just from within the county, but from downstate and out of state," Whidden said. "I don't want to open until we know we have everything covered."
Roberts said curbside service has proven popular with patron, and the materials being returned are being held in quarantine for three days before they are checked in. She also noted that she had to purchase more boxes to put the returns into and finding spots in the building to place the boxes is becoming challenging.
"But that's just how it's going to be for a while," she said.
She said she anticipates keeping curbside service as an option for those patrons with underlying health conditions who might not want to risk coming into the building. She also said shortened hours of operation were also a possibility, and the total number of people in the building will be capped, which could force people to wait outside waiting to gain entry.
"There is going to be pinch points only because of how the building was built," Roberts said.
After reviewing the draft plan, the trustees voted unanimously to give Roberts the authority to reopen the library building at her discretion.
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at jamie@rivernews online.com.
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