Broken elevator a downer at Geneva library
"Bwoken. It's bwoken," a toddler boy told visitors to the Geneva Public Library Wednesday, pointing to the customer elevator.
Broken it is and broken it is likely to stay, for possibly the next two weeks.
Patrons most affected by it are those who can't negotiate steps and parents who use strollers to transport kids. Although the entrance to the library is on the ground floor, it's nine steps up to the adult services department and down eight steps to youth services and the community meeting room. The library was built in 1908, before laws required public buildings to be accessible to the disabled.
The elevator stopped working Monday.
"The timing of this …," said adult services librarian D.T. Walsh, shaking her head.
The big Swedish Days used book sale starts June 19. Although the library has a small dumbwaiter for moving book carts, the staff uses the elevator to move boxes of sale books from a workroom on the upper floor to the sale room in the basement.
"Our big concern is mothers coming in with strollers," Walsh said. "We don't want them bumping strollers down the stairs."
She urged patrons who need help walking on the stairs to ask any worker for a helping hand. (Walsh herself is using a cane after knee surgery, so she empathizes.) For those who are unable to use the steps, the staff will bring materials to the lobby or make arrangements to have materials home-delivered.
The elevator compartment is moved up and down by a giant piston in a cylinder. Oil pumped into or drained from the cylinder raises and lowers the piston.
A repairman bidding on the repair job Wednesday said it is likely low-voltage electrical current, carried by groundwater, drilled a pinhole in the metal cylinder over time, and finally the oil began leaking out. He said it could take a week to get the parts.
The elevator was installed in 1986. Nowadays, a PVC sheath is installed to protect cylinders from electrolysis.
For questions about service, visit www.geneva.lib.il.us or call (630) 232-0780.