Post Falls Public Library reopens after year-long construction from pipe burst flooding

After around a year of limited library services, Post Falls celebrated the grand reopening of its freshly renovated library on Monday.

Last January, a pipe froze and burst, flooding the library, destroying around 10,000 books and other materials, and damaging furniture and the building.

Repairs and book replacement cost over $943,000 that was entirely covered by insurance, Community Library Network Director Martin Walters said.

Staff continued to operate out of the building’s lobby during construction with “limited services,” Walters said.

In addition to replacing carpets and painting walls, library staff changed the layout of the space, decluttering and removing shelving to open it up.

“Now it’s just quite fresh and certainly a much more open feeling,” Walters said.

After months of electrical repairs and construction, library staff returned to the building and moved around 50,000 surviving books and media materials into the remodeled space. They used the time away to evaluate their collection and pull titles that were old or otherwise damaged, Walters said.

“With the damaged materials, there was an opportunity to assess the selection and make decisions about the scope and the intent,” Walters said.

The Athol Library, part of the same Community Library Network as Post Falls, incurred damage in a similar incident and reopened in November. Those repairs cost around $412,000.

Two months into his role, Walters wasn’t around for the entirety of the project, but he understands the difficulty from Post Falls residents in operating without a library and the multipurpose community space it offers.

“I just hope the community understands how grateful we are for their patience to go without a library for a year,” Walters said. “I’m glad to get back to it.”