Elkins-Randolph Library to reopen for limited use next week
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The Inter-Mountain photo by Edgar Kelley
The Elkins-Randolph County Public Library will begin opening for computer use on a limited basis next week. The facility has experienced several renovations, including the construction of a new conference room.
ELKINS -- The Elkins-Randolph County Public Library is planning to open for limited computer use next week, with more services being offered in the near future.
The library has been closed for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic and because of some unforeseeable issues as well.
"We had a rough summer while we were closed during COVID," said Stephanie Murphy, executive director of the Elkins Randolph County Public Library. "It was actually the perfect time for all of it to have happened, because we weren't open to the public anyway."
During its closure the library endured damage to the building brought on by some flooding, a small fire, and some electrical issues within the lighting system.
"We had to gut the entire bottom floor of the library and start over," Murphy said. "We lost everything in our kitchen and then we had to rewire and redo every light in the building. A lot of bad things happened but we've been working hard to get everything fixed and making things better than they were before."
Murphy said changes have been made to some of the sections of the library to more appropriately meet the needs of the community. Some of those changes include an improved, more adult, easier to use meeting room space, and a larger interactive children's area.
Work continues throughout the facility in hope of a soft opening date of April 1. That opening will be in coordination with the state's population limit and all the COVID-19 guidelines, ensuring everyone is as safe as possible when entering the building.
"Once we open all the way up, we can have a total population of 9-10 people in at a time," said Murphy. "With our staff here, that limits us to probably five at a time. But we are hoping some of the restrictions will be lifted, hopefully soon after we reopened for good."
Until then Murphy hopes to open up for limited computer use next week.
"If we can get the computers operational and dependable, we can start letting two to four people in at a time during the morning hours," she said. "That's for computer use only and we would schedule a time for people to come in. We will put it out on Facebook and our other links to the library on how to schedule use for the computers.
Murphy said the computer usage will be in half-hour sessions and that all of the computers have been spaced out so they are six feet apart. Each system will be wiped down between each use.
For more information call 304-637-0287.