Library begins Children’s Room overhaul

After being delayed due to a building emergency, the West Hempstead Public Library has begun its renovations on the Children’s Room.

The decision came after the library sustained damage when a fire sprinkler burst a week before the new year. Library officials had planned to reopen on Jan. 2, but the opening was delayed until the following Monday, with limited services. In-person programs have also been delayed.

“All in-person programs have been cancelled for the month of January,” an update at WHPLibrary.org stated. It included a list of services that are currently unavailable, among them the public use of computers and printers, tutoring, individual study rooms, and the quiet study floor. “These services are not expected to return until the end of February,” the update continued, “due to ongoing construction.”

Some areas of the building opened on Monday. “Browsing will be available on the first and second floors for the adult fiction, non-fiction, media, and young adult departments,” the update added. But the Children’s Room will remain closed until further notice.

Starting this week, there was no access to the phone extension in the Children’s Room. This will impact patrons who have children and use the room frequently.

One regular visitor, Miriam Donath, comes to the library with her 7-year-old daughter every couple of weeks. “I have probably taken out thousands of books since living in West Hempstead for the past 10 years,” Donath said. Also, she makes sure that her daughter takes advantage of the children’s program at the library.

“The children’s room suits our needs as is, but from what I understand, the renovations are being done to make the space more conducive to programming,” Donath said. “We use the library more for books than programming, but if this encourages more families to use the library, that’s great.”

The library received the funding to undertake the renovations nearly three years ago in the form of a grant as part of the CARES Act, which former President Donald Trump signed into law in March of 2020.

The library received $20,000 from the Town of Hempstead, part of a state grant to help municipal facilities pay for unbudgeted expenses incurred during the pandemic. Town Supervisor Don Clavin said in 2021 that the funding would allow facilities to continue to provide essential programs and services to their communities.

“No one in our town was spared from the impacts of this pandemic and the financial toll it has taken,” Clavin told the Herald in 2021. “We are proud to be able to provide this funding to our neighborhood libraries so they can continue serving the residents of Hempstead Town.”

Owen Rumlet, a library board trustee, emphasized the importance of getting the renovations done as soon as possible. “We’re going to be moving things around to focus on renovating the Children’s Room with the state grant and other monies in order to improve our services for the children in the community,” Rumlet said.