Volunteers work together to help prevent water damage to books at the Cranbury Public Library.
By: Josh Appelbaum
Three Cranbury Public Library patrons and the library staff got more than they bargained for on Sept. 28, when the building’s roof began leaking as a result of heavy rains caused by the remains of Hurricane Jeanne.
Doug and Andrea Diamond were checking out books with their children Jesse, 11, and Josh, 9, when at around 8 p.m. when rain started pouring through ceiling tiles.
Mike Kaiser, membership chairman for the Cranbury Lions Club, was set to conduct a meeting at the library in the community room when he saw water-soaked books fanned out to dry.
Mr. Kaiser said he thought of simply calling his meeting off and returning home, but soon realized the leak was more pervasive. Mr. Kaiser, who he visits the library biweekly for meetings, said he felt all of the books were in danger of being damaged from the leak.
"It hit me I said to myself, ‘I can’t let this happen,’ and at the last minute I decided not to go home (but to) lend a hand," Mr. Kaiser said.
Mr. and Ms. Diamond started taking books off shelves as quickly as possible. The couple knew they had to pitch in because there were very few people in the library to assist Library Director Howard Zogott and staff members Marilynn Mullen, Kathy Lehr and Celeste Greene.
"Anyone would have done what we had done if they had seen all that water leaking we were just in the right place at the right time," Ms. Diamond said.
Ms. Diamond, who visits the library with her children about twice weekly, returned home with Jesse and Josh, leaving the recovery work to her husband and Mr. Kaiser.
Mr. Kaiser decided the best way to protect the library books would be to cover the shelves with plastic tarps. Mr. Kaiser, who owns Kaiser Building in Cranbury, went to his warehouse on South River Road and returned with 50-foot rolls of plastic tarp.
"Doug and I pulled heavy plastic sheets over the shelves and channeled the running water into trash cans provided to us by the janitors," Mr. Kaiser said.
Mr. Diamond said it took him, Mr. Kaiser, and the library and janitorial staff about an hour and a half to secure the books from water damage.
Mr. Zogott said in a letter to The Cranbury Press that by 11:45 a.m. Sept. 29, all books that had been taken off shelves had been reshelved, and that asides from a few waterlogged paperbacks and hardcover books that could grow mold, there were few literary casualties. By last week, damaged ceiling tiles had been replaced and painted.
Mr. Diamond said he was glad to help the library in its time of need.
"Everyone at the library was very nice and, personally, if someone needs your help, I try to help them out. They didn’t ask, I just offered," Mr. Diamond said.
Mr. Kaiser said he stopped into the library last week and was happy to see things were returning to normal.
"It was pretty remarkable to see everything was repaired. I’m very pleased to see the effort I put in saved a lot of books," Mr. Kaiser said.