City hall, library spring leaks
Saturday breaks rainfall record with 28.6 mm
Jessica Davey-Quantick
Northern News Services
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
You might not be able to beat city hall, but the rain is willing to give it a shot.
Library manager John Mutford appraises a leak that started in the Yellowknife Public Library after heavy rains on Aug. 19. He said there was no damage to library materials or equipment and the stained tiles and damaged carpet will be repaired once the leak in the roof is fixed. - Jessica Davey-Quantick/NNSL photo |
Saturday was the rainiest Aug. 19 since Environment Canada started keeping records in 1942, with Yellowknife soaking up 28.6 mm.
And when the rain came down, it rushed right into city hall and the library.
"We had a little bit of leakage that came in here over the weekend," said senior administrative officer Sheila Bassi-Kellett, who blamed a blockage in one of the drains on the roof for causing the leak at city hall.
On Monday, city staff were relocated within the building and the city's webcast service was unavailable.
During Monday's municipal services committee meeting, audio-visual equipment to allow presenters to broadcast presentations on large screens was also not working.
"We're working to get everything back up and running as quickly as we can," said Bassi-Kellett.
She wasn't able to give a definitive timeline for when all the repairs will be complete, or a final bill for how much it will cost, saying only that the city expects to have a "little bit of support" from its insurer.
Meanwhile, at the Yellowknife Public Library, the weekend rain caused a leak in the ceiling from one of the balconies attached to condos above the library.
"(We) had some tiles damaged and a little bit of stains on the carpet, but no books or computers or anything like that damaged. So we're all good," said library manager John Mutford. "We're still waiting for the roof outside to be fixed."
Once the roof is fixed, the library will replace the tiles and finish repairs inside.
The library has been operating out of its current location in Centre Square Mall since 1990.
So far, Mutford said he's lucky nothing from the library's collection of around 60,000 items has been damaged.
"We've been very fortunate in that the leaks that we've had tend to be when staff has been here," he said, adding staff have plastic tarps to drape over materials and a list of numbers to call for the upstairs condos should there be a problem.
According to Environment Canada, August has been a tumultuous month.
The city has beaten records for heat, with five August days reaching the highest temperatures recorded since 2013. The hottest day this month, Aug. 9, hit peak temperatures of 28.9 C, not quite beating 2008's Aug. 9 record of 30.1 C. Yellowknife has also averaged some of the lowest temperatures recorded in August in the last four years: Aug. 5, 6, 7 and 16 all hit the lowest temperatures for that day since 2013, with the lowest on Aug. 7 falling to 6.3 C.
