NEW ORLEANS — This year New Orleans has reached 100 degrees or more, at least 13 times!
“It’s abysmal, it’s tropical and it feels like you’re just about to be dissipated into a heat wave that’s never going to let up,” New Orleans resident Valward Marcelin said.
Marcelin likes to take refuge from the oppressive heat at the Main Library, but he says sometimes it’s not enough.
“I run to the library because I think I’m going to get some release, but it doesn’t happen because as we’re taking right now it’s hot in here. Right now it’s hot and it shouldn’t be that way,” he said.
During this year’s excessive heat, the main library’s air conditioner hasn’t always been reliable. A few weeks ago, the HVAC wasn’t fully working. Now library officials say the branch will be closed Mon., Aug. 28 and Tues., Sept. 5 to give the system a chance to cool down the building.
“It’s a pretty aged building the HVAC is pretty old itself and you’re surrounded the windows so you have a lot of heat coming into the building,” Tamyka Miles, Deputy director of the New Orleans Public Library said.
The main branch isn’t the only city building that has had AC issues this year. NOPD Headquarters, fire stations and criminal court have all experienced something similar.
The library says they’re working with the city to replace the 30-year-old HVAC system, but city leaders say they’re hoping long term solutions will keep this from happening repeatedly.
“Should there be a plan about all of this and to me there needs to be two thigs one, what’s the maintenance schedule and how are we doing at that and what are we looking at for older buildings,” City Councilmember Joe Giarrusso said.
For some city buildings with broken AC’s, they needed to go through the city bidding process to fix it, which could take months. But, Council members increased the price threshold for the bidding process from one thousand to ten thousand, hoping for quicker results.
“We’re using this as a hub, we’re encouraging people to use these spaces and we want the spaces to function,” Giarrusso said.
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