A branch of the Athens Regional Library System located in north Athens is often forced to close due to frequent water shutoffs in the area, causing inconsistent access to public services for hundreds of residents.
The Pinewoods Library and Learning Center is a public library located in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood off U.S. Highway 29. Since opening in 2005, the Pinewoods Library has provided internet and computer access, English classes, children’s programming, tutoring, meeting space and translation assistance for north Athens residents, making it a vital part of the community.
One thing the Pinewoods Library can’t provide is a consistent schedule and stable hours of operation. Ever since August 2023, the library has had to close about twice a week on average, sometimes for hours at a time, according to branch manager Evelyn Rushing.
“After I started work [in this position], one day I noticed that the water to the library was cut off. I couldn’t understand why. I thought it was just for a month or so, but it’s been a year and six months, and nothing has been done,” Rushing said. “When we don’t have water, the library has to close. Sometimes we don’t have water from 9 a.m. to 3 or 4 p.m.”
Without water, library patrons are unable to use the restroom, and library staff cannot clean or maintain sanitary conditions, prompting closure, often with little or no advance notice.
“When the library closes, I have to close all the programs. I have to contact our partner organizations and the school system to let them know our programs are shut down,” Rushing said. “Our library can’t work that way.”
Rushing said she was informed by email during the interview for this article of yet another water shutoff for the following day, which would force her to close the library yet again. The library had to close in the afternoon the day before the interview due to the same water issue.
Even on days when the Pinewoods Library has access to water, Rushing advises library goers not to drink it for health reasons. “It smells like rotten eggs. It’s pretty bad,” she said. “We’re not able to drink it.”
The library receives donations of bottled water regularly from the nonprofit City of Refuge Athens so that library goers can have water to drink.
The Pinewoods Library is not connected to Athens-Clarke County water and sewer lines. Instead, it gets water from a well operated by its landlord, Pinewood Estates. Sheila Hudgins, the community manager for Pinewood Estates, said that they shut off the water to the library only when they have to make repairs to their aging water system.
“The community is on a well system, and we occasionally have a water line break. It’s an older park, we’ve had some older lines that broke, so the guys had to go in and turn the water off to the park so they could dig up the line and make the repair,” Hudgins said.
Hudgins blamed freezing pipes for most water line breaks in the park. She said that the archaic design of their water system requires them to shut off water access to the entire system whenever there is a problem in any part of it. She said the water is never shut off for more than two or three hours at a time and for only as long as necessary to make the repairs.
However, Rushing said that the weather doesn’t seem to change the frequency of the water shutoffs, which happen just as often in the summer as they do in the winter. Furthermore, Rushing said that long shutoffs of five, six or seven hours happen frequently, requiring the library to be closed for an entire day.
Hudgins told Rushing in November that Pinewood Estates will build a 100-gallon reservoir tank so that the library could continue to have water access during repairs. After four months, Pinewood Estates has not yet set a date for the reservoir tank’s installation as shutoffs continue to happen multiple times a week.
Until this week, the Athens Regional Library System was in between directors after the retirement of Valerie Bell, but interim director Darla Chambliss called the water situation in Pinewoods “concerning.” She said she has been gathering information about the situation to brief new director Beth McIntyre, who started work Mar. 17 after previously leading the nearby Piedmont library system.
“It’s a horrible situation,” Chambliss said. “We are looking to do something about that, it’s very top-of-list. We want to be able to keep that library open and doing the fantastic work that it does.”
But after a year and a half of dealing with these conditions, Rushing is almost out of patience.
“This is a tiny library with a huge heart and with a lot of support from the community,” Rushing said. “[The water problem] needs to be fixed. I don’t understand why we’re going through this. Why doesn’t our library have water? Why can’t we drink the water when we do have it?”
The Pinewoods Library continues paying its employees on days when they don’t have water. If she knows about the water shutoff in advance, Rushing will have her employees do outreach to nearby schools or other parts of the community on days when the library is closed.
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