Water damage to parts of the interior at the Chilton-Clanton Public Library will soon be fixed after the Chilton County Commission unanimously voted to give $4,659 for the repairs on Monday.

Although water damage to parts of the interior at the library happened several years ago, significant water damage occurred in the summer of 2012 as a new roof was being installed.

Chilton-Clanton Public Library director Kelly Easterling said work was being done to repair the roof that already had several major leaks when a rainstorm came and “dumped” heavy rain on top of the work being done on the roof.

“It was just one of those days where the rain poured like a waterfall,” Easterling said. “The work that was being done helped a lot of the areas but there were parts of the pre-existing leak that didn’t hold up and there was just more damage.”

Easterling said a back corner in the conference room at the library had a pre-existing leak for many years and part of the roof was rotten where it had leaked for so long.

During the heavy rainstorm in 2012, water poured through the pre-existing leak in the conference room and poured behind the paneled walls as well as on the carpet.

Now, Easterling fears there might be mold behind some of the paneling that buckles in some places due to the water damage.

In another section of the library, the genealogy room, the roof collapsed in one section resulting in some stuff having to be thrown out during the heavy rainstorm.

“It was just a big mess,” Easterling said. “The rain that day could not have come at a worse time because we were having work done to the roof and then it just poured and it was also during our summer reading program.”

Both Easterling and Commission Chairman Allen Caton said due to the pre-existing leaks in the roof, the contractors working on the new roof in 2012 were not responsible for the water damage.

Caton said on Wednesday that the roof at the library had several pre-existing leaks due to two previous roofs being installed on top of one another.

“There were essentially two roofs that had been overlaid on one another,” Caton said. “There was a lot of moisture that had gotten in between the layers and when the new roof was put on in 2012, all of the old roof had to be stripped off for a new one to be put down.”

Caton told commissioners on Monday that he and County Maintenance Supervisor Pete Davenport went to the library on June 20 to survey the water damage and determine what work needed to be done.

Caton proposed a price to fix the damaged wall in the conference room of $4,659 with Chilton Supply and Drywall.

“We asked a couple of contractors to give us some pricing,” Caton said during Monday’s meeting. “Mainly to take the paneling down in one section and check behind it to see if there isn’t any structural problems or growth behind the paneling and then cover that wall where the water has damaged it with drywall.”

The commissioners present during Monday’s meeting voted in favor of fixing the water damage. Commissioner Heedy Hayes was absent from the meeting.

Although an exact date has not been set for when the repairs will be made, Caton said on Wednesday he hopes the work will be done within the next couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, Easterling is thankful the commission voted to approve for the roof to be repaired and thinks the construction will enhance the conference room.

“I am excited because we need to get the conference room repaired,” Easterling said. “We are hoping to paint the walls a neutral color that will hopefully brighten everything up after we fix the walls in the conference room and make sure there is no mold behind them.”