The summer heat is taking its toll on one of Salt Lake County’s designated “cool zones.”
The West Valley branch of the Salt Lake County Library has reduced its hours, closing at 2 p.m. every day due to limited air conditioning and high temperatures.
“This extreme heat takes a toll not only on people, but on equipment as well,” said Katherine Fife, associate deputy mayor of county Services at Salt Lake County. “As hard as our old building and equipment is working, sometimes it can't quite keep up.”
The county opens cool zones during heat events. These are air-conditioned public buildings, such as libraries, resource centers and senior centers, where individuals can visit to cool off.
Hours and accessibility vary by the facility. The 18 branches of the Salt Lake County Library, however, have the same schedule, offering shelter from the heat from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Joey McNamee, director of the Salt Lake County Library, said the West Valley branch is one of the oldest buildings in the system, and there had been questions over whether its infrastructure could handle extreme cold or heat.
“Temperatures are hitting 90 degrees by mid-afternoon, and that is just not a cool zone, certainly,” McNamee said. “And we start to run into just safety and customer service concerns for our patrons and staff.”
The library initially closed early due to excessive heat on July 1. It remained closed through the rest of that week while McNamee said they looked for solutions. She said the county recognizesd the centralized cooling system in the West Valley branch needed to be replaced, however, an early analysis found it would cost thousands of dollars simply to review the problem and find potential solutions before any repairs could take place.
“When we're thinking about wise use of taxpayer dollars [and] making significant investments in infrastructure for a building this age that we know needs to be replaced, it is a tricky cost-benefit analysis,” she said.
The library has turned to alternative measures to cool the building, like bringing in portable air conditioning units. After that first week, the West Valley Branch reopened from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. McNamee said the shortened hours will remain in place for the “foreseeable future.”
“Up to 12,000 people come through the West Valley branch per month, and even when it's so hot inside there, and even when there's construction outside the branch, it's still a really bustling library,” she said.
Library patron Paul Long recognizes how the shortened hours can impact the community, and he is concerned about reduced accessibility.
“It is pretty hot out here during the day,” Long said. “Then [people] have to sit out here for a bus stop, then it's going to be horrible for them to have to do that, because that's how heat stroke happens.”
For now, Fife said there are 14 different cool zones within 5 miles of the West Valley Library. The county has an online cool zone map that allows people to find the location closest to their address.
“We anticipate, with these warm temperatures, that it's going to be a battle,” Fife said.
