Winter storms every year cause water damage to trees, roofs, powerlines, and now,  libraries. The Arvada West High School library has been closed for over a week due to water damage sustained on January 7th and the 8th, during the bad winter storm. Before the flooding could get worse, the custodial staff at A-West caught the flooding early on Tuesday, January 9th. 

Mensur Hadzic, the facility manager at A-West, shares, “We were here at 10 a.m for snow removal. We checked the building and everything was good. Then about 11 o’clock in the morning Tuesday we noticed the fire department truck up front and they had the hats on and everything. I hear a fire alarm, ‘What’s going on?’ So I went with the plow and met the fire department. Water was coming outside.”

The custodial staff didn’t expect to see water damage in the Library, or anywhere else in the building for that matter. While it may have come as a surprise, those who weren’t there already were ready to pitch in and help out with the situation. Hadzic shares that everybody got there within a half hour and grabbed a mop, bucket, wet vacuum, and everything else needed to mitigate the situation. According to Hadzic, even the fire department helped out.

Bryonna Mulvaney, who is the digital teacher librarian, says that many students were worried about their overdue books and having to pay late fees, especially since a lot of books were due that weekend. Though both of the librarians were able to ease the students’ fears and inform them that there were no fees for overdue books unless they were lost. 

Continuing on about literature, the librarians were worried about the potential damage to library books; however, so far no one has noticed any noticeable issues. Also, many were worried about the fish tank in the library that Chris Madsen, a science teacher at A-west, set up. Mulvaney says, “The fish for Mr. Madsen’s class, they [students] were afraid because the power went out  that the fish tank had lost power, but the fish survived.”

Due to Hadzic and his crew catching the water scare early, the damage was minimal and only really affected the carpet and the floor, though Mulvaney says that she could see the discoloration in the carpet that was caused by the water damage. Mulvaney also talks about the struggle of the library being closed, and how they moved Brook Zink, who is a paraprofessional, from the library. Zink comments on this, explaining, “Well I actually couldn’t really, we had to work out in the commons, and so I came in just for half days on Wednesday and Friday. But yeah, I had to work in the commons. It wasn’t very easy to work out of the commons.” This is especially due to lunch hour when her work became a real struggle as students made the commons a difficult work environment because of how rowdy they got.

Though the library is back up and running, Hadzic shares his initial reaction, stating, “It’s just like how things can happen so fast and how much water damage can cause and my heart was sinking just watching that and hoping that it would stop.” 

Hadzic also shares, “Just appreciate all the support from you know, communities, students, everybody on my team, and the help.”  The library is back open and running now after the events of the water damage.