Library Shoots For Summer Reopening

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Fort Myers Beach Library Operations Manager Elizabeth Rhodes tells Beach Talk Radio News the holdup continues to be the elevator. It was the number one reason when we received our last update in November of last year.

Rhodes says lawyers are now involved in this process with TK Elevator to try to get to the bottom of why it’s taken them so long to repair the Library elevator. An attorney for the library has sent a letter to TK Elevator. They have advised the subcontractor that they are working towards a resolution and hope to have it resolved “soon.” They do not want to give a date to the library staff, because they have been given dates before that have gone by the wayside, but the expectation is that it will be months.

We reached out to TK Elevator and asked them why they are taking so long to repair the library elevator but never heard back.

Even though the Library looked to be one of the strongest structures on the island, having been built just a few years ago, it sustained extensive damage from Ian and has been closed since that day in September 2022. The hope now is to be open by Summer.

Rhodes says the library is making progress moving items down to the first floor despite not having an elevator. She says almost all of the furnishings have been replaced and the staff desks and computers are in place on the first floor, the flag pole has been repaired, the fence recently came down, and the gates are working.

Projects still to be worked on include repainting the lines in the parking lot, replacing parking bumpers, replacing some of the outdoor lighting, and the landscaping (replanting native plants).

While residents wait for the library to reopen, curbside services continue.

 

9 COMMENTS

  1. Kone is just as bad. They have delayed our condo four times and can’t seem to get anything right. How many elevators are working on the island?

  2. It’s pretty sad that a building built by the government that dictates how we are to build is 18 months and counting to open a building built according to codes that are to create an quick rebuild and use! An ELEVATOR? Seriously? We’ve been doing elevators for 100+ years, who the hell is TK, that’s the problem, fly by night elevator company!

    • TK is Tysen Krump which along with Otis elevator the world’s largest elevator manufacturer and installer. Far from a fly by night company. When every elevator in the area is destroyed staffing and parts become a great problem.

      • Well that’s even sadder , Otis the original, can’t get an elevator working in over a year? My elevator was up and running on January 6th 2023!

    • The library does not “dictate” how we build. That would be the Town, under tight FEMA regs flor a flood zone. The Library is a separate jurisdiction (much like the Mosquito District and FMBFD) not run by the Town or Lee County.

    • “Fly by night” elevator company?? LOL

      Thyssen Krupp Elevator had something like $40 billion in revenue last year and is one of the major elevator companies.

      How is that “fly by night”??

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