Sewickley Township closes building housing library, recreation center
Sewickley Township’s recreation center and library in Herminie is closed until further notice because of a gap in an exterior wall and cracks in an interior wall housing the gymnasium, officials said.
The township supervisors decided Thursday to close the building upon the recommendation of the municipality’s engineer, Gibson-Thomas Engineering of Latrobe. The firm inspected the structure after Sewickley’s public works employees noticed a gap in the masonry in an upper section of the exterior wall, said Mark Petros, chairman of the board of supervisors.
A public works employee noticed light through a crack in the brick wall above a window, during an inspection of the chimney, Petros said.
“We did it in the interest of public safety,” Petros said Monday.
The engineers found that the building, which housed the Sewickley Township High School before the formation of the Yough School District, was unsafe for occupancy. The township’s engineers are seeking an opinion from a structural engineer regarding repair options, Petros said.
“In depth inspection and analysis of rehabilitation methods will be investigated prior to future public access,” the township said in a statement on its website.
Closing the building also means the Sewickley Township Library in the basement also had to close and will remain shutdown until the township supervisors decide on what repairs can be made to the building to make it usable, said Mandy Luchs, library director.
The library is advising patrons to return items to other libraries in the county, or simply hold on to them for now, Luchs said.
The library board was hoping it could contract with a large moving facility to remove the 18,000 items in the library, including books, computers and furniture, but it can’t do anything until it gets permission to enter the structure, said Marci Suggars, library board president.
“We’re trying to brainstorm to come up with some ideas,” Suggars said, including creating a “pop-up library” with a limited amount of materials.
The library has weathered previous instances of building damage and staff has been adept at finding new and creative ways to serve the Sewickley Township community, Luchs said.
“It is reminiscent of the pandemic closures, but so much worse with no access at all to library materials,” Luchs said.
Joe Napsha is a TribLive reporter covering Irwin, North Huntingdon and the Norwin School District. He also writes about business issues. He grew up on Neville Island and has worked at the Trib since the early 1980s. He can be reached at jnapsha@triblive.com.
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