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The downtown main branch of the city’s public library closed early Monday after pipe repairs caused a bathroom-debilitating sewage backup.
City spokesperson Len Speiller told the Independent that the disruption was related to repair work on a Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority sewage line on Elm and Temple Streets.
Sewage began to back up into all of the Ives library’s bathrooms, according to Interim City Librarian Maureen Sullivan. “It was serious enough that we closed all of the restrooms,” Sullivan said. As a precaution, Sullivan then decided to close the building as a whole, to prevent people from accidentally using the out-of-service bathrooms.
A cleaning service is currently scrubbing the bathroom facilities.
According to the city’s website, the library branch closed after 2 p.m. on Monday. Among other critical services, that meant that a key refuge for unsheltered New Haveners was no longer available for the afternoon, although City Hall bathrooms remained open to the public.
Sullivan expects the library branch to reopen as usual tomorrow morning.
