Roof repairs at the Prince George Public Library’s Bob Harkins Branch are well underway and expected to finish on time, a spokesperson said on Wednesday, Aug. 13.
Scaffolding can be seen on the exterior of the building leading up to the roof as well as surrounding the interior central staircase joining the upper and lower floors.
The project was approved as part of the City of Prince George’s 2025 capital budget.
At the May 5 city council meeting, staff said that due to factors like U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel, the costs for the project were higher than expected.
As a result, council approved a $250,000 increase to the project’s budget for a total of $1.125 million. However, those extra funds were obtained through contributions from the Canada Community Building Fund and the city’s general infrastructure reinvestment fund.
While the project was labelled a skylight replacement, staff said it’s more like a roof replacement given how much space it takes up.
During a visit to the branch on Wednesday, Aug. 13, library manager of communications and engagement Steve Hamilton told The Citizen that as originally predicted, the work over the last month and a half has had no impact on operations except for some occasional extra noise.
He said the library is looking forward to not having to worry every time it starts to rain.
“Whenever the rain would really start to fall here, as it sometimes does in Prince George, the skylight wasn’t doing what it was supposed to,” Hamilton said. “It’s an older building and we would have to get buckets to stop the puddles and protect our collections. It just got to the point where it was time to take some action.”
Work is expected to wrap up in the late fall or early winter.
With the next school year less than a month away from kicking off, Hamilton said the library is preparing for its fall programming and getting ready to offer its suite of after school programs once again.
