Boulder Public Library begins repairs in wake of meth exposure
Mar. 4—In the months since the Boulder Public Library closed, and later reopened, work is just getting started to repair several public-facing restrooms after testing found high levels of methamphetamine.
Annie Elliott, spokesperson for the city, said a contractor was hired this week and work to fix six restrooms is expected to begin next week. Needed remediation includes installation of ventilation ducts, fans and sensors as well as ceiling and wall repair for areas where the old ventilation ducts were removed.
Elliott said the city so far has spent about $160,000 on remediation work and is estimating the total price tag will be about $200,000.
Before the repairs could begin, a final round of testing was completed to ensure the six restrooms were safe. Restrooms in the children's section reopened last month, following additional testing. They are available for families, anyone under the age of 18 or anyone with a medical condition defined by Colorado law, said Boulder Public Library Director David Farnan.
Farnan said even after the work is completed, he expects only one all-gender restroom will be accessible to the public. He is still unsure how many stalls will be available.
"For the main library, we'll have to experiment with a way to regulate them to prevent the recurrence of people smoking drugs in the bathroom," Farnan said. "That's initially going to require a higher degree of regulations. I am hoping we can figure out what works."
Shannon Aulabaugh, Boulder spokesperson, added that the city has not finalized new protocols yet and will not be ready to announce them until they have been reviewed by Boulder City Attorney Teresa Tate and the security company that will be implementing the protocols.
What's also yet to be determined is how security will work, Farnan said. The library hired three new security guards after all three former guards resigned — two for reasons related to individuals using drugs in the library restrooms. The city works with Denver Metro Protective Services to employ security guards.
"(The company) struggled with providing us with trained guards, and they even struggled with providing us with guards," Farnan said. "Right now we have three guards. None of them have more than a month's experience, so we are spending a lot of time training them on what the library uses are, and we will be training them on what the expectations are around the bathrooms."
The Boulder City Council recently approved $238,456 — about double the Boulder Public Library's usual allocation — to increase security from three to seven guards at the main library and to add security at the Meadows and George Reynolds Branch libraries.
As the process continues to repair and potentially reopen one of the library's restrooms to the public, an additional question has also arisen: what other restrooms are available to the public?
Farnan said his staff refers people to public restrooms on 9th Street and Canyon Boulevard and Pearl Street, but never know if they will be open or not.
"We need bathrooms for everybody," he said.
Out of Boulder's 13 public restrooms, only two are located downtown, and both have been repeatedly closed in recent weeks due to vandalism. Aulabaugh said the public restroom at 9th and Canyon reopened the morning of Feb. 16 after the locks were vandalized and closed again that same day after the toilets clogged.
Elliott believed the 9th and Canyon restroom was again open as of Friday, but could not officially confirm before publication. It's unclear if the public restroom on Pearl has reopened.
At this time, adding more downtown restrooms is not being considered, Elliott said. First, the city first wants to manage the restrooms it does have and is looking at the possibility of installing security cameras.
"They were considering a bunch of options," she said. "If they caught someone vandalizing it, they could talk to them on the speaker. The problem is, who is going to enforce it and who is going to be there? We are trying to decide what's cost effective."
