Flood Clean-Up to Keep Fountaindale's Studio 300 Closed for Several Months

Fountaindale Public Library's new multimedia space Studio 300 will remain closed for "several months" for clean-up following last month's flooding, according to officials.

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Studio 300 opened to the public March 16 and includes six sound recording studios, two video recording studios and three group collaboration rooms with video conferencing capabilities. 

Studio 300 is located on the library's lowest level and bore the brunt of the damage, officials said. About an inch of water flooded the space on Thursday, April 18. 

"There is a significant amount of work to be done," from replacing carpet and drywall to assessing the condition of the sound recording studios, according to a press release. 

Damage to Studio 300 

Water damage required officials to remove all of Studio 300's carpet and vinyl base along the walls, plus some drywall. Computer tables in the center of the Studio will need to have significant repairs made to them or be replaced.

Officials are still assessing the condition of the sound recording studios, but equipment within Studio 300 escaped damaged, according to a press release. 

Fountaindale will host many aspects of Studio 300 services in other areas of the library. Patrons should check the library's events calendar for information about the locations of Studio 300 programs.

Flooding was caused by overwhelmed sump pumps 

It appears that the water, "which was clean," resulted not from sump pump failure but sump pumps that were overwhelmed "by the extraordinary amount of water we received that day."

Fountaindale has two high capacity pumps with redundancies built in. If one fails, there is another that will take over. Both pumps are also connected to a generator in case of power failure.  

The library's vendor told officials they had seen a large number of pumps in the Chicago area that were overwhelmed April 18. Fountaindale is continuing its investigation into the flooding.