ORANGE — The Wheeler Memorial Library’s Children’s Room has reopened to the public nearly 10 months after flooding caused by a contractor’s error and a rainstorm.

The basement of the 49 East Main St. library will now be open during regular hours. Children’s programming will be moved there from the Moore-Leland Library in North Orange, where it had been held since the flooding.

“It’s a long time coming and I’m just very excited to be able to offer services to a lot more people,” Children’s Librarian April Violette said last week on the first day the basement was reopened. “It was hard in North Orange because it’s so out of the way for a lot of people and not everyone drives. A lot of kids like to walk to the library, and you can’t do that in North Orange. We did the best we could with what we had.”

Violette mentioned the flooding was discovered during her first day on the job. She said she was getting ready at home when Jason Sullivan-Flynn, the current library director and her predecessor, left her a voicemail advising her not to wear expensive clothing or footwear. Violette said a silver lining is that no library materials or computers were ruined in the flooding.

Walker Powell, Orange’s community development director at the time of the closure, explained that a contractor who was hired to build an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant ramp found an issue with a drainage pipe and tried unsuccessfully to remedy the problem instead of contacting the project’s engineer. A rainstorm occurred shortly after, causing water damage to the basement. Powell said the town’s Highway Department later discovered an underground clog and a section of broken pipe.

Sullivan-Flynn explained the renovation work was paid for with about $55,000 from that contractor’s insurance, an anonymous $30,000 donation and about $5,000 from the library’s state aid.

The renovation work consists of asbestos abatement and new carpeting in the Children’s Room, asbestos abatement in the hallway outside of the room, new carpeting in the hallway, wall paneling in the hallway, carpeting in the Community Room, the painting of the Community Room’s walls and trim, new curtains in the Community Room, and some new furniture for the Community Room and hallway.

“I was telling April the other day that I kind of wish that I was still the children’s librarian, because this space is so beautiful now. But, of course, I’m happy for her and happy for the families that are able to come in and really, properly make use of this space,” Sullivan-Flynn said. “Before, it was so cramped it was hard to move around. It was even hard to see one side of the room from the other, you know?”

More information about the library and its hours are available at orangelib.org.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.