Officials believe the 52-year-old building can be saved, the Birmingham News reported November 25. City Councilwoman Laura Horton said that money for a major renovation, including a new roof and heating and cooling system, had been raised by a bond issue; the roof had been replaced just before the fire.
Horton expressed hope the city can use insurance and bond money to restore the library. “We’re hoping to bring our city back some; I know it will never be like it used to be,” she told the newspaper. “We’re trying to prove that we’re not dead. But if we get very many more things like this, I don’t know. I had pushed so hard for that library, and it just broke my heart.”
Librarian Pat Coleman said in the November 26 News that he hopes to have a library in operation as soon as he acquires new computers to track the surviving books and determine the extent of the losses. The cause of the fire remained under investigation.
Posted November 26, 2003.