Crime & Safety

Bernardville Library Open Overnight As Emergency Center

As many residents face fourth day without power, library will be staffed and open with food and heat from 4:30 p.m. until Wednesday morning.

The Bernardsville Office of Emergency Management has opened a "warming center" at the Bernardsville library which opened at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, and will remain staffed and open through the night, with heat, food, and drinking water, authorities announced on Tuesday afternoon.

Residents requiring emergency shelter will be directed to public shelters with space. However, the library reported that a limited number of cots also were being delivered to the building off Anderson Hill Road.

The warming Center will be staffed with local Office of Emergency Management and other trained volunteers. Police Chief Kevin Valentine said that members of the library staff, which already has been pitching in to provide a central and warm location for residents, have volunteered to help staff the center on Tuesday. He said emergency officials have been working in coordination with the library's director, Karen Brodsky.

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"Many residents and businesses in Bernardsville are still without electricity at this time," according to the official borough release. "It is estimated that power may be out in some locations until Friday, Nov. 4."

Rich McCorry, deputy Office of Emergency Management Coordinator in Bernardsville, said the center will remain open until the library reopens for its regular business day on Wednesday.

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"Then we will evaluate whether we will continue to be open," McCorry said on Tuesday afternoon.

Potable water refilling stations have already been set up at the Bernardsville Fire Co. firehouse on Mine Brook Road and at the Bernardsville Library. A limited supply of bottled water will be available at the library for residents that have special needs while supplies last, according to the borough's official release. For further information about this announcement, contact the Bernardsville police department at 908-766-0037.

This past Sunday, the library was open to all for a few extra hours, until after 7 p.m., for warming up, plugging in, and having some light to read or do other business, according to a news release from the library.

The library served 811 people that day, about double the average Sunday patronage, while most of the community residents had no power at home. Led by Readers’ Services Manager Pat Kennedy-Grant, Rosalie Baker, Vicki Bosie, and Karen Vaias held the fort for community members in need, the release. Library staff member Margaret Harvey, who had not been working that day, stopped in for a book and stayed to help serve customers.

“This is a perfect example of the way the library staff goes above and beyond in any situation needed by community members,” said Brodsky. “Pat Kennedy-Grant doubles as the library Disaster Recovery Team Leader.  She made the decision that this extra service was needed, rallied our library staff to help, and then personally joined the staff members at the library.”

 


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