In the early hours of Saturday morning, the town of Johnson plans to roll their public library a half-mile through town and across the river to its new home. That’s right: The over-a-century-old brick building is going to roll.
The move is designed to take the library out of the floodplain, where it has been damaged by high waters again and again since its construction in 1909. According to Library Director Jeanne Engel, the building has been hit with around 15 floods, large and small, during her 25-plus-year career. Despite previous mitigation efforts, the July 2023 flood hit the town and its library particularly hard.
“We are not just jacking up and rolling the physical building down the street … we are creating a new heart of Johnson that is free from the risk of flooding,” Town Administrator Thomas Galinat wrote in a press release about the move. “This is a message for Johnson, and all of Vermont, it is time to do something different.”
The town is employing 28 bucket trucks, 60 to 70 construction workers, around a dozen utility workers, four police cruisers, two ambulances and a fire truck to move the library to its new home, a spot right between Johnson’s Elementary School and Legion Field. The process is expected to take all night.
On Friday evening, utility workers plan to turn power off and bring lines down to make a clear path for the building. At midnight, the building will begin its journey down to Route 15 and across the Pearl Street Bridge, where streetlights will have been removed: The library is wide enough to hang out over the guardrails.
The downtown section of Route 15, a two-lane state highway, is set to be closed at 3 a.m. to make way for the move.
Around 9 a.m. on Saturday, Galinat estimated, the library will have just about reached its new home, which was formerly an alumni house for Vermont State University, Galinat said on Thursday. After that building was taken down two decades ago, the vacant lot has been used as an overflow parking lot.
Town leaders are asking the greater community to gather in celebration on Legion Field at 11:30 a.m., where the main event is in store: Elementary school children will be pulling the building into place with ropes around noon.
‘Rewriting our story’
Moving the 40-by-45-foot building out of the floodplain’s reach had always been a pipe dream for library staff and trustees. Following the 2023 flood, however, things were desperate enough that the pipe dream became the solution, Galinat said Thursday.
“In the face of increasing weather events and all we’ve lost, we are Rewriting Our Story,” he wrote in the release. “It was the rivers that brought us together to build the mill town of Johnson, (and) it is now time to accept that it is the rivers that are putting our town at risk.”
Following Saturday’s move, library trustees plan to proceed with further renovation and construction efforts, with a tentative target date of being in the building by Dec. 31.
The project is funded by a $1.68 million grant from the Vermont Department of Libraries. In addition to the move and restoration work, library trustees plan to make new space for community meeting rooms, a computer lab and private areas for telehealth services. According to a community donation site, part of the library will remain open after regular hours for community events, meetings and programs.
Engel, the library director, learned of the grant opportunity less than a month before it was due, she said, and a group of community volunteers put together the application in two weeks.
Galinat recalled the moment when the volunteers sat down and divided up pieces of the 10-page grant application to work on — including the backstory, potential future programming, contacting engineers and the Agency of Transportation. It was “probably the most beautiful moment” in his municipal career, he said.
“Really anything is truly possible in a time of need —” Galinat said.
“— when you have a community,” Engel added.
Even now, it’s the community that’s coordinating the move, as the renovation project does not have a general contractor and is not yet out to bid.
“This is literally a community effort moving a building across town,” Galinat said.
The 2023 flood devastated more than just the library, however. The town’s wastewater treatment plant filled with eight feet of water along with the post office, the first floor of the municipal office building and Johnson’s sole grocery store.
The village trustees have voted to restore the sewage plant in its current location, Galinat said Thursday. However, the town is still working to move more of Johnson’s downtown out of the floodplain. There have been preliminary conversations about moving the municipal building, he said.
‘Restored and reimagined’
Meanwhile, in Montpelier, the same July 2023 flood destroyed 5,000 donated books, the library’s main control systems and caused leaking from oil tanks at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. Renovations have been ongoing, and a grand opening of the library’s basement is planned for May 3.
According to a press release, the “restored and reimagined” lower level will hold the library’s year-round book sale, new meeting rooms and a dedicated break room for staff. In addition, it will be the new home for Elevate Youth Services’ basement teen center.
According to Sarah Wisner, operations and communications coordinator for the library, the flood recovery work cost $2 million and was funded through insurance, donors and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster funding. The work was done with an eye toward flood resiliency, the press release said.
Both public libraries are looking forward to their future — one hopefully free of flooding
“We are thrilled to welcome everyone back into our restored space,” Kellogg-Hubbard Library Executive Director Dan Groberg said in the press release. “It’s a chance to come together, reflect on how far we’ve come, and look forward to an exciting future for our Library community.”
