Rebuilding after a flood, Smithtown Library reopens second floor and access to stacks of books

The second floor of the Smithtown Library’s main branch has reopened — 14 months after intense flooding devastated the facility, officials said.

The branch on North Country Road reopened in May, but only the main floor was open to the public.

The library spent about $250,000 to fix its elevator, which connects library visitors to the building's second and lower levels, said Rob Lusak, the Smithtown Public Library’s director. The elevator, which was installed in 2011, sustained significant damage along with the library's lower level. The second floor was not damaged.

Lusak said “everything is fantastic now, so patrons are allowed to go upstairs ... whether they’re going to look for materials up there on the mezzanine, or sit at the tables — the elevator is now accessible.”

The second floor houses the library’s non-fiction section, including books about travel, photography and a variety of other subjects. There are also several study desks for quiet reading. The second level also contains books from the library’s Long Island Room’s circulating collection, which features selections about local history written by local authors, said assistant library director Eileen Caulfield.

“Reopening it is huge,” Caulfield said. “The public wasn’t allowed up because of the [Americans with Disabilities] Act … and now people are able to go up and browse the collection, discover books that they didn’t even think of until they found them.”

Before the elevator was repaired, library staff had been offering books from the second floor to patrons but staff had to go up and retrieve them.

The repairs to the lower level are still ongoing, library officials said. Potential contractors were expected to submit project bids last week. The library’s board of directors plans to select a contractor for the rebuild at their next meeting in November. The lower level is expected to reopen by June 1, Lusak said.

Voters last week approved the library’s $17.7 million budget for 2026. The budget does not include money for the library’s renovations, which will come from a $16.5 million bond referendum that voters approved in July, Newsday previously reported. The Town of Smithtown subsequently approved the borrowing.

The library plans to rebuild community rooms that were housed on the lower level, along with its LearnLab, where patrons use 3D printers. The library is also relocating its Richard H. Handley Collection of Long Island Americana, or the Long Island Room, from the basement to the first floor's Cornelia Butler Reading Room. The collection contains historic artifacts, including maps, books and other documents.

The Aug. 18-19, 2024 storm, which dropped up to 10 inches of rain on Suffolk County's North Shore, devastated the facility. The storm caused $21 million worth of damage to the library, which included historic documents as well as DVDs and CDs, Newsday previously reported.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to reimburse the lion's share of the project cost, officials have said. The upgrades also are expected to bring new programs and services to the library.