Norman Public Library Board met Monday evening to discuss updates in the ongoing legal case against companies involved in the construction of the Norman Public Library Central.
The Norman Municipal Authority filed a case in October against the contracting, architect and program managing service companies hired for the project on claims including three breaches of contract and one instance of negligence.
City Attorney Rick Knighton said Flintco, LLC, the general contracting company for the library, is required to serve the defendant, however, OK Building Solutions, LLC, a third party defendant, has not yet been served, delaying the progression of the case. According to Knighton, all other third party defendants were served in October and December.
“We’re in a sort of holding pattern until OK Building Solutions is served with that third party petition,” Knighton said.
Sue Ringus, a board member, expressed frustration with the length of the process.
“I understand the litigation is slow,” Ringus said. “It just feels like there hasn’t been communication and there’s not a great answer for why Flintco is taking so long serving this last third party.”
Knighton’s presentation came after the board drafted an email to Mayor Larry Heikkila and council members in a previous meeting to express concerns about the infestation and lack of public updates from the city. Board member Jason Bingham said Knighton’s presentation was the first update in the remediation process the board had heard in a year.
“(The last update) was a whole year ago,” Bingham said. “Because we only meet four times a year, there’s only so many opportunities for us to get information.”
Following Knighton’s presentation, board members discussed a desire for more transparency from the city in the remediation process of the central library building.
“This is by far the clearest and most detailed explanation we have heard,” Ringus said. “It is hard to think that the rest of the community is getting much more information than this.”
Background, accommodation issues
The meeting comes over a year after the library was closed indefinitely when mold was found throughout the building.
In November 2023, Norman hired Cavins Construction Group to investigate water leak issues in the building’s roof. The group discovered traces of mold on each level of the facility.
Later that month, Pioneer Library System Executive Director Lisa Wells said the location would be closed for five months while Cavins Group services the facility. After city council met with a design and consulting firm to discuss findings from the remediation process in April, the city announced the location would close indefinitely.
Caroline Dulworth, Pioneer Library Systems branch services director, said the east library location at Alameda Street cannot accommodate all visitors while the central location is closed.
“They don’t have the space,” Dulworth said. “You can’t even get a parking place.”
Jayme Shelton, chair of the board, said the west library branch at Norman Center Court is also not big enough to serve as the public gathering space the central branch once was. He said the libraries serve the community by providing meeting rooms and study locations for Normanites.
In February, OU Daily reported the Pioneer Library System and city officials were searching for a facility to store the book collection. Dulworth said the book collection is still in the closed facility. Lisa Wells, Pioneer Library System executive director, told OU Daily in April a storage facility would allow the books to be put back into circulation, but the building would not be accessible to the public.
According to Kelly Sitzman, Pioneer’s director of communications, Pioneer wanted a facility that is close to their administrative building and processing service center.
Knighton listed possible storage locations for book collection, including multiple buildings on Main Street that are no longer in use. According to Knighton, the city’s hope is to not only find a storage location for the books, but to also get them back in circulation by putting them online, allowing them to be transferred between libraries in the system.
Despite frustrations with the lengthy remediation process, board members expressed hope for the reestablishment of the central library location.
“People who love libraries are idealists,” Ringus said. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
This story was edited by Natalie Armour and Ana Barboza.
