The Stoney Point Library facility is now temporarily closed to the public and staff as air quality issues are being addressed.
The Municipality of Lakeshore released a statement Wednesday evening that they are investigating the cause of the issue.
The statement released by Lakeshore says that all library materials within the temporary facility, which is a 24-foot by 40-foot mobile unit, will be removed - including the books and shelving.
The branch previously closed in 2024 when the Municipality received complaints of eye and throat irritation from library staff and visitors. Testing suggested that the issue was caused by the HVAC unit, which was then fixed this past January.
Air quality testing continued following the repair of the unit, however, due to warmer weather the air quality issues returned.
Adam Craig, Chief Librarian for the Essex County Library, says the situation is unfortunate.
"It seems like whenever the weather gets hot, which it did late last week, and then early this week again, the problem seems to keep coming back. And so, I'm optimistic this time around that we can get a permanent solution in place so that we don't have to go through this again."
He says they've already begun moving the library materials within the branch.
"Primarily I think we want to rule out the possibility that anything inside of the space is causing the issue," Craig says. "So, eliminating any potential causes for air quality issues, that just means getting everything out. And then we've got a space that we can work with that's completely empty, and then go from there."
He says he wants to make it clear to the public that this is not a permanent situation.
"We have no interest in discontinuing service out there, in fact this is - for us folks in the library world - this is painful. We don't like any kind of disruption to service. But when it comes to something like this, unfortunately we have to take every necessary precaution."
Craig adds that it's going to be "testing galore" while they work to find out the issue.
While an exact timeline for how long the temporary closure will be was not provided, Craig says they're working to do this as quickly as possible, but that they want to find a permanent solution.
The Stoney Point Library branch is located at 800 Comber Side Road North.