Water woe resolved

Jordan Jeffries, left, Trevor Conner, center, and Robbie Conner, right, employees of Floors and More, work at "seaming" a section of new carpet in the Bushwhacker Museum on Thursday. The new commercial carpet was needed because of water damage to the old flooring caused by a leaking water line. Housed in the basement at the Nevada Public Library, the museum is currently closed for the winter. [Order this photo]

According to Museum Coordinator Will Tollerton, the water line sprang a leak in early August that soaked much of the floor in the meeting room. The meeting room is the largest room of the museum and is the first room visitors enter at the museum.

Tollerton said the floor of the room is sloped and the water coming from the leak followed the slope to the drains located in the bathroom area. The slowly spreading water also soaked out into the carpet on either side of the leak.

"It's kind of a forced renovation," Tollerton said. The tile floors in the bathroom areas and the kitchen are also being replaced. "They weren't damaged, but we decided to do it while we were at it," said Tollerton. "This is a good time of year for us to do a replacement like this," he said. "We're closed this time of year, anyway."

Most of the cost of the new flooring is being covered by insurance, Tollerton said. The museum is picking up the cost of the tile floors because they weren't actually damaged. It just didn't make any sense to replace all of the carpeting and not the tile too, he said.

Tollerton said all of the decisions regarding the job are the responsibility of the Library Board. "We're just tenants here," he said.

The board also voted to replace some of the old piping in the building to prevent a future leaks, Tollerton said, and they allowed the museum to choose the color, "because we're the ones that have to live with it," he said. The gray color of the 260 square yards of new commercial carpet is nearly identical to the old.

The Bushwhacker museum will be open during its regular hours beginning this spring. The museum houses 18,983 artifacts and tens of thousands of documents, photographs and films. Regular hours will begin on May 1, and are Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 for children 12-17 and $1 for children under 12. Appointments for access to the museum for research or tours can be obtained by calling (417) 667-9602.