PITTSTON — A small creature is causing a big problem in Luzerne County. The library in Pittston is closed for three weeks after the librarians discovered an infestation of fleas.
The library is usually a haven for books. But this summer, the Pittston Memorial Library has become a home for bugs. Fleas have invaded the library, and now customers are being shooed away.
“As soon as we realized it wasn’t going away that quickly, we wanted to make sure we were proactive in the treatments,” said Pittston Memorial Library director Anne Hogya.
Library employees noticed fleas in July. Director Anne Hogya called the exterminator and had the carpet treated, but the fleas already multiplied.
The county health department suggested closing the library for 21 days to get rid of the bugs. After another treatment, the library is now closed until August 23.
Teresa Schlehuber recently moved to Pittston and visited the library to use the computers. Now she has to visit another branch.
“This is convenient being that I don’t know and I’m only a couple blocks away, so I knew this, and it took me two weeks to find out where this was,” said Teresa Schlehuber, of Pittston.
The book return is still available for people to drop off, but the director says since the library`s been closed, this has been filling up, so people are having a hard time getting the books down the shoot.
Mike flannery, of Exeter, visits the Pittston library five times a week to use the computer. He says he’ll visit the other branches, but is looking forward to this library getting de-bugged.
“This one’s the best because you get more more time on the computer, and they give you, there’s audio. You can listen with headphones,” said Mike Flannery, of Exeter.
All meetings and events at the library have been cancelled until the 23rd.
“It’s just incredibly hard to imagine how much this is snowballing into extra work and things we didn’t even think about,” said Hogya.
