A large portion of the Flossmoor Public Library building’s first floor has been closed due to issues with the building’s floor settling, but library and village officials don’t agree on who should pay to fix it.
“It’s a concrete floor slab issue,” said Flossmoor Public Works Director John Brunke. “When they built the library, they used clay backfill on the inside of the building foundation that supports the concrete floor, and parts of that has actually shrunk and settled some.”
The issue was discovered in February 2025, Library Board President Natasha Bergeron said in an email, when employees noticed a growing gap between the wall and the floor on the west side of the library.
The problem area has been cleared and roped off with yellow caution tape, and there is a visible dip in the floor. Furniture has been stacked off to the side.
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While the issue doesn’t represent an active safety hazard, Brunke said, it needs to be addressed because it’s rendered a large section of the building’s floor space unusable.
“We had to have them clear the bookshelves out of the area because obviously, it’s an uneven grade and stuff. It’s not good to have the bookshelves on that area when it’s uneven,” Brunke said. “And there is a slight void on the west side, so they have to, before having weight on there and stuff, we want to make sure they fill the void and fix the floor and lift it back up to the proper elevation.”
Resolving the issue would involve bringing in a contractor to stabilize the floor, Brunke said.
“It basically involves bringing a contractor in that would inject foam stabilization into the loose soils beneath the slab, and then actually use a different type of foam that they use to lift the slab back up,” Brunke said. “It’s all like an injection process.”
Because the library leases the building from the village, the library board decided May 12 to ask the village to pay for repairs, Bergeron said in her email. Two estimates the village received place the cost for repairs at about $50,000, she said.
The relationship between the village and the library is managed by an intergovernmental agreement. Bergeron said in her email the agreement states that the library is responsible for all repairs, rehabilitation and maintenance of the building and its components, including fixtures and personal property. She said the agreement does not include structural or foundational damage.
However, the Village Board voted against paying for the repairs at its most recent meeting, sending the issue back to the library board, Brumke said.
“Right now it’s in limbo. Really don’t know where it’s going to go from here,” Brumke said. “Somebody’s going to have to figure out what to do with it, because it does have to get addressed if they want to use that portion of the library again.”
Bergeron said in her email the reorganization required by the partial closure of the first floor has made it more difficult for patrons to find items, reduced the amount of seating and workspace available and affected building security by disrupting sightlines.
“Ultimately, we just want the problem fixed so we can continue to provide the best service and environment for our Library patrons and community members,” Bergeron wrote in her email. “This has been a 15 month situation that the Library has had to work around for seven days a week.”