City wants to spend $1.4M to fix leaking library

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- City Council is looking at a proposal to spend $1.4 million to stop the downtown library from leaking.

When it rains, the 4th floor of the main library downtown starts leaking. With the heavy downpour this week, the water ran down the wall under the sky light. We also found a tarp covering books in other areas of the building.

Now the Mayor's Office has a proposal for City Council. We found out, the city wants to spend more than a million dollars to fix the problems. It's a move that has council president Bill Bishop asking questions.

"If you've known about it for so long why has something not been done before now?" asked Bishop.

Action News has learned the city has known about the problems for two years. The city asked for bids on how much it would cost to fix the problem last year.

We took our questions to the mayor's office. City leaders told us it has to do with holding the contractor liable.

Bishop says the building shouldn't have this many problems. It just opened in 2005.

"It's not supposed to have leaks in a building that's 7-8 years old."

City Council is also looking at proposals to fix leaks and other issues at the Beaches library and Medical Examiners office.