Essentials: Coffee, power, Internet

Thursday, March 4, 2010

By HATTIE BERNSTEIN

Staff Writer

EDITOR’S NOTE: The wind storm last week left as much as half of Merrimack without power. By the time you read this, electricity should have returned everywhere (let’s hope!), so here’s a look back at what was the most popular place in town when the lights – and Internet – went out.

MERRIMACK – On regular Fridays at the town’s public library, patrons aren’t treated to hot coffee, offered from a self-service cart as they walk through front door.

Nor are computers or computer hookups as ubiquitous as they were Friday.

But in the wake of the recent storm, which left hundreds or even thousands in town without power and without connection to the Internet, the 12,600-square-foot building at the intersection of Baboosic Lake Road and the old Route 3 was transformed into a shelter, community center and library all rolled into one.

There were patrons waiting outside when the doors opened at 9 a.m., and by midmorning, almost every space in the parking lot was full.

“I needed Internet access,” said Jack Lockhart, a management consultant who arrived at the library by 9:30 a.m., in time for the opening of the stock market.

At midday, after having left the library to get his hair cut, check on his home and grab a bite to eat, Lockhart was back, settling into a comfortable chair in front of his laptop for a “second shift.”

“I expected the library to be down, and I drove by and they were up,” he said, clearly happy to have a warm, lighted place to work.

According to Joanne Marston, the administrative assistant at the library, officials began planning for the next power outage following the December 2008 ice storm.

“Once we got our power back, we met and asked ourselves, ‘What could we have done differently to help the public?’ We wanted to be a central place for e-mails, paying bills and more,” Marston said.

When she changed the message board on the north side the library building Friday morning, Marston was remembering that discussion. She was also thinking of the line of cars outside the Dunkin’ Donuts up the street.

It didn’t take long for the library to fill, and people just kept coming.

Some carried laptops set up for wireless connections. Others needed to plug their computers into electrical outlets to make them work.

As the manager on duty, Marston assessed the space, consulted with the library’s maintenance man, and gave the OK to install an extension cord and power strip to accommodate up to four more laptops, in addition to the eight computers in the adult section and two in the children’s room.

“The library was built before the Internet, 1979,” Marston said, pointing to hand-printed signs hanging from the ceiling cautioning patrons about the “tripping hazard” underfoot.

Not everyone inside the library was there to use the Internet, however.

Heritage Drive resident Christine Bartlett, for example, was sitting in a reading area, devouring a Vince Flynn political thriller. Her husband, Jack, was in the next room researching genealogy on a computer.

“Usually, I get my books and go home,” Christine Bartlett said, adding that she and her husband were planning to take a break later in the day and go home for lunch, despite the power outage.

Eagle Road resident Staci Hicks had power but not Internet service at her home. She also had a deadline to meet.

“I had a couple of things I had to get out,” said Hicks, an IT support specialist who works from home.

She said she drove to the library, sent her e-mail and later returned “to do what needed to be done.”

Downstairs in the children’s room, town resident Kelly Mor was helping her two children, Ryan, 6, and Katie, 3, pack up the books they had selected.

“We needed to get out of the house,” said Mor, who lost power around 11 p.m. Thursday.

Mor said that before packing up her children and heading out, she called the library to make sure it was open.

When she was close enough to read the sign on the north side of the building, she chuckled.

“We definitely consider the library a fun place,” Mor said.

Outside, the wind sighed and choked, and the sky hung like a soggy, gray drape over roads strewn with tree limbs, pine needles and other debris.

Jeannie Wagner and her 16-year-old daughter, Sam, got out of a pickup truck that stopped at the library’s front door, and Sam collected her luggage, a laptop and a backpack.

“We saw the sign,” Jeannie said, “and we said, ‘That’s the place for us.’ ”

Hattie Bernstein can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 24, or hbernstein@cabinet.com.