{"id":273884,"date":"2026-08-28T12:06:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T12:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/273884\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T12:06:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T12:06:32","slug":"reading-shifts-funds-to-replace-library-elevator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/273884\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading shifts funds to replace library elevator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reading City Council has redirected more than $408,000 in federal pandemic relief funding to replace the Reading Public Library\u2019s aging and currently out-of-service elevator.<\/p>\n<p>Council approved a $408,710 contract with Reading Elevator at its regular meeting Monday, using American Rescue Plan Act funds originally earmarked for improvements at the former Hillside pool property.<\/p>\n<p>The library\u2019s only elevator was installed in 1989 and most of its major components are obsolete and no longer supported by the manufacturer.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingeagle.com\/2026\/07\/21\/elevator-out-of-service-at-reading-public-library\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elevator out of service at Reading Public Library<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Officials said the elevator has been out of service since July after increasingly frequent mechanical problems raised safety concerns. Library officials said last month that it was expected to remain out of service until January.<\/p>\n<p>The Hillside project was delayed after fires at the former pool site, including an April 28 arson that damaged the pool house and forced the city to halt bidding while the structure was evaluated.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingeagle.com\/2026\/05\/04\/fire-at-hillside-pool-site-delays-reading-splash-park-plans\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fire at Hillside pool site delays Reading splash park plans<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Because the project can no longer be completed by the ARPA spending deadline, officials said the city can use the federal money for the elevator replacement instead.<\/p>\n<p>The city still plans to move forward with the Hillside project using capital improvement funds.<\/p>\n<p>The Hillside project also has roughly $1.9 million in funding through the National Park Service\u2019s Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program. That funding provides a longer window for completing the project than the ARPA money, officials said previously.<\/p>\n<p>The city purchased the former Hillside pool property on North 14th Street in 2019 with plans to replace the long-closed pool with a modern splash pad, cabanas and other amenities. Plans also call for new concession and restroom facilities, on-grade parking and full ADA accessibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading City Council has redirected more than $408,000 in federal pandemic relief funding to replace the Reading Public&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,857,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-273884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-essential-reading","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}