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As the temperatures rise, people are always looking for cool places to find a reprieve from the heat.  Residents of Niagara Falls, like many other municipalities, are always welcome at public libraries.

For people in Niagara Falls, that was not the case up until the Niagara Falls City Council approved just about $30,000 to be spent on fixing the broken air conditioning at the the Public Library on Main Street.

Now, for the first time in over a year, the air conditioning in working. It’s a relief for patrons and staff at the library.

The city contributed $6,000 while the remaining $27,000 came from a federal grant.

“We decided to change the use of that money to have the air conditioning system fixed,” said Bob Kazeangin, the administrative assistant to the Niagara Falls Library executive director.

When asked if it’s upsetting that the money was used to fix the air conditioning, Niagara Falls City Administrator Nick Melson said he did not think so.

“It was specific towards technology within the library, and what good is buying new computers if you can’t use the building,” said Melson.

The air conditioning unit isn’t fully fixed as maintenance workers have to manually turn the air on and off.

Courtney Geerhart, a staff member at the library, said walking into work was like “walking into a sauna.”

Fortunately for staff and patrons alike, they have air conditioning to beat the heat.

“We’re telling every patron that we have air conditioning,” said Kazeangin, “and they walk into the building with smiles on their faces.”