Connellsville Library Overhauling Protocol After Man ODs In Bathroom
CONNELLSVILLE (KDKA) -- An overhaul is underway at a library in Fayette County after a man overdosed in the bathroom.
The Carnegie Free Library in Connellsville is a place for reading and resources, so it was a shock to officials when a man reportedly overdosed on heroin in one of the bathrooms.
He was found unconscious.
Police and paramedics were called, and had to revive him with Narcan.
"We found needles, there were fluids on the floor, unused and used bags of heroin," said the library's John Malone. "It was a scary situation."
Malone, the president of the Board of Trustees, says it's also unacceptable.
"Quite frankly, because we house so many young kids in this library on a daily basis, I was appalled by someone coming in, and taking what I consider the church of knowledge, and taking it upon themselves for their own pleasure," Malone said.
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Library officials are now changing the way they operate to prevent something like this from happening again in the future.
"We will keep the bathrooms locked," said Malone. "You will have to have a key to access the bathrooms from here on out," Malone said.
But that's not all; they also want to raise about $15,000 to put towards a video surveillance system. They would like put cameras throughout the library.
"To give the staff the ability to take it upon themselves to find suspicious behavior and we can notify the police quicker," Malone said. "To me, coming into a library, it's a sacred place, and to have a young man take that away from so many people, it appalls me, and I will not let that happen again."