JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — One month, and still no air conditioning.
Tenants inside of the Regency Square Mall have been sweating their way through each day at the hottest time of the year, not knowing if or when they’ll have air conditioning again.
While First Coast News was inside one business, a thermometer read 90 degrees.
“We’re still sweating away," said Iris Lending Library for the Blind President Julia Neimes.
Neimes does everything in her power to keep the sweat and humidity away from the braille books she checks out to blind readers across the country, but after a month with no A/C, there’s only so much one can do.
After all, she says humidity over 50% can compromise the integrity of braille books.
“After about a week or so, we could tell there some issues with mold," said Neimes. "The smell, when we walked in. We said, ‘We’ve got to do something.’”
With no end in sight to the A/C issues, Neimes took it upon herself to fill the Iris Lending Library for the Blind with fans and her own dehumidifier for the sake of the books.
"We just noticed the humidity coming down about one percent per day, like clockwork."
The dehumidifier can’t do anything for the 90 degree temperatures inside, which has drove away many of the volunteer groups.
Neimes has a solution for that, too.
“I’m taking it to churches and things like that that allow me to set up for the day, get the volunteers in there and at least put in the volunteer time," said Neimes.
While they can make some books that way, Neimes says the A/C outage has limited the operations inside the library to just checking books in and out.
The last update Regency’s PR team provided First Coast News was last week, when they said management had received a few quotes and were working on fixing it.
Neimes is hoping she can outlast the heat for another few months, as Iris just needs $75,000 more to start building its new location on Cesery Boulevard.
Leaving the Regency Mall and all of its history will be bittersweet, nonetheless.
“What happens here affects the whole city, so I’m looking for great things in the future," said Neimes. "I know it will be brighter than what it is right now.”
The prospective buyer of the mall, Blackwater Development, says the sale has been pushed back to early 2025.
Blackwater's owner said they plan to demolish the main portion to make way for entertainment, multifamily housing and retail space.
Neimes is hoping to have the new library built and moved into before then.
More information on volunteering or supporting the library's move can be found here.