Morgan’s new tale: Temporarily closed by mold

Morgan’s Tales (right) has closed due to mold. The resource center office has moved next door to the Davis Place teen center (left). PHOTO BY JEREMIAH O Once upon a time there was a bookstore, Morgan’s Tales, used but loved. Patrons paraded its creaky floor and flipped its wellworn pages and delighted in the smell of yellowing paper and binding glue. They searched for escape, found adventure and acquired knowledge.

One day, though, at an hour it should have been open, the sign read “closed.” No longer would its shelves be perused. One last look, drooping over a shoulder convinced it must be a mistake — but the sign simply stared.

Unbeknownst to all, the building had been sick for some time. Valiantly it fought affliction, but three years of threatening floods had shown its age, and mold had wrapped around its frame, slowly squeezing its illustrious life.

The good news, said Christie Conners, executive director of the resource center that operates the store, is that it will recover sometime in the future.

“Because we’re planning to build a new resource center,” she said, “we can’t spend money on the repairs needed to get rid of the mold.”

The bookstore will have to remain closed until the new facility is built.

The exciting news, she added, is that the closing of Morgan’s Tales has prompted the resource center to move up its construction date. Originally slated for 2012, Conners said the ground breaking is now scheduled for spring.

Conners said the resource center staff isn’t going to let this stop them.

“For now,” she said, “We’ve moved our office over to the teen center and scrunched up. We’re a resilient agency — we’ve been here since 1992.”

Conners said one possibility for keeping the bookstore open, which she’s looking into, would be the donated use of a vacant storefront or building in town.

The center’s funding has been cut, she said, and they can’t afford rent, though. It would have to be a donation.

Either way, the bookstore will bounce back. Escape, adventure and knowledge will once again greet patrons from the pages of its stock.

The only difference will be the floorboards, which will creak less.

Staff Reporter Jeremiah O’Hagan: 629-8066 ext. 125 or ohagan@scnews. com.