Lebanon
Waiting for a lunch of sloppy Joes on Tuesday in the air-conditioned Upper Valley Senior Center, Lebanon resident Ann Dessert-Webb said it takes three air conditioning units to keep her Route 4 mobile home cool.
“It’s like a tin can,” she said.
The senior center is one of Lebanon’s three cooling centers, which were open to the public on Monday and Tuesday, and will be open again on Thursday.
Across the Upper Valley, residents sought cooler temperatures in civic centers, libraries and swimming spots. Because of the heat, at least one restaurant without air conditioning had to modify its hours, stores had trouble keeping up with the demand for air conditioners and some events were postponed.
At the Lebanon Library, another cooling center, substitute librarian Victoria Smith said the downtown library has seen an uptick in visitors this week as people have come in to use the building’s resources, enjoy the air conditioning and take a free bottle of water provided by the Lebanon Fire Department.
“It’s a good thing we have this,” said Smith, who lives down the street and doesn’t have air conditioning in her home.
On Tuesday, when she was working from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Smith said she wished she had signed up to work a longer shift. Instead, she makes do at home with ceiling fans and hops into a kiddie pool with her 3-year-old granddaughter.
“I pretend I have to get in with her,” Smith said.
To give people an excuse to sit in Converse Free Library’s cool downstairs meeting room, the Lyme library is offering a special series of matinee movie screenings this week.
Though the library usually shows family movies some Friday evenings during the summer, “this was just a spur-of-the-moment/pop-up kind of thing in response to the heat wave,” Library Director Judy Russell said in an email.
The library is closed today, but will screen Rear Window (1954; Jimmy Stewart; Grace, Princess of Monaco) on Thursday and Some Like it Hot (1959; Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe) on Friday. Both screenings will take place at 1:30 p.m.
One Upper Valley spot that is not yet air-conditioned is Lucky’s Coffee Garage in downtown Lebanon. Fans scattered throughout the shop were blowing mostly hot air on Tuesday. The coffee shop’s owner Deb Shinnlinger expects someone will install air conditioning later this summer, though that date is uncertain.
In the meantime, Shinnlinger has modified the shop’s hours and menu. Lucky’s was closed on Sunday and early on Monday and Tuesday. The menu featured a watermelon gazpacho, avocado toast, granola with yogurt, and popsicles.
Lucky’s will be closed today for the holiday, but Shinnlinger said she hopes to return to regular hours by Friday.
Meanwhile, Upper Valley businesses selling air conditioners and fans are having trouble keeping up with demand.
“It’s been crazy,” said Chelsea Stanley, floor supervisor at Welch’s True Value Hardware in South Royalton.
Stanley said her phone has been ringing “every two minutes” with inquiries over the past few days.
Since customers are preordering, “we’ve sold out of them before we even get them in the store,” Stanley said. “We’ve had to go back to the warehouse twice.”
The phone also was ringing off the hook at the Runnings store in Claremont.
“It’s unbelievable,” store manager Kelly Gregory said.
Ten air conditioners arrived on a truck on Monday and they were gone within seven minutes, Gregory said. She’s been fielding calls from people who live as far as an hour or two from the store.
Other items flying off the shelves include fans, Gatorade, water, popsicles and kiddie pools.
Though Upper Valley heat waves are common in the summer, Gregory said this one is “going on extremely longer.”
At least two events in the Upper Valley have been postponed this week on account of the heat.
The second in the summer series of concerts held at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish was scheduled to take place last Sunday, but with the heat index — a measure of heat and humidity — above 100 degrees, organizers opted to postpone it until September, said Stephanie Kyriazis, chief of interpretation and education for Saint-Gaudens.
This is the first time a concert has been postponed in Kyriazis’ three years at the site. Though it’s often been sunny in the past, she said, it’s “never really reached the 90s.”
Not only were organizers worried for the safety of the attendees, many of whom sit on the lawn, they also were worried about the string instruments, which can be affected by heat and humidity, she said.
The West Newbury Hall Committee postponed an annual meeting and potluck that was scheduled for Thursday evening. Though the event was to include hot fudge sundaes, that wasn’t going to be enough to cool things down, officials said.
The building’s main dining hall is upstairs and “it’s really hot when it’s hot,” said Catherine Kidder, a member of the committee.
The event has not yet been rescheduled.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
