Steven Williams, Port Arthur Library’s new director, has his own timetable for opening the city’s lone facility — when it’s ready. Period.

Good for him.

Williams hasn’t budged on that over these many months since the library closed, the victim of Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey’s onslaught last August. The library, located across a parking lot from the Bob Bowers Civic Center, sustained roof damage and flooding, taking blows high and low.

It lost much of its collection. It lost its computers. It lost or sustained damages to precious Port Arthur documents and photos stored at the library, although some were reclaimed through a special, painstaking process. DVDs, the children’s collection: Gone.

Water rose to some 3 or 4 feet high, creating a mold problem when the waters subsided. Everything stored on the bottom two shelves was discarded.

Since then, Williams and crew has taken refuge in a trailer outside the library’s shell, still under work. They plug away.

The roof work is complete. Drywall is going up. A sprinkler system has been designed and will go to the bid process. The walls will be framed, giving the library a new look. The work is slow and the process is involved. But the work must be done right.

“There is a lot more involved than just opening up,” he said. “We must open up correctly.”

Williams is showing a lot of poise for a guy who was only recently elevated to the library’s top position, replacing Jose Martinez, who retired since Harvey. Early on, Martinez said the library would not reopen until possibly the last days of 2017, but he made no promises. It took a long time to determine the extent of the damage.

Nowadays, Williams says the library may reopen by the end of 2018, but conceded that that, too, is an optimistic outlook.

Williams knows well, too, that a lot of people are depending upon the library not only reopening but reopening well. The library has some 125,000 patron visits a year; the library is the heartbeat of Port Arthur for many people who read, research and use meeting rooms at the library.

Here’s the up side: The city had insurance and, Williams said, the library has the necessary resources to rebuild its home, maybe better than before, and rejuvenate itself.

When the library reopens, he said, it can be brighter more secure with a new layout. Its collection can become more contemporary.

“We get to ID what can be improved,” he said. “We get to pick out the things we want.”

All that, he said, lends this promise: The new library, when it opens, can be better than ever.

“We will be a better library,” he said, sure of that.

To get things right, though, takes time.