Woman trying to make a library a reality in Colorado City
 
Becky Bruce reporting
KSL 5 TV
 
Years after a polygamous sect founder banned books from the outside world, Colorado City is well on its way to having a library of its own.

Stefanie Colgrove first dreamed up the idea only a few months ago, but the books have been pouring in with the support. "There's a lot of students here, high school students, who have been very excited because they have to go to St. George or Hurricane to do any kind of research," she explained, and that's an hour's drive.

The challenge now is to raise about $5,000 to bring the building up to city code. "We have a building, we just have to have it up to code, city code, we have to bring the plumbing and the electrical up to code," Colgrove said.

Bringing it up to code includes new windows as well. The Hope Organization has offered assistance for some of the needs, and Colgrove is meeting with Mohave County officials today to organize a "Friends of the Library" group.

Meantime, she's extremely grateful for the support from Utah and Arizona communities on this project. "It has been going so fast. Just from the Salt Lake area of people donating books, I had, I would say, close to 4,000 books."

The building that will be used for the library was once a schoolhouse. It sits on a land owned by the United Effort Plan trust. That is the trust that was once controlled by Warren Jeffs and other top Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint officials. Control was removed from their hands in 2005 by the 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City because it was found they had breached their legal duties.

The trust, you may remember, figured prominently in 2005 in a lawsuit filed by Elissa Wall, the accuser who brought down Warren Jeffs. The trust held virtually all the property in Hildale and Colorado City at one time.

If you would like to help in the establishment of this new library, books and other help could be sent to:

Stefanie Colgrove
P.O. Box 1935
Hildale, Utah 84784

or in care of Charlotte at the Colorado City Post Office, Colorado City, AZ 86021.

E-mail: bbruce@ksl.com
 
KSL.com
Originally broadcast April 24, 2008
 
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