| Group to build library | |
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By PATRICE ST. GERMAIN patrices@thespectrum.com | |
ST. GEORGE - Over the years, one element that has been missing from the Colorado City area is a public meeting place and a library. Now, thanks to a Friends of the Library group that recently formed, the city may soon have a library, complete with a meeting room and books that are not burned, banned or censored by community religious leaders. Last week, lifelong area resident Melvin Williams was elected president of the local Friends of the Library board. "Each town has a library tax but before, the city just wanted the money and didn't want it set up as a county appointed and operated library," Williams said. "From what I understand, the library was censored and phrases that are not contraband or offensive in regular society were marked out." Geographically, the community is separated from the county seat by the Grand Canyon. Socially, the community is separated from the county seat because of its practice of polygamy as the area's largest number of residents are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Williams said what the group is trying to do is have a county library open to everyone and hopes that the library is the first step in building a communication bridge with the rest of the state. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said he is all for education, especially in places where people were denied education. "Book burning occurred under Warren Jeffs," Shurtleff said. Paul Murphy, Utah's safety net coordinator, said he is thrilled that those who are forming the Friends of the Library want to give back to the community and said since the group has talked about forming a library, thousands of books have been donated. "It is interesting with all the things going on, people still want to help, so people have the same resource opportunities as anywhere else," Murphy said. Williams, who said the former schoolhouse was built by his mother's father and through the United Effort Plan trust, has signed an occupancy agreement with the trust. He said over the last year, several ideas for the building were tossed around but the library is the one that stuck. Now the group is hoping to get donations to help bring the building up to code and purchase needed shelving and supplies. The goal is to have the library open by August when school begins for the 2008-2009 school year. Although the Mohave County Community College has a small library open to the public, Williams said the goal is to also have a community meeting place. "This is quite a big step for this area," Williams said. "The idea is not that there are ignorant people here, we just want to have a decent place to study and source of books." Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson said it's always good to have more "friends of the library" but said the Colorado City library was in preliminary stages and still has a long way to go to bring it to fruition. Johnson said he didn't expect it to be before the Mohave County Supervisors until at least June and said because of finances, some satellite libraries have shut down. Those areas are now served by bookmobiles. Plus, Johnson still has a problem with a library located in the area because of who would work in it. "Some of the people from Centennial Park are not part of the FLDS polygamist group, but are still living that lifestyle and so I think there are a lot of questions that have to answered," Johnson said. | |
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TheSpectrum.com Originally published May 1, 2008 | |
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