The City of Winslow broke ground on its first building in more than half a century last week. A crowd gathered in the empty lot near the historic Hubble Building on Second Street to break ground on the city’s new library.
This project is the work of many people for several decades, which was all necessary to see the project come to fruition. Mayor Birdie Cano spoke at the ceremony celebrating the achievements of the Friends of the Library organization and the many institutions and citizens responsible for allowing this to happen. This project will soon serve as another place in town to hold events, citizens to engage and most importantly build community, all of which was echoed in the mayor’s speech.
Navajo County Board of Supervisors Chairman Alberto Peshlakai, who represents neighborhoods on the outskirts of Winslow, spoke at the ceremony about the many years of work that have been put into this library and how county funds and resources were being put to good use to help make this happen. A quarter of a million dollars in American Rescue Plan funds designated to the county were used to make this project happen and will continue to be of use to visitors and residents for decades to come.
Ted Pate, a member of the Friends of the Library also gave a speech at the ceremony saying that they have waited more than 30 years to see Winslow get a library of this size and value to the community. He recalled riding his bike to pick up a Nancy Drew novel at the Women’s Club Library before the city had their own. During Pate’s speech he announced a donation from the organization to the city for the new library in the amount of $250,000. The project will end up costing over $3 million and was mostly funded through grants.
The building will be over 10,000 square feet and feature a children’s library and area for education-related activities that parents and children may check out and use while at the library. It will also be a much larger library than the former church building that the library currently resides in. With more computers that the public can use for free there is so much more the library is able to offer with the new facilities. It will also offer private study rooms for patrons to use and hold discussions without bothering the other library patrons. Best of all, the new library offers a whole new world of possibilities for events. This summer the library held an event every single day for parents and children to fill their time when school is on break and the much larger space will better accommodate these activities.
The project is slated to finish around this time next year or possibly later, but as proud member of the Friends of the Library Sarah Smithson said, “We’ve waited 30 years what’s one or two more!”
