In the early 1990’s a Park city resident and Pride member, Pauline Slipsager, saw a need for a Library in Park City. She suggested her idea of a library as a project to the Pride organization. The Pride organization was busy getting established, and Pauline became ill and passed away; without her leadership the library project fell to the wayside for several years.
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In 1996-97 Pride members felt they were ready to pursue Pauline's dream for a library in Park City. In 1997 the Pride Committee decided it was time to bring the idea before the public for a vote. In the next election the vote failed for lack of public support. The formation of the library was at a crossroads, what should we do now? Not to be defeated, the Pride committee decided to start a volunteer library in the Pride Center. Books had already been collected for the start of a library. The Park City Pride Organization formed a library committee. Members of the committee for the library were: Loree Dredge, Kathy Hale, Kathleen Woodard and Carol Oldham. Jack Whitson found used library shelving at the Hutchinson library. The shelving was donated to the library. City employees hauled the shelves in pieces from Hutchinson to the Pride Center. Darrell Wilcox, Dee Stuart, Sterling and Kathleen Woodard cleaned, repaired and assembled the shelves for a volunteer library in the Pride Center. Over 4,000 books and periodicals had been collected and donated to start a library. Carol Oldham processed the books by putting pockets and cards in each book.
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With Pride funding and volunteers the “Book Center” opened to the public in the Spring of 1998. Major donation of books came from Beth Hembree (a former Park City resident), when she closed her book store (The Readers Corner). Special shelves and miscellaneous items were purchased at a discounted price from Beth. Dodie Stuart volunteered many hours as librarian and personally organized and purchased many books for the children’s section in the library.
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With the help of an $8,000.00 grant from the Wichita Greyhound Park, Pride purchased six computers, computer cabinets and various accessories to be used in an adult education program offered to all Park City residents. This equipment and other items were transferred to the Park City Community Public Library in June 2000.In 1999 a referendum for up to 3 mils for a library was put back on the ballot. This time, after a lot of publicity and campaigning the referendum passed by a large majority.
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The Library moved to the west end of the mall at 61st and Hydraulic, in 2002 .
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In 2010 the City Council voted to provide one million dollars from the MTBE settlement fund to the library to build a facility. The Board had already purchased 5 acres of land for a new building. Construction started in November of 2010 and was completed in August of 2011. The library moved into it's new facility on August 22, 2011, and has continued to make improvements to the property since then.
