It’s hard to believe another year has come and gone, but we want to take a moment to highlight some of the library’s accomplishments for 2021 and more changes coming in 2022. 

Much like 2020, 2021 has felt like a roller coaster ride. We started the year with many changes as we had to cut library hours and services due to our bare-bones budget. Thankfully we received many generous donations, memorial contributions, and grants in 2021 that helped us accomplish some great things. Using some of these funds we were able to have our beloved Summer Reading Program (SRP); which was completely cut from our 2021 budget and remains cut for 2022. Due to COVID we could only hold SRP outside, but with the support of a few community members and COVID funds we were able to have a successful program! We were even able to use the COVID funds to put together a care bag for every participant for each SRP session. Each week the care bags contained snacks and a brand-new hardback book! We had a great program with 77 participants and made the best out of another odd summer.

In November 2020 we started a monthly Take-n-Make Craft Bag Program and purchased six Viaero Wireless hot spots to lend to patrons with a CARES Act grant we received. The grant ran until the end of August 2021, but thankfully we were able to secure yet another grant to continue offering both of these services until September 2022. The hot spots continue to be checked out constantly and we currently have 60 Take-n-Make bags being given away each month! 

Now we are anxiously awaiting a few new shelves for our children’s area! We were able to purchase the shelving with memorial contributions we received in loving memory of two of our faithful patrons Paula McMains and Kathy Eikenberg, who are both deeply missed. 

While 2021 has been a strange year, we are hopeful that 2022 will be better for all of us. Though we did have a pretty big scare not long ago. The county has been having to make some significant and extremely difficult decisions regarding their operation for 2022. One of the decisions was regarding closing the courthouse on Fridays starting in January 2022, which is our busiest day of the week. More importantly though, Fridays are also the only day ten months out of the year that school-aged children can utilize the library. We knew this would significantly impact the community and the library overall.

On December 14, 2021, we attended the Kiowa County Commissioners meeting to plea for the library to remain open on Fridays. Each Commissioner listened intently as we spoke about our concerns. Later that day Commissioner Mike Lening delivered the great news to us that they agreed the library could remain OPEN on Fridays! THANK YOU, Kiowa County Commissioners, for hearing our plea and making the best choice for the community! We are beyond thankful for your decision, and we know our patrons will be too! In fact, as we write this letter two teen patrons just came in and said, “Libraries are the best! Thank you for fighting to stay open for us! We don’t know what we would do without you guys being open on Friday!” So, while the courthouse will be open Monday-Thursday in 2022, the library will be open Tuesday-Friday!

Library Hours in 2022

• Monday:  CLOSED
• Tuesday – Thursday:  8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
• Friday:  8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.