My mother died of cancer in April of 1984. We had spent much time with her before her death so afterwards I was looking for something to occupy my time. The local paper was asking for an assistant at the Public Library. Acceptance to the position came to me in August of 1984. Before marriage I had been a school teacher, and this new position allowed me to help young people with reports and get back to reading to the young ones.  What a thrill for this grandmother of 20!

Always I noticed that the older patrons had difficulty with all of the steps that are found in the Carnegie Libraries. In 1989 I became the library director. The next year the first computer came to our library.
Space was becoming a new problem so the children's department moved to the lower level. More steps for the staff.

The library board was a group that looked ahead and was ready for changes. Talk of an addition, ramps and locations were discussed. One member of the board, Leslie Neuhaus, suggested we form a Foundation and had her lawyer husband draw up the paper-work so that we could receive tax free donations. The past librarian was instrumental in getting a Friends group organized and served as the president of this group. It seemed that we were moving in the right direction. Possible solutions
for the present building were seriously sought. Location was a big problem...where to?  Then a large building across the street burned. This was a building that a group was trying to restore. It was the Opera
House, one of Bloomfield's first buildings. How ironic, the first library that the city had was housed in the lower level of that opera house in the early 1900s. The owners of the building gave us the lot and we were also given the adjacent lot. Meanwhile the Foundation president appointed a building committee. This group was seeking funding.

A farm family in the community had lost a son in a farm accident and came forward with a $100,000 donation; this was matched by the local bank. Now we could move on to seek grants. The Peter Kiewit
Foundation gave $103,000, application was made for a technology grant of $25,500 to LSTA and we were accepted. 

The City administrator and the city council were very supportive and helpful in the process. The donations came from the community faster than we had anticipated. One donation came from Kamen, Germany a town that our town had befriended after World War II. Many of the past graduates of Bloomfield sent donations.

In my mind this was something that was supposed to become a reality. When we set the date for ground breaking we did not know it was going to rain for a week. The day before the planned event the building spot looked like a lake. I was in tears when a building committee member told me to forget it. How can you stop something when cookies are baked, buses are bringing in the school children and speakers are lined up? The city administrater told me "I ordered sunshine, it will be ok." Yes, one hour before the event, the sun came out and we had a beautiful ground-breaking! Then came the day for the move to the new building. We planned a human chain to pass those books accross the street on Saturday December 11. It worked well, it was cool but those books moved right into place and we were open for check out on Monday. Just under a 100 people of all ages came for the move.

In looking back I think the fact that we were planning for a tech room and a handicap accessible building with lots of modern equipment made our grants and dontions come in for the $550,000 structure.

The staff is truly enjoying the library and the check out numbers are increasing each month. Computer classes have been held since the first of the year and have been filled each time. The Rest Home in our town is bringing in about 15 residents the second Friday of each month for time to select books and hear reading by local citizens.

Our dedication service will be held May 27th at 2:00. Our guest speaker for the day will be Tom Osborne, candidate U.S. House of Representatives. Come join us!