This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
After years of efforts, a public library is expected to open soon in Hildale, home to the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The planned facility will be part of the Washington County Library System. The system's director, Joel Tucker, said he plans for the library to be operating in March.
"We recognize that it's an underserved part of Utah," Tucker said, "and we want to give them the same opportunities that everyone else gets."
The location has yet to be finalized, but Tucker said the plan is to place the library in an existing building on Newel Avenue, two blocks east of the town's public school and one block east of Hildale's City Hall.
That building is owned by the United Effort Plan, the trust that owns much of the real estate in Hildale and adjoining Colorado City, Ariz. Utah seized the trust in 2005. Tucker said there still needs to be an agreement made about who will retain ownership of the building.
The building used to be an FLDS Sunday school for one of the families in town, said Isaac Wyler, a United Effort employee.
But Tucker said the library system has a five- to seven-year plan to build its own building in Hildale.
The library system has never had a facility in Hildale, Tucker said. Wyler said there used to be a library on the Colorado City side, but the family of FLDS President Warren Jeffs ordered it closed sometime after the family rose to power in the sect in the late 1990s.
There were plans to open a library in Colorado City, but, in April 2011, someone entered a building where donated books were stored and burned them in a bonfire.
Mohave County Community College has a campus in Colorado City with a library that is open to the public.
It is unclear if FLDS members will use the Hildale library. Residents there say the faithful are already prohibited from visiting some public and private locations that the imprisoned Jeffs has deemed as desecrated, including Hildale's Water Canyon School.
But many people have separated from the FLDS in recent years, leaving Hildale and Colorado City, collectively known as Short Creek, with a mix of those that do and do not follow Jeffs.
"We want to open our services to anybody who's willing," Tucker said.
Tucker said he hadn't thought about whether the Hildale library will stock books critical of the FLDS and Jeffs, but added that the library doesn't want to limit reading choices and is open to requests.
Tucker said the Hildale library is being started with a $40,000 grant to buy books, DVDs and other materials for checkout, and a $20,000 grant to purchase computers. Tucker plans a lab with eight computers.
The salary of one full-time employee and the building's operating costs will be absorbed by the library system, Tucker said. Washington County residents pay a library tax.
Nonresidents can join the library system for $33 a year, though Tucker said he may seek an arrangement with Mohave County, Ariz., to let residents there use Hildale's library, too.
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