Story of a library

Plainview community works together to start facility

By Jeannie Stone

LITTLE ROCK — They did it backward, so to speak, but nobody had ever started a library in the tiny town of Plainview in Yell County before.

All Brad Finkbeiner knew was how badly the town needed one.

Finkbeiner, former pastor of the Missionary Baptist Church in New Bethel, started asking everybody to donate books because he wanted to build up a library. He decided to memorialize a book-loving friend, so he named the project after James Elmore.

Scott Gongola, who owned the Superette in town, offered to store the boxes of books coming in for the library, because there was no building designated for the actual facility.

“Brad gathered all these books, and they just sat around for two years,” Dean Blalock, president of Friends of the Library board, said. “When he moved to another town I asked the committee members what was the plan for the books, but nobody knew anything.”

About that time the Plainview School District offered to lease a little yellow house to the group. Unfortunately, the condition of the house prohibited its restoration, and so it, too, became a storage facility. But with every step forward, the fervor in the community grew, and all the building pieces, miraculously, came together.

In 2006, longtime residents Bid and Louise Hopper purchased a house, formerly used as a church and surrounding property, located just a block off Main Street, for the expressed purpose of donating it to the city for use as a library.

“Sen. Sharon Trusty located a $5,000 donation to start us off,” Blalock said. “She and Rep. Nathan George have done a lot for this community.

“The list goes on and on. It’s just impossible to mention everybody who helped, and continue to help with our this project,” Blalock said.

Mayor Doug Forrest and the City Council agreed to pay all utilities, “and that is huge,” Blalock said. “With that takencare of, our largest expense is the insurance, which costs over $2,000 a year, but we raise that through our annual spring dinner in the school cafeteria and the barbecue sandwiches Bobby Smith makes and sells at our Frontier Days’ booth. He works at the Corps, but he has done this barbecue thing over and over, and he has developed an awesome recipe.”

In the library itself, Chambers Bank and Dr. John Westlake donated computers, Plainview First State Bank donated upholstered chairs, some leather, to surround a table, and Charlie New, owner of New’s Office Supplies in Russellville, donated the copy machine.

“I had just gone in to ask him if there was a machine that we could buy for next to nothing,and he gave us this beautiful thing,” Blalock said, gesturing to the modern equipment in the corner.

The hodgepodge of shelving looks as if it were planned that way.

“A man in Lamar hand-made these maple shelves on rollers and even delivered them to us,” Blalock said. “The library in Fayetteville donated the metal shelves which make up our fiction section. An antique revolving bookcase, as well as the flag flying out front, was donated by retired school principal Jimmy Gowling. The bright pink metal standing, which sports HubbaBubba logos, sits in the children’s room by the generosity of the Superette. A glass display case, which stores rare and vintage books, was donated by the drugstore in town, and the high school donated the antique card catalogue unit that is now sitting at the library’s entrance. Someone saw a similar one posted on eBay selling for $1,200, so we are real proud if it.”

She pulled out the drawers to show that audio books are organized in the bottom drawers.“We file our books alphabetically because nobody knew the Dewey Decimal System,” she said with a laugh. “In the beginning, we were flying by the seat of our pants.”

River Valley Furniture in Russellville donated couches, and retired florist Billy Johnson altered the curtains. “We have so many talented people that help out,” Blalock said. Not all of their supporters, however, are permanent residents. “We have people, who regularly camp at Lake Nimrod, that sign up for a library card. Usually, the first thing they say is that this place is so cozy, warm and comfortable. And they sign the guest book and tell us the ladies are so nice and helpful.

“When Bood Keithly fromChambers Bank first came into the library, he remarked that it was just like Barnes and Noble,” Blalock said with pride.

The library has 7,000 books in its current circulation with many more stored in the yellow house. The library has a reference section, a large fiction area as well as a nonfiction and inspirational area. There is a wide assortment of videos and DVDs to check out. There is children’s section in one room and a law section in another. “Bob Hood of Hot Springs Village donated an amazing collection of law books, which had belonged to his lawyer son before he passed away,” Blalock said. “We plan to move the law books into the fellowship hall and have this whole area as a war room.” Books on war, that is.

Then there is the collection of coffee-table quality books. Ray Ward of Russellville donated 600 books, which he had amassed over the years, “and they are just gorgeous,” Blalock said. The books feature ships, planes, sites and actual photos from both World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Civil War. “People come in and just sit and spend all afternoon looking at one or two of these.”

“Ray Ledbetter’s widow also gave his vast collection of large picture books featuring foreign lands and people to the library. They offer breathtaking photography of our world,” Blalock added.

Supporters of the library are proud of the growing collection of Arkansas authors. Among those is Widowed by Sen. Sharon Trusty, the series by Northwest Arkansas author Wayne Hancock, which includes Gotcha, The Unlikely Predator, and 30 Days in May. They also carry Michael Pledger-Ball’s bookSummer of the Secret Squadron.

And, of course, books have been donated by patrons in the community. An honor board lists many of those benefactors. Some folks drop off donations in the box, which sits at the front counter. These collected funds allow the library to purchase the incidentals they need such as paper towels, hand soap and toilet paper.

“At our fundraising dinner, Lavada Padgett, who runs Shinn’s Preschool and Nursery in Russellville, gave us $200 and gave us another $200 later.” Padgett had told Blalock that Plainview was her hometown, and she wanted to support the library. “She also volunteeredduring the summer story time program,” Blalock said.

During summer, children take over the library. Story time is offered, and several children within walking distance visit every day. Charles Lee Dearing was honored last year at the dinner with an award for “the youngest/best library helper,” Blalock said.

“His mother owns the drugstore around the block, and he comes, sometimes daily, to help us in whatever way we need,” Blalock said.

Blalock shared a story about a neighbor boy who also visited every day.

“Before we even opened, John David would come every day and ask if he could get a library card, yet. Finally, I promised him that he would get the very first library card. Well, at a fundraiser, the mayor claimed he wanted the first library card, and I said, ‘Oh no, that’s already been promised to John David Green.’ ”

When the time came to issue the cards, Blalock, a retired teacher, made sure to keep her promise and created a special card for the boy with a big number one printed on it.

The meeting room stores the many paintings and worksof art which are not currently on display in the main library. Local artists DJ Westlake, Marie Honeycutt, Minnie Smith and Denise Robinson, have donated their works.

“In fact, the elegant sign in the front yard was painted by Westlake and built by her boyfriend,” Blalock said.

“We are nonprofit, but we are self-sufficient,” Blalock said. Through the Experience to Work program funded by the state, Marvalee Paul and Mary Alice Cox work 20 hours per week. On Saturdays, however, volunteer Eddy Howell, the Methodist minister in town, opens up.

“He tells me he loves to be here where it is quiet, so he can work on his sermon,” Blalock said.

Oh, there are very many reasons to visit the library. Consider what poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “Be a little careful about your library. Do you foresee what you will do with it? Very little to be sure. But the real question is, What it will do with you? You will come here and get books that will open your eyes, and your ears, and your curiosity, and turn you inside out or outside in.”

The Plainview Community Library is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. until noon Saturday. For more information, call 479-272-4979.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 144, 146 on 08/31/2008