''The books moved feverishly': Santaquin residents move library books in book brigade

SANTAQUIN — Dozens of kids, parents and Santaquin residents joined together Tuesday afternoon to assembly line books across the street from the old library to the new library.

"The books moved feverishly," Mayor Dan Olson said.

In just two hours, the 178 people who showed up moved 3,320 books from the Santaquin City Library's collection as part of a "book brigade."

"It was a wonderful line, a lot of kids, a lot of grown-ups. It really was a beautiful sight to see. All the kids that love this library being a part of that move," the mayor said.

The library, located in a historic building built in 1901 at 20 W. 100 South, is moving to a new building just across the street. Olson said that while the historic building was remodeled about 25 years ago to bring it up to code, the 3,500-square-foot space isn't enough for the city's needs.

The library lends out thousands of books each month, and the mayor has seen firsthand how many children show up for an end-of-summer event the library hosts. The library also functions as a learning center with computers, printers and internet access.

"We have so many people who use it. Everybody says that libraries are a thing of the past, but this isn't. This is a living educational center and the new building testifies of that even more. ... It is a wonderful piece of city culture now and we're excited to have it and share it," he said.

Olson said when he was elected five years ago, he didn't realize that while the new city building was underway, the library wing wasn't funded yet.

"The plans weren't even drawn for it; it was just a shell of a building. And the more I thought about it, was 'Hey, we have to do something," he said.

He looked into every possible way to raise the millions of dollars needed to finish the 12,000-square-foot building without raising property taxes.

"We have such an incredible library staff. The chief librarian is Jen Wagner and she is just incredible. She works very hard to get grants and put Santaquin on the map for libraries and she's done that. My part in it was to find a way to fund this without having to raise taxes, and we did it without having to go raise a nickel," he said.

The library plans to host a couple more book brigades in the coming months, as there are still thousands of books from the full collection of 28,000 to move. The new library is anticipated to open in January with a special kickoff event.

"These kids, they just shine when they get in there," the mayor said. "They knew they were doing a little bit of history all by themselves. What a wonderful memory it will be for them when they're my age to look back and say, 'You know, 60 years ago I helped move books across from that library to this library.'"