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Show Volume I , Issue XI The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Page 3 August 1999 LIBRARY cont. from page 1 the time the crime scene was investigated and we were allowed on site (it didn’t take long, the perpetrators were very naive and unsophisticated in their work), there was a group of children, teenagers, and adults ready to help. They worked side by side with the Branch staff to replant most of the flowers, rake the lawns, sweep sidewalks, remove broken trees, and ready the building for its scheduled opening at 10 a.m. Library maintenance crews arrived from other buildings throughout Weber County, and by evening, the plumbing and electrical repairs were also completed. It was days before a commercial, disaster clean-up crew was able to finish the high-pressure spray washing, chemical treatment, and sandblasting of the painted areas. Some paint could not be removed without damaging building signs, donor plaques, window glass, and other surfaces which could not withstand the abrasiveness of the sand. Testing still needs to be conducted to see if the soil was permanently poisoned by the chemicals used in the paint removal process. With help of a local businessman, the Weber County Sheriff’s Office quickly identified two of the perpetrators, and, we understand, they confessed to their participation in the crime. We are still waiting to learn if others were involved. Be assured that everything, including the public art works, will be completely restored and the building will continue to be a source of pride for people living throughout Weber County. The Library Administration will recommend to the Library Board that they aggressively seek full financial restitution from all of the individuals involved. Just as the days immediately following the vandalism were a time for action, now is a time for reflection, for looking back and gaining insights that may help us avoid similar acts in the future. When Library employees first arrived on the scene, we assumed that someone from outside of the Valley had committed the crime–it never occurred to us that local youth would do this kind of thing. Hang out, toilet paper a few homes . . ., maybe; but nothing like this. We should have been more astute. After all, local kids have repeatedly robbed the Library candy machine; damaged the coin box on the pop machine; smeared feces on restroom walls; stolen doorstops, hinges, table leveling devices, supplies, and equipment; pulled drinking spouts from atop water fountains; pounded sharp instruments through the wooden ends of the book stacks; and repeatedly vandalized computer facilities. We knew that these acts were not the work of a “few bad kids.” This all too common behavior had been traced back to a number of school classes, church groups, and community based organizations, all doing their best to work with teenage boys and girls. As local residents came on the scene that morning, they were in a state of denial as well. All were adamant that the vandalism had to be the work “of someone staying at the campgrounds or down at the reservoir.” But investigators disagreed. “Ninetyeight percent of all the crime in Ogden Valley is committed by local kids,” they said. The police were correct. The damage was done by local teens whose only justification for their actions was that, “they were bored.” Sadly, the damage at Ogden Valley Branch could probably have been completely avoided. As we stood in front of the vandalized Library waiting for the authorities to allow us to begin cleaning-up, stories of similar recent acts were related by those at the scene. During the past few weeks, we were told, the same tags painted on the Library had been found on other public buildings, feces has been smeared in park restrooms, and other random acts of vandalism and violence to property and animals have been on-going. Ironically, no one reported them to the police. Had kids been held responsible for earlier vandalism, which was relatively inconsequential, the word may have gotten out, and the families of those who vandalized the post office and Library may have been spared considerable expense. No one does kids a favor by ignoring them when they break the law. The teenagers involved in the incident at the Branch are from good families. Everything bad that happens presents us with an opportunity to learn and to do something better than we have ever done it before. It is my hope that the community will join the Library staff in refraining from pointing fingers, and agree to pursue the business of building a good community with renewed vigor. Margaret Rostkowski’s Dedication Today we have come together to dedicate a house of the spirits, a library, for a Valley that is, for many, a place of the spirit. As long as people have lived in this area of the West, this Valley has been a haven–for the native peoples who gathered around its springs, for the trappers who held rendezvous here, for the farmers who dared its winters to live in its beauty. Today, people from all over Utah and especially Ogden, come here to play, but also in a sense to come to the source of the water that makes possible our gardens, to the mountains that hold our snow pack, to the monastery that is, for many of us, a spiritual retreat by its very presence. All my life I have come to Ogden Valley for refreshment, for renewal, for connection with the wide world of nature. And now a library for this Valley will be built, a place where all the people who come here, but most especially the people who live in this Valley, will have a house that will represent in its very bricks and wood, the spirit that has animated the Valley for so long; the spirit of renewal, of peace, of community, all of the diverse groups that make this Valley their home. We now have a common place, a place to learn, to talk, to plan, to retreat. I think of what the Weber County Library means in my life; a place to find the latest novels and to find old ones still carrying the Carnegie Free Library stamp and that smell; a resource for my classroom, my writing, my children’s research papers, my mother’s voracious reading. I also come to meetings there–of community groups, art groups, teachers’ groups. I hear writers read from their latest books and hear experts talk about the works of artists and writers no longer with us. I see movies there, and check out videos and records. I meet friends there, on purpose and by happy accident. I buy gifts there and read People magazine so no one will know I love such stuff. Now all this will happen here in the magical Valley in a place that will be all these things and more to the people who will find a home, a resource, a sanctuary in this building we have come to make real. To stand for the dream of the building that will be built, the Friends of the Library give this Thai House of the Spirits to the people and the community of Ogden Valley. May your community be nourished by the house and by each other as you come together within its walls. The Spirit House Two Spirit Houses were placed at the Ogden Valley Branch Library at the time of its dedication just a few short years ago. One was built by an unknown craftsman in Bangkok. This Spirit House from Thailand was purchased by Friends of the Library, and placed on the north side of the library. The House on the south side of the Library was created by a renown artist by the name of Tessman who specializes in wood creations. It was built from teak and redwood. At a groundbreaking ceremony for the Library, many that were present placed soil around the support posts of the Spirit Houses; the action symbolized people coming together, in the spirit of community, to make the branch library possible. In Thailand, where the concept of the spirit house may have first developed, the structures came to represent the entire natural world. As people gained respect for each other as individuals, they also gained respect for the earth, the rivers, the trees, the animals, and the land; they began to strive to take all living and life giving things into consideration in their decision making. Later, a figure holding a book or manuscript was sometimes placed in the spirit house to represent knowledge or wisdom. The spirit house was selected as the symbol for the new Ogden Valley Branch Library to emphasize the role public libraries play in placing each of us (via computer information networks) upon the threshold of cultures and civilizations that were thought to be “foreign” just a short time ago. As we read and learn more about the rest of the world, the message is clear: We are One. Our Spirit Houses represent this democracy of spirit: A Union of All. Note: The information on the Spirit Houses was taken from a larger article written by Mary Petterson, President, Friends of the Library, entitled, “The Library as Community Spirit House. Broadway Nights (A Broadway Musical Review) August 20, - September 20, 1999 |