EDITORIAL: Answer library's call for helping hands

Pitching in is what good neighbors do.

To wit: In a book of local photos published by The Press in 2004, one of the images was particularly moving. And we mean that literally.

The photo from 1900, courtesy of Tom A. Feely, showed neighbors and their teams of horses pulling a barn across the frozen Rathdrum Prairie. The move was facilitated by sleds snugged between the barn and snow-blanketed soil.

We need to pitch in now to move a barn-load of books on that pristine prairie.

Suffering massive damage from a winter storm and flooding earlier this year, the Post Falls Library faces months of rehab. Some of that work is going to cost a bunch of money, which will be assisted largely by insurance coverage that the Community Library Network’s trustee majority has risked with an astonishing lack of wisdom. But that’s a story for another day.

Today, it’s about pitching in, not criticizing. And that’s why this appeal has arrived before your eyes. Whether you live in Post Falls or not, patronize that library, another or none at all — doesn’t matter. Help is welcome in many forms from any quarter.

One of the arduous, exceedingly important tasks is boxing up and moving the Post Falls Library collection. Work is expected to begin soon. If you have some time and good intent, please offer your services to assist library staff in this endeavor. Contact information is included at the end of this editorial.

Some of you don’t have time to help. Maybe you’d like to but aren’t physically able. There’s another way you can pitch in — and do so in a critical way. Support the library with a monetary donation.

Library officials say about 7,100 items were destroyed in the flooding. They need to be replaced. Tax-deductible gifts of any size to the library foundation will help ensure that once the library opens — still months away, alas — it will be robustly stocked with the books, CDs and DVDs patrons love to borrow.

Can you help move this community treasure forward? If so, please call 208-773-1506 or email: postfalls@communitylibrary.net