Twenty-one years after voters in Rampart Library District approved a measure to fund new libraries in Woodland Park and Florissant, the district is debt-free.

This called for celebrations for each of the libraries, held the weekend of June 10-11. “We wanted to thank the citizens for their investment,” said Tim Miller, executive director of the library district.

“Truly, that’s what it is.”

In November 2001, district voters approved a ballot measure seeking a $5 million bond for construction of both libraries. In addition, the district gained approval for a 4.119 mill levy to fund operations to include maintenance, the cost of adding books and non-construction items.

The approval was notable. “It was two months after 9/11 and

we were all in shock,” said Jean Baldwin, president of the Rampart Library District Foundation, a nonprofit organization. “But the voters stepped up.”

The successful campaign was due to a grassroots effort by library officials and a team of volunteers. “We had to get the word out that we needed these libraries,” said Betsy Anderson, president of the district board of trustees. “And look at us now!”

With phone calls, public campaigns and newspaper articles, the volunteers convinced voters that libraries are an investment. “If Woodland Park was going to grow, we needed to have the infrastructure to support the community as it grew,” Anderson said.

At the time, the library in Woodland Park was in a small but charming and well-loved log cabin on Lafayette Street. In Florissant, the library began in the old schoolhouse and eventually moved to the former coal shed behind the Grange. Both were past their prime.

Before introducing the ballot measures, library trustees and a development committee selected Keith Meier, architect with Pinnacle DesignWorks

in Woodland Park, to design the buildings. “When designing a facility intending to last forever, it must accommodate the current needs of the patrons but have the ability to adapt to changes in society and technology over the next century,” Meier wrote in a 16-page special section published Nov. 15, 2003, in the Ute Pass Courier, now the Pikes Peak Courier. “Like the books within its walls, it must reflect the past, present and future.”

Baldwin, then-vice president of the board of trustees, helped the committee choose a site adjacent to the Ute Pass Cultural Center. The board signed a 99-year lease on the property with the city of Woodland Park.

For the Florissant Library, then-Teller County Board of County Commissioners voted to donate the land in Florissant Park.

Designed to resemble old train stations in Colorado, the library in Florissant features a stone fireplace, reading and meeting rooms and a children’s section. “If you go to any community in Colorado as small as Florissant, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a library as beautiful as that one, with so many possibilities,” Miller said. “A library is an anchor of a community, and in small towns you see that.”

Next up for the district board is initiating a needs assessment intended to focus on efforts to attract non-users of the library. “In the assessment of 2015, some people said the library was one of the primary reasons they moved here,” Miller said.

On the practical side, the voter-approved 4.119 mill level distinguishes the library district. “We’re thankful to have the stable funding, which means we are able to do a lot more things than municipal-or county-based libraries, which are effectively competing for funds all the time,” Miller said. “Typically, parks, recreation and libraries are on the chopping block. Our libraries are based on property values and are a lot more stable.”

Libraries are driven by the philosophy of creating a great experience outside or inside, Miller said. “The approach we took was to make external architecture look beautiful and a part of the community,” he said, referring to the stone, stucco and wood exterior. “You see that in other structures that have been built for a unique identity of Woodland Park.”

Both libraries are community anchors where people spend time away from the home or office. “Our libraries are a Third Place,” Miller said.