Tucked away not far from the busy intersection of Arkansas 5 and U.S. 64, the El Paso Community Library stands as a beacon to all. Through volunteer efforts of the community, the library opened late last year as part of the White County Regional Library System, headquartered in Searcy.
“It took a lot of work for this community to get a library, but they pulled together and did it,” said Darla Ino, director of the White County Regional Library System. “Judy Riley started working on the project in 2009.”
Riley and her husband, Tom Riley, were among those in the community who led the effort to convert a building, which began its life as a bank in the early 1900s, into a library. Tom Riley is a lifelong resident of the unincorporated community in White County, which, Judy Riley said, had 3,200 registered voters in the last general election.
“Each community has to provide the facility and maintain it before they can ask for services from our system,” said Ino, noting that the El Paso library makes the eighth branch in the system. “Many of these people have lived in White County and paid taxes in White County for years, but for whatever reason, were just not able to come to the library in Searcy” or other nearby towns in White County.
“We provide the staff and materials, including books, computers and internet hookup for this new community library,” Ino said.
“We are excited to be able to provide these services,” she said. “Not only are the citizens of El Paso able to use all services at the El Paso library; they are also able to access and search our whole library system online and get what they want. We normally deliver materials three times a week to the library. It’s a real efficient system.”
Janet Blansett, who lives in Faulkner County just over the White/Faulkner county line, serves as the part-time librarian at the El Paso Community Library, 1607 Ridge Road. The library is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday; from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday; from noon to 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday; and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Patrons can also access the library anytime by visiting www.whitecountylibraries.org.
Blansett said that in addition to books for adults and children, the library offers e-books, e-audiobooks, movie- and music-streaming services, magazines, videos on DVD, books on CD, free access to high-speed internet and word-processing computers, free Wi-Fi access at the library, reference services, interlibrary-loan services, fax and copy services, and online databases available through the library website.
Residents of White County may obtain a library card at any branch by providing verification of a mailing address and providing two references and their telephone numbers. Those under 16 must apply in person with a parent or guardian present.
Judy Riley said the building’s most recent owners, Steve and Elaine Corum of El Paso, donated the building to the El Paso Parks and Playground Association in 2009 with the intent that the structure be turned into a library.
A plaque in the library reads, in part, “This building was given in memory of Willie Mae Corum to further her passion for reading and the love of books instilled in her children.”
Riley said the building, which had also served as a general store, a movie house and community meeting room from the 1940s until 2009, had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places in the early 1990s.
Riley said the building was “in horrible shape” in 2009, and the volunteer efforts to restore the old building began in 2010.
“A total of $150,000 in external funding and an estimated $75,000 of donated skills by professionals in the area completed the project in 2016,” she said. Riley said the major external funding sources included the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, which is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage; the White County Quorum Court; and the White County Community Foundation, which donated $2,500 for a wheel-chair ramp to make the building handicap-accessible.
She said many community residents donated their time and talent for the project, including Mandy Breckenridge, who served as the architect; Sonny Nealy, who brought equipment for the dirt excavation; Kyle Breckenridge, who provided engineering services; and Wayne Richardson, who helped with the septic system. She said members of the White County Master Gardeners worked on the landscaping.
Riley said the Lonoke County Library System and its director, Debbie Moore, donated books and bookshelves to the library after a new library was opened in Cabot. She also acknowledged that Joia Burton, grants administrator for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, and Brian Driscoll, AHPP technical assistance coordinator, were especially helpful in the restoration process, making sure the local volunteers adhered to all the regulations necessary to keep the building on the National Register of Historic Places.
Riley also credited members of the El Paso Parks and Playground Association and its officers — including Dwight Patrom, chairman, and Roy Dale Breckenridge, secretary-treasurer — for their commitment to the library project.
The El Paso Community Library opened Dec. 2, 2016, and hosted an open house March 18.
Visitors to the library will automatically know the building was once a bank — the bank vault remains an integral part of the remodeled building. Today, that vault is the children’s reading room.
Riley pointed out that most of the building’s old wooden doors were saved and refurbished. The building’s facade remains pretty much the same as when the structure was built — all brick, with the bricks having been made locally more than 100 years ago. The bricks, however, had to be repointed.
“The people in this community are so excited. … They are just thrilled that El Paso now has a library,” Blansett said.
“Children come in every day after school. People come in to use the Wi-Fi, the fax, the copy machine,” she said.
“This library is a window to the world,” Riley said.
“There are two groups of people who live in this community — those who are employed in Little Rock and choose to live here in this community, and retirees living on fixed incomes,” Riley said. “They all have satellite and TV antennas, but no internet service. The library has that internet service.”
For more information on the El Paso Community Library, call (501) 796-5974.