About the SWLPLD / Contact

Southwest La Plata Library District now exists as a result of the efforts of groups of residents who came together when faced with the prospect of our long-loved local public branch libraries at Sunnyside and Fort Lewis Mesa being shuttered.  

The only chance our two libraries had to stay open was for citizens to take responsibility and ownership of the libraries themselves and then take on the challenge of keeping them open and making them prosper.  That is why members of our community started doing what needed to be done.  Strangers with a common goal started talking and meeting, then working together and becoming friends that served as a basis for the District Board of Trustees to come into existence.

Members of our communities started doing what needed to be done. Step by step, not always in the correct order, but always moving forward, we sought the legal counsel of Seter & Vander Wall, P.C. a Colorado authority on special districts. We put together a petition, gathered signatures, and qualitified Question #6D on the November 2019 ballot. The question to form the Southwest La Plata Library District passed and our new Library District was legally formed in December of 2019.

Since then, board trustees, library staff and community residents have continued to work with Durango School District 9R, La Plata County, the Colorado State Library and Colorado Library Consortium and other organizations working out details for continued operation of the branch libraries. All of these entities have been helpful and very supportive and we thank them.

We encourage and welcome your involvement and input to help our two libraries provide the most appropriate and beneficial services for Sunnyside and Fort Lewis Mesa communities. Please submit your ideas, comments or questions about how to get involved in the section below. If you are interested in being involved with the Friends of the Southwest La Plata Library District, please visit their webpage.

2020 will be dedicated to maintaining services as much as possible in light of current health concerns, hiring an interim library director for the Library District, and collecting ideas and resources for additional services that can be provided through the libraries to the Sunnyside and Fort Lewis Mesa communities.

Thank you,

The Southwest La Plata Library District Board of Trustees
swlplibrary@gmail.com