Library celebrates a lot of milestones

 Saturday afternoon was busy around Nashua but many came out to the Nashua Public Library Open House for a celebration and air conditioning. The Open House was to honor the 110th anniversary of the library in Nashua, Bonnie Cleveland for 25 years of service and Judy Bennor for 10 years of service.In 1903, many members of the Nashua Isabella Club began corresponding with Andrew Carnegie asking him for enough money to build a new library and after no response for almost a year, one day out of the blue, a proposition arrived from Carnegie with an offer of $5,000 to put up a building if the council would support the tax and the citizens furnished the site. The council accepted and soon the town of Nashua had a library to be proud to put their book collection in. The Andrew Carnegie Library in Nashua was dedicated on Jan. 10, 1906. In 1978 an architect was contacted when the library became too small for the book collection and in 1986 an addition was completed and completely paid for by local donations and grants. Today Library Director Heather Hackman is happy to be part of the continuing history of the Nashua Public Library.Hackman could not do all she does without the help of her assistant librarians Cleveland and Bennor. Helping with the celebration was State Librarian Michael Scott who was invited to join in the celebration and to hand out awards to the ladies for their years of service. Scott loves getting out and visiting Iowa’s libraries even though he has not had the chance to visit all of them yet in his year and an half of service.“Libraries are the heart of communities, it's true and at the heart of the library are great people like Bonnie Cleveland and Judy Bennor,” said Hackman. “These ladies are very dedicated to the Nashua Public Library and are extreme assets to the community and our library! Thank you for your 25 years of service Bonnie and 10 years of service Judy!”Cleveland said she has really good people to work with and it has been a good experience all the way through. She started as a volunteer since she loves to help out and moved up to a paid employee when there was a spot open for her.Bennor saw an advertisement one day for the library assistant position, decided to apply for the position and has been there ever since.“It’s a nice part-time job and nice people to work with,” said Bennor.  Many milestones for the Nashua Public Library this year which would not be possible without the help of Carnegie way back in 1904."A library outranks any one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert." ~ Andrew Carnegie