STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

A giant ram greeted those making their way into Hailey’s Town Center West for an author’s  presentation by the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference this past week.

And that wasn’t all that was new.

A wall of soundboards meant to evoke the mountains surrounding the Wood River Valley and topographical maps presented a calming sense amplified by the colors of nature.

Town Center West is no longer the homely hollow space it was when the City of Hailey bought the building in 2021. It has been transformed over the past few months into a homey welcoming environment that should only serve to entice even more users.

“We’re really proud of the space, and the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference was a great event to have to kick it off,” said Lee Dabney, the Hailey Public Library’s children’s librarian. “We are hoping to have an open house at some point, but we were still hanging pictures yesterday in the bathroom getting ready for the Writers’ event.”

The City didn’t quite know what to do with the building when it bought it in 2021 so the library started managing it, said Lyn Drewien, the Hailey Public Library’s executive director.

“We realized the community needs a space for events, and its use has grown by leaps and bounds,” she said. “Its use has grown exponentially year over year.

“We use it for library programs since we don’t have space in the library anymore to hold presentations. A variety of nonprofits, such as The Advocates, use it for meetings. The College of Southern Idaho has English language learning classes there Mondays and Wednesdays. There’s been CPR classes there, town hall meetings—I’m trying to think of something that hasn’t been in that space. It’s filled a hole in the community.”

The center started as a post office in the 1960s and has since housed a variety of retail businesses, including a gun shop and sporting goods store and Copy & Print. It needed a lot of work, said Drewien.

The City brought the building up to code by constructing ADA bathrooms, putting in new carpet and lighting, running water and a kitchen counter.

The library used a grant given during the COVID pandemic by the Idaho Commission for Libraries to purchase livestream equipment, speakers and cameras. It used a private donation to purchase a new 98-inch television, mounted cameras, stage and other programming equipment, as well as a kitchen island, blinds and other accessories to make the place more attractive.

Heather McGregor, a local designer, offered her services free of charge to help coordinate paint colors and other design features.

The library had Felt Right, a company in Draper, Utah, that creates multi-functional acoustic panels that absorb unwanted noise, to build panels resembling mountains. They’re made of recycled plastic bottles converted into fibers.

“The colors of the soundboard, which are designed to minimize echo, are inspired by the library’s logo. And they’re reflective of the natural world,” said Dabney. “My son and I put them up and leveled them and it was like working a puzzle. We had to take a couple down and do it all again, but now they look so great. Part of our mission is to be environmentally forward leaning and thoughtful—and this is a beautiful way of doing that.”

Myriam Esther, an Elkhorn resident who specializing in painting wildlife, donated the ram. Earlier she had donated a sculpture depicting sheep skiing down a snow-covered slope that hangs outside the Children’s Library.

“We thought it was kind of whimsical. The idea of the space is to be reflective of our community, and the Trailing of the Sheep Festival is just a huge event that takes place in our community,” said Dabney.

The pictures hung in the bathroom are part of the library’s Mallory Collection—historic picture of Hailey taken at the turn of the century by Martin Mallory.

“The one I really love is of four women who have been fishing, one of whom was Hailey’s first librarian and Martin Mallory’s sister Nettie,” said Dabney.

The town center remodel isn’t quite complete, said Drewien. “We need some new speakers, somethings for the audio and video parts of our programs. And we still have to do a little more to improve the acoustics.”

Wood River Valley nonprofits can reserve Town Center West free of charge by going on the Hailey Public Library’s website at https://haileypubliclibrary.org/ or the city’s website at https://haileycityhall.org/.

There is a small fee for others, and it books up quickly, said Drewien.

“It’s a community space, meant for the community to enjoy,” said Dabney.