Two years after Anita Pilotte moved to Powell from New York she started a book sale with the Friends of the Powell Library.

That first sale 30 years ago had two boxes full of books. 

On Saturday, Anita sat at the same desk she had for the past three decades in the Powell Branch Library’s basement, surrounded by numerous boxes full books and the friends she made over the years.

As she cashed people out she often told them with a smile “I know what everyone in town reads.”

Saturday was Anita’s last sale. It was also the last book sale in the current library although the sale will likely exist in some form in the new building. The library is preparing to move to Homesteader Hall at the Park County Fairgrounds; the basement is the first thing to be cleared out, Anita said. 

She remembered hunting for donations when the sale first started, it took time to gather enough books to grow into the basement, but through a combination of garage sale hunting and public notices it slowly grew. As the volume grew, the sale also grew from a monthly fundraiser to a weekly one.

“It was here [in the library], not in the basement, and I went to all the garage sales that had books for sale. And I would say, “If you have any books left at the end, I'll take them in at the library.” And that's how I built up the number of books,” Pilotte remembered, “And then people knew they could donate … you’d be surprised how quick it builds up.” 

Larger libraries like the ones in Casper and the Parmly Billings Library do once a year sales, she said. Powell has a smaller library but the community needed a book sale, she said.

“They needed a place where they could buy books reasonably and everything was donated. So I didn't have any overhead … so we could charge $1 a book, 25 cents for a kid's book,” Pilotte said. 

While Pilotte is retiring from the weekly book sales she can still be found around town wherever there’s a table and the building temperature is cool — she’ll be writing her family history.

“When I was 14, I started interviewing my family members while they were still alive, thank God, for their stories … and when people in the rest of the family heard I was doing it, they sent me all this stuff,” Pilotte said. “So that's what I'm drowning in at home. I’ve got stuff everywhere … it's something that I really have to do. I mean, I'm not gonna live to be 100. But the Lord can call me either until I'm done with it.”

Powell Library staff prepare for move

There was a fitting farewell celebration last weekend at the Powell Library, as people celebrated longtime Friends of the Powell Library member Anita Pilotte with cake and a final Friends of the Powell Library book sale in the current library building.

The day before marked the end of the bid period for a Construction Manager at Risk to oversee the building of a new Powell Library.

But before building starts — construction is required to begin in October to satisfy the terms of the $8.4 million state grant that forms the bulk of the $12 million project funding — staff have a lot of work to do. They need to clear the building, move what they need into the library’s temporary home — Homesteader Hall at the Park County Fairgrounds — and watch as the building that has been added onto over the decades is demolished to make way for a 14,000 square foot new library, which has to be completed by the end of 2026.

Park County Library Director Karen Horner said they’re looking at the week of April 22 to close the Powell Library. She said they’ll then take a couple weeks to clear the old building and move items to Homesteader Hall, which she’s hoping would open for service to the public on Monday, May 6.

“Our plan really is to kind of take a mini version of the library now and put it in Homesteader Hall,” Horner said. “So we'll have public computers and a printer and you can check out books and movies and we're still gonna keep doing our programs.”

She said some of those programs may be at a smaller scale, however, or even be located in a different community organization’s building.

By virtue of its temporary location, Horner said the library will also be able to have an outsized influence during the Park County Fair and would find some activities to do during the week.

Library leaders have long planned on a bigger facility, as a 2019 needs assessment found it’s “totally inadequate” for the growing Powell community. The building started its use as a library in 1935 and has had a number of expansions over the years, noted Homesteader Museum Director Brandi Wright.

In 2021, the Park County Library Foundation paid for GSG Architecture to design an expansion, but the library board later hired Johnston Architects of Seattle for a new design. Now, Johnson and GSG have agreed to work together on the process, Horner said, as Johnson is more of a design company while GSG focuses on architecture, allowing them to streamline working with the CMAR.

Horner said there’s still a lot to be determined as the process continues, such as what to do with all the furniture at the library — Horner said they’ll be putting in mostly new furnishings in the brand new building.