WOODWARD, Iowa — The Woodward Public Library, with help from the Woodward Public Works Department, recently erected a community digital sign at the head of the Trestle Bridge Trail on Main Street.
The sign will be used to inform the public of upcoming events in the city.
“Since the community lost its local paper in 2002, the citizens have asked for a place where information could be disseminated,” said Woodward Public Library Director Myrna Griffith. “The library is hoping this will be just one way to communicate with its citizens.”
The sign project was completed at the end of November, with the first announcement displayed on Dec. 7.
Griffith said that the Woodward Public Library will be facing the concrete base of the sign with bricks in the spring. Some of the bricks will be engraved with the names of those who helped to make the project possible, she said.
The sign was paid for by a grant from the Dallas County Foundation, with matching funds raised by fundraising events, community jar donations placed is several businesses in the community and help from the city of Woodward.
Also in 2021, the Woodward Public Library saw completed its long-awaited project of digitizing the city’s former newspapers, the Woodward Enterprise and the Northeast Dallas County Record, which were published from 1907 to 2002, as well as the Bouton Press, which ran from 1916 to 1931.
The digital archives are accessible on the library’s website, Griffith said. The digitizing project was made possible with grants from the Dallas County Foundation, Bock Family Foundation and local fundraisers. The library’s website is a rich resource for history, genealogy and other interesting things from the past.
Myrna Griffith is the director of the Woodward Public Library.
