Archive: Around Town

Last May voters overwhelmingly said they did not want the Lansing Community Library to be abolished.  The vote was nearly three to one in favor of keeping the library.  On October 31 the Finger Lakes Library System (FLLS) honored Friends of the Library President Donna Scott for her advocacy in the time of the library's greatest need.  Scott received the award at FLLC's 51st annual meeting in Virgil.

"I'm sitting there thinking, 'Oh this is nice.'  Then all of a sudden they start reading our story about the library vote in Lansing last Spring, and I realized who they were talking about," she recalls.  "They give it to one person.  Since I was the chief nag and leader of the whole group that got out the vote for the library, I won the award.  I was really amazed and surprised."

Surprisingly the library vote was one of the most controversial recent issues in Lansing.  Volunteers had raised private money for two capital projects, and had been awarded grants for a number of major items including the computer system that now links the library's collection to 31 other libraries in FLLS.  Volunteers said they could no longer maintain the level of service patrons were asking for unless they could hire a professional librarian.  They managed this without taking on debt, and wanted to present the library, free and clear, to the community.

Those opposed said that the volunteers had pledged to keep the library off the tax roles, and were loath to create another independent taxing authority.  They said they didn't trust library supporters to keep the tax low, and challenged the School District's voting system that did not require voters to prove they were legitimate registered district voters.


The library lost by 32 ballots in the first vote, then won by 65 votes in a second vote.  Neither vote was decisive, but the second vote was enough to be chartered, establish an elected board of directors, and levy a 15 cent per $1000 tax, which allowed the library to hire librarian Susie Gutenberger.  County Legislator Mike Sigler fought to get funding from Tompkins County that was in line with what the County gives its other rural libraries.  That allowed the library to hire a part time Library Clerk, Paula Weaver.

Opponents immediately laid plans to petition the School Board to include a referendum in their next vote to abolish the library as a publicly funded entity.  Less than a week after the vote they were at a school board meeting to voice their intention.

"65 votes wasn't a huge margin," concedes Scott today.  "It was decent enough to feel good about at the time.   Although we only felt good about it for about five days, and then things started happening at the School Board that were discouraging.  I though, 'Can't they give us at least a week to feel good about this?'"

State University of New York (SUNY, the body that charters the library) and FLLS officials were quietly nervous.  If the Lansing library were abolished it would be the first in the State to be closed by voters, a precedent they did not want established.  Opponents submitted a petition that was not acceptable to the school board, and focussed on the voter registration issue to deflect a negative perception that they were against libraries, and were successful in getting the school system to put a better system in place that greatly reduces the possibility of voter fraud.  Then, very close to the deadline they submitted a second petition that was accepted.

That opposition energized Scott and many other volunteers.  They contended that the library would likely close if it couldn't continue to receive tax money, and noted that the amount was miniscule, the cost of one hard cover book for most taxpayers.  This time was also different because supporters had something to lose.  Jobs were at stake, as well as the ability to accept grants that had been awarded.

With Scott leading they devised a strategy to get out voters who they though supported the library.  Before the first vote Scott and Debbie Wells-Clinton (now a trustee) has attended a workshop on winning library votes at the New York State Library Association conference in Albany.  Now Scott determined to put what she had learned to the test.

"It was time well spent," she says.  "It helped us focus on what we needed to focus on.  You spend all your time getting out your supporters to actually go to the polls and vote.  You don't waste a lot of time trying to change the minds of people who are not on your side.  You only have X amount of time and energy and people, so you concentrate on making the people that support you realize it's really important to get out and vote.  That old bit about 'your vote counts' really makes a difference at a community level like this."

Leaders on both side of the controversy said that they hoped the vote would be decisive, once and for all.  Scott's group orchestrated an aggressive mailing campaign and rallied volunteers to help with a telephone campaign.  Their task was complicated by the fact that library supporters would have to vote 'no' in this third referendum.  The first two votes had asked them to vote 'yes' to establish a public library, but the third vote needed 'no' votes that opposed the abolition of the library.

Close to 1800 voters came out last May with 1122 of them saying they wanted to keep the library open.  Library supporters had won with a nearly three to one margin.

"That was great.  It became such a mandate," Scott says.  "We showed the people in Lansing which way to vote.  We spent a ton of time helping them understand that if they supported the library they had to vote 'no' this time.  And they came out and showed us they wanted a library in this town."


FLLS established the Advocacy award this year, making Scott its first recipient.  "The number of voters who turned out was one of the largest ever for a Lansing School District vote," said FLLS Executive Director as she presented the award to Scott.  "Without Donna's leadership and hard work, it is likely that Lansing would have lost its Library on that day.  Instead the library triumphed."

Scott notes that the Lansing Community Library has about 3,300 card-carrying patrons today, and a successful series of programs for kids and adults.  For a while, at least, her plaque will be on display at the library.

"Several members of the Friends and all the additional community members who joined in our vote committee are all real go-getters who don't mind hard work, and who will stick to it," Scott says.  "We had a really good team.  I feel like this award belongs to everybody who helped with this vote effort, not just me."

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