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New York State Senator Michael Nozzolio was in Lansing Saturday to visit the library and present a check to help purchase chairs and carts for special programs.  Nozzolio arrived at noon to find the library lobby filled with more than 30 volunteers and library supporters including members of both library boards, Lansing Town Supervisor Scott Pinney, volunteers, patrons, and supporters. 

 Library officials had requested $3,000 to purchase the equipment, but Nozzolio had another idea.  "I talked to my accountant Andy Sciarabba," he joked to the crowd.  "He told me that the cumulative cost of putting together a $3,000 grant would be so much that we rounded it off.  We rounded it off to $10,000."


Nozzolio has continually supported Lansing, visiting often during his tenure as Senator.  He was at Lansing Harbor Festival this year, and offered help to Ladoga Park residents in their battle to reopen a closed railroad crossing.  He was part of the library's groundbreaking, shovelling dirt with other local and state officials.  He has found money for the Lansing/Groton Teacher Center, secured funding to insure Kionix, Inc. would locate its microfluidics business unit here, and in 2005 secured $100,000 of state funding to boost the Lansing library's capital fund drive over the top, which meant the building expansion was entirely paid for by monies raised.

He has always said that libraries are dear to his heart, and despite a contested race to be re-elected, Nozzolio was noticeably low-key and heartfelt in his remarks.  "My Mom and Dad, although not formally educated -- my Dad never got to high school, and my Mom never got through high school --I didn't think of it as bettering myself at the time," he said.  "It was a way to fulfill my curiosity.  That's what libraries are about for the young and the not so young, and thank you for doing what you do."


The Lansing Community Library has had a stormy history with a small, but active and vocal contingent of residents opposing it.  Establishing the facility as a public library failed by a small margin in a May, 2007 vote, then passed by a slightly larger margin that December.  The opposition challenged the second vote, and today continues to try to disestablish the library.

Nozzolio told the gathering that one Lansing resident has e-mailed him to say he won't vote for Nozzolio because of the Senator's support of the library.  "I haven't responded yet, but I know what I'm going to say," Nozzolio said.  "I'm going to say, that's fine for you, but what about the child in Lansing who can't get to the Tompkins County Library.  Do we leave that child behind?  What about the people who work in Lansing who use this library and benefit tremendously from it?  I also should say that the Tompkins County Library is supported by local, state, and federal taxes as well, and I daresay a lot more of those funds than this library is.  Small town libraries are the windows on the world for kids in small towns."

Nozzolio said that he credits having a library a mile from his house in a small town with his being able to go to Cornell and success as an adult.  He also stressed that local volunteers' commitment to creating and growing the library has impressed him.


"The last time I was here at the library it was a weekday afternoon," he recalled.  "I had just come by to say hello and see the library, and somebody gave me a tour.  It was hot and volunteers were perspiring while working on the grounds.  It impressed me how volunteers care so much about this facility.  It is beautiful to see that you care enough to commit to establishing and keeping it open, and keeping Lansing's window on the world enriched."

After the presentation Nozzolio stayed to talk to people about the library.  He requested that the library purchase a favorite book, 'Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,' by American historian Doris Kearnes Goodwin.  The book examines Lincoln's political strategy by profiling three of Lincoln's rivals in the Republican primary election that he chose to be members of his cabinet.  A woman in the crowd told Nozzolio that she has a spare copy of the book that she will donate to the library, freeing that money for other needs.

Nozzolio was relaxed and in no hurry to leave.  "I have a special kinship with small town libraries," he said.  "I remember my first library book that I took out at the age of seven.  I remember finding that library, which was about a mile from my house, and learning about everything I could learn within the four walls of that library in Seneca Falls, New York, where I grew up."

Nozzolio said he wants to remain in touch with the Lansing Library and to continue to be supportive.  "I hadn't heard from the library in a few years, so I volunteered to help," he said.  "I have helped every library in my district a couple of times.  In these hard economic times we can't stop learning.  I might lose a vote for doing the right thing."

He seemed perfectly comfortable with that.
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