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New York State Senator Michael H. Ranzenhofer has secured $72,000 in state funding for public libraries throughout Genesee County.

“Our local libraries enrich our communities with invaluable services, and this critical funding will assist libraries across Genesee County with providing more programming to their patrons,” Ranzenhofer said. "As your State Senator, I am proud to be a strong supporter of Genesee County’s libraries."

The total funding will be distributed among Genesee County’s six public libraries:

• Byron-Bergen Library, $12,000;

• Corfu Free Library, $12,000;

• Haxton Memorial Library; $12,000;

• Hollwedel Memorial Library, $12,000;

• Richmond Memorial Library, $12,000; and

• Woodward Memorial Library, $12,000.

The funding can be used for a variety of purposes, including capital improvements, new books, learning materials, software, programming and computers. The funding is part of the 2018-19 State Budget. The funding is administered by the New York State Education Department.

Without committing, either way, several members of county's Human Services Committee on Monday questioned why towns in the county that don't have libraries aren't doing more to assist funding libraries since their residents certainly use libraries, whether it's the Richmond, Haxton, Corfu, Woodward, or Hollwedel libraries.

"You need to make a presentation to GAM (Genesee Association of Municipalities) because there are still significant portions of the county that are not contributing to the libraries," said Robert Bausch, chairman of the County Legislature. "I hate to say that certain people in certain towns are dumber than other people so, therefore, they don’t need libraries. I don’t think that’s true but the bottom line is, this has gone on now since approximately 1986, so this has gone on for 30 years and these other towns have not stepped up."

Suzanne Schauf, director of the Hollwedel Memorial Library in Pavilion, suggested that because of towns without libraries -- such as Bethany, Alabama, Alexander, and Elba -- aren't legally obligated to pay for libraries, any funding that comes from the towns could be precarious and subject to political whim.

Bethany, she said, used to make a contribution to the Pavilion library, but then somebody said the wrong thing to somebody, somebody else got mad, she said, and the funding was cut.

To secure more funding from these towns, libraries would need to recharter to incorporate these towns either in a library district or as part of an appropriate school budget.

That can be a lengthy process, though the Corfu Free Library rechartered as a school district library and became the Corfu Public Library in 2016.

Bausch was actually part of the committee 30 years ago that came up with the formula for the county to provide financial support to all of the libraries. The original plan was for the county share to be $60,000, or $1 per resident.

Over time, that share was reduced and is now less than $48,000, though the county's population is 58,000.

More than half the money goes to the Richmond Memorial Library in Batavia and though that is the largest piece of the funding pie, said Director Robert Conrad, it is the smallest portion of the library's revenue stream.

The county share is generally used for the purchase and upkeep of technology and purchasing new books.

The Legislature is asking that the topic be placed on the next GAM agenda.

State Senator Michael H. Ranzenhofer has announced today $54,000 in state funding for public libraries throughout Genesee County.  

“From summer reading programs to job searching tools, public libraries enrich our communities by providing invaluable services to residents. Local libraries operate with a limited budget, and this state funding will help to offer more services to their patrons,” Ranzenhofer said.

The total funding will be distributed among Genesee County’s six public libraries:

• Byron-Bergen Library, $9,000;
• Corfu Free Library, $9,000;
• Haxton Memorial Library; $9,000;
• Hollwedel Memorial Library, $9,000;
• Richmond Memorial Library, $9,000; and
• Woodward Memorial Library, $9,000.

The funding can be used for a variety of purposes, including capital improvements, new books, learning materials, software, programming and computers. The funding is part of the 2017-18 State Budget. The funding is administered by the New York State Education Department.

With that in mind, Robert Conrad, director of the Richmond Memorial Library, made the case to the Human Service Committee on Monday that in the upcoming budget, the Legislature should consider a modest increase in funding of about $4,500.

Chairman Frank Ferrando indicated he thought that was a reasonable request.

"I can't speak for the entire Legislature, but for myself absolutely, I think it's really important that we have good, updated libraries available for our citizens with all the modern technology we now have available to garner information," Ferrando said.

He's interested in hearing what other members of the Legislature have to say about it.

"We're probably going to have some interesting discussion come budget time, but they're asking for $4,500 above last time, which would be the total up to around $50,000, which is still less than $1 per citizen in the county," Ferrando said.

The county funding for the library system flows through the Richmond Memorial Library and Conrad said a few years ago the county provided the library with a little more than $63,000.

While based in Batavia, the Richmond serves the entire county, especially those towns and villages in the county, such as Elba, Alexander, Bethany and Darien, without their own libraries.

Primary funding for Richmond comes from its own district, which is contiguous with the Batavia City Schools' district.

"About one-third of our cardholders live outside of the district," Conrad said. "The same is true for the other libraries in the county. We're the defacto public library of the county because we have the most available in our local history collection. We receive the grant for homebound services for senior citizens throughout the county, along with other services we provide to the entire county."

The local library service area is unique, Conrad said, in that it ensures even those people who live outside of the district receive library services. That isn't always true in other parts of the nation. For example, in Chicago, where Conrad worked for many years, citizens who didn't live in a library district received no library services.

Conrad is optimistic the funding request will be approved.

He characterized the reception he received from the committee as warm, with a discussion full of penetrating questions.

"I think the legislators generally look favorably upon libraries," he said.