Editor`s Note: Cedar Key News received the following message early Tuesday morning from the Florida Library Association. Librarian Molly Jubitz expresses thanks to all of the supporters of the Cedar Key Public Library who sent messages to the legislative leadership in support of full funding for libraries. "At midnight the House accepted a Senate offer to restore State Aid to Public Libraries to the current year level of $21.2 million. When Senate Budget Chair J. D. Alexander made the offer, he asked if "the library guy" with the signs was in the room. The library guy we all know is Paul Clark who has pretty much lived in the Capitol keeping the issue in front of legislators and the press for 6 weeks. Senator Alexander was disappointed that Paul wasn`t there and said that other advocates could learn a lot from him. There, working the issue until midnight were FLA lobbyist Chris Lyon, Small County Coalition coordinator Chris Doolan, and whole contingent from the Department of State including Secretary Kurt Browning, lobbyist Rivers Buford III, and John Boynton. This group barely left
the Capitol all weekend long. Chris Doolan had a very positive impact or us, especially on Sunday morning. The folks from the Florida Association of Counties, and many county lobbyists have been working the issue aggressively as well. The Salter Mitchell PR folks distributed press releases for us at several critical junctures. FLA`s
CapWiz wizard, Lisa Manners did an incredible job of keeping the message fresh and for generating over 60,000 messages in the last 6 weeks. Special thanks go to Charlie Parker who stayed up many a night working and worrying this thing while writing messages to keep us all posted and lead this team. And nothing good happens at FLA withouExecutive Director Faye Roberts` talents and effort. But most important are you all, the thousands of folks out there who took action and let the Senate and House Leadership know how important our Libraries are! Thanks to everyone for their incredible efforts and congratulations on the wonderful success!" | 
