Library tech center will honor Sen. Nelson's mother

Former U.S. Senator and Nebraska Governor, who has already honored his parents with bronze statues of him receiving his Eagle Scout award, above, will now honor his mother with a technology center at the McCook Public Library

McCook Gazette

McCOOK, Neb. -- A McCook native is honoring his mother by providing support for the local institution that helped him excel in reading, and eventually in his long political and professional career.

Many years before a nationwide pandemic forced parents to provide educational support from home, former U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson’s mother, Birdella, was teaching him reading, writing and arithmetic. As part of his “home-schooling,” the Senator and his mom would make trips to the McCook Public Library to check out books. Many of the trips were followed by a visit to Prest Drug on the corner of Norris Avenue and “C” Streets.

“I was so taken by the library, going in there to see all the books and the tables. Miss Slaby, the librarian, filled out my library card. She dipped a steel-tipped nib into an inkwell and wrote my name. I remember the number – 266.”

Nelson’s love of reading served him well throughout his life. Through his grade school and high school years at McCook Public Schools, as well as college and law school at the University of Nebraska, Nelson attributes his academic success to his mother’s devotion to teaching him to read before he even started kindergarten.

Nelson went on to serve as governor of Nebraska from 1991 to 1999, and as United States Senator from 2001 to 2013.

To honor both his mother’s and McCook Public Library’s contribution to his success, Sen. Nelson is making a $500,000 restricted endowment gift to the McCook Community Foundation Fund, an affiliated fund of the Nebraska Community Foundation. The endowed gift establishes the Birdella Nelson Endowment for the Library account and is for the purpose of supporting the McCook Public Library. The funds are intended to finance projects and programs that will help the library achieve a margin of excellence and to provide new technologi cal opportunities and programming for the citizens of McCook.

The funds may be used for emergency library expenses, but only in extreme circumstances. Funds from this account may not be used for ongoing operational expenses, which are typically supported by the City of McCook.

As an endowed restricted fund, only the earnings may be used each year, and spending decisions will fall on an account committee made up of members of the McCook Community Foundation Fund Advisory Committee, the McCook Library Advisory Committee, the McCook Library Foundation Board, a youth member, and other partners from the public, schools, or college. The entire account committee has not been established yet. Because it is endowed, the fund will generate earnings indefinitely.

Executive Director of the McCook Economic Development Corporation Andy Long told the McCook City Council that the potential annual distribution of funds from the account could be more than $20,000 after year one, which would be in 2021. If market conditions are favorable, that amount would continue to increase each year, as the endowment balance grows. “It’s really a generational difference maker.”

McCook Library Director Jodi Crocker said with a chuckle, “We’re excited because my line item budget for this is $3,000 a year, so we’re moving up big time. We can buy more than one computer, Yay!”

Mary Dueland, a member of both the McCook Library Advisory Committee and the McCook Library Foundation

board told the council, “We see the library as a hub of the community, a place where we can connect people to information and resources and people to people. We feel that the director and staff have done an excellent and exceptional job in bringing and transforming this library and facility to what it is right now. But we also see an opportunity to dream big with the generous donation of this endowment by Sen. Nelson.” She told the council that the Birdella Nelson Technology Center would be an area where people could collaborate and innovate. “We can create a place where they can acquire some different skill sets using the technology, the equipment, the resources, that the library might be able to acquire through these funds.”

Nelson’s vision for the endowment is to provide opportunities to the community, with an emphasis on the youth, around technology through new equipment and programming. The endowment should be used to help create opportunities for community members to learn how to use the tools that will be needed to succeed on a global and local basis in the 21st century.

Choosing the Nebraska Community Foundation to manage the assets in the fund was a natural for Nelson. As governor, Nelson was one of the original incorporators of the Nebraska Community Foundation, which was established in 1994. It currently has 235 affiliated funds (of which the McCook Community Foundation Fund is one) serving 258 communities throughout the state. Each affiliated fund has a local committee who makes decisions regarding the assets of the restricted funds set up for their community.

Sen. Nelson told the McCook City Council, “This is a gift. It’s not a gift with strings. It’s a gift for a purpose. I’m not telling anybody what they have to buy. I’m allowing the library and the committee to determine what they want, all within the realm and range of the availability of the funds. No matter what we think the technology is today, we can only really guess what it will be tomorrow and the next day.”

The council will take the item up at a future meeting as more information on committee structure, location, and other details become available.