Board of Library Trustees - Grafton Public Library - Regular Meeting

ALL RIGHT, SO THE FIRST ITEM ON THE AGENDA IS APPROVING THE MINUTES FROM JULY 29, 2026. DO WE HAVE THEM IN THE PACKET? THEY ARE, YES. ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE MINUTES FROM THE JULY 29TH MEETING?

NO. I DID NOTICE A TYPO ON ONE OF STACEY'S NAMES, LIKE THE NAME HAD A Y IN ONE PLACE. OH, YES, IN THE BOTTOM SECTION.

That was the only thing I... We'll fix that. Sorry, Stacey. Oh, it's fine.

I'm very used to it, so I probably just honestly skipped over it. Oh, yeah, under number five. Okay. In new business. Okay. Thank you.

You're welcome. Any other comments, questions? No, that was good. You're concise.

Can I make a motion to accept the meeting minutes of July? All right, motion made and seconded.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, declare the motion carried. Okay, so next item is bills. Do I have a motion to accept Warrants 6, 7, and 8? Any amounts listed?

I make a motion to accept warrant 54 for $12,619.03. Warrant four for $67,236. Wait, I think you're on the wrong note. No, I'm on the minutes, sorry. I forwarded too fast, sorry. Scratch that. Make a motion to accept warrant six in the amount of $9,507.40. Warrant number seven for $12,224.09. Warrant number eight in the amount of $6,350.04. using the counts as specified in each warrant. Okay.

I second.

Okay, motion made and seconded. Any comments, questions on Warrant 678?

The Renaud bill from, like, the end of July?

Mm-hmm.

What was that for?

Was that, like, a specific event or was it left over from earlier?

There were two separate things that had happened. Do you know what the page that's on?

It was July 31st.

It's on page 12, the packet.

it says four thousand four hundred ninety dollars July 31st but that was the invoice date I just wasn't sure if that was a new thing since our last meeting or is it just an invoice from a previous like are we having more issues no it was something that we had chatted about in

In June or July, and my apologies, I can't remember. Okay. It happens so frequently. Yeah. I can certainly get back to you. No, that's okay.

As long as it was an older issue. Yeah, it was. Has, in general, has the HVAC been okay for the past month or so?

Yes. Yes, so far, so good. Okay. No issues.

That was my only question. Okay.

Anybody else? All right. Hearing no further commentary, all in favor accepting Warrants 6, 7, and 8? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All right. Any opposed? I declare the motion carried. Great. Next on the agenda, we have a visitor tonight to talk about the fountain pen.

I'm Joanne Duncan. I don't know if you need to know. I live at 6 Apple Ridge Lane. I never know whose minutes need that information or don't. So I'm a member of the historical commission, and one of the things that the commission was trying to do prior to me even joining them over a year ago was to place a fountain that used to be on the Grafton Common in a place that people within the town can see it. This is actually a picture of the fountain, if you want to pass that around. I apologize, I didn't print off a lot. No, no.

I think some of us have this in email. Yeah. Okay. Oh, so you sent that out.

Perfect, thank you. The other thing I can pass around, I made a couple copies of this, is Fountains on the Common. This was actually put together by Rob Aber, who's a member of the Grafton Historical Society. They also have an interest in the fountain. Back in the 1700s, 1800s, there was a very large fountain on the Common that was used to water horses. Around the 1900s, obviously, that no longer was needed. That was removed. This smaller fountain, the story I have heard and I need to confirm this with the water district, is that that fountain was kept because we needed a way to have water run 24 hours a day through the water system because it was wooden pipes. Because it would freeze if we didn't have water running all the time. That fountain was then removed from the common around the late 60s, early 70s, it's believed. because it was no longer needed. We no longer had to have the water running 24 hours a day. There are people in town who say they remember that fountain. They remember standing by it, waiting for the bus to get to swim lessons at the Lions Club. So what we're trying to do, that fountain was then, I'm sorry, it was then stored in the DPW barn when it was removed from the common. And Mike Casey, who's a former DPW employee, kind of took it under his wing and he restored it after hours. And it's never had a home since then. One of the things that is of concern around it are all those little spiky things at the top. That you wouldn't want that someplace where children would potentially climb on it. People, like a high traffic area. Because there was a lot of discussion, my understanding is years ago, that it should go back on the common. But, you know, in speaking with Evan Brassard as well about this, he kind of agreed with me that it seems like it could be a potential nightmare. Just also more stuff on the common when we use that as a place to hold events.

Yeah, and a recreational, you know, people playing ball, things like that.

Right. Some folks talked about behind one graft in common. but it's not really visible there. And again, it's a place with a lot of people, young children coming in and out of because of the dance studio and Apple Tree Arts. So I was wondering if the library would be willing to have it in front of the entrance to the Wheelock Reading Room, off to the right in that grassed area, in speaking with Evan, he liked the idea as well and said we could erect, not a fence, but You may have seen them. They're like little concrete balls and then there's a little chain and then another little concrete ball. So it sort of creates that illusion of a fence. It kind of tells people don't step over this, don't touch this thing. We could put a little plaque there with a little bit of history. Most likely a QR code that would take folks to the town website with a lot of detail about the Fountains of Grafton. recognized the gentleman. He passed away not long after doing that work, recognized the gentleman who did the work. So that's my pitch. That's my request. If you would consider adding that to your front lawn, it gets it closer to its original home. It's a place where folks will see it. They can go and look at it.

Would it be running water? No. Sorry.

That would be very cool. That would probably attract even more people. We never considered that. I don't even know that that would be possible there. But it used to have water. It did. It was a bubbler.

This is not the best photo.

Yes. So I was thinking more over like in this area.

Where the current mulch is, or like in the front of the grass, in front of the mulch?

Oh, in front of the mulch. Like almost off, I should have taken a picture. There's bushes off to the right. I was thinking like nestling it back in there.

So it would kind of be like centered almost on, like if you're to the right of the path.

Yes, so you're walking up the path, and it's not going to be directly off the path, but if you turn, you would see it. And again, this is up to you guys. This is, you know, if you're willing to take this thing, this thing.

So Evan said it was up to us?

Or the board of second, the black board said it was up?

Because we don't, like, so, like, obviously it's, like, surrounding the library. Yes. But the land is really. Town land. The town land, you know, it's not like.

Well, Evan, I mean, what Evan said to me was, I went to Evan and said, I don't want to move forward unless you think this is a good idea. This is where I'm thinking might make sense for this. He said, I agree 100%. I said, all right, then I'm going to go to the Library Board of Trustees, get their feeling on it. And then I'm going to have to go to the Historic District Commission and make sure they're OK with this. And then Evan said, come back to him. DPW would place it for us. Because he's thinking like a little cement flat little area, place it on that, create the little fence. We had at one time talked about putting it with the Civil War Memorial. That's right in front of the UU Church. But it, it, it, uh, Well, and it's sort of, I felt like it was disrespectful to that memorial. If there's somebody going there, um, because that's a Civil War memorial, and then they see this fountain that makes no sense, it's like, are we just then trying to fill an area? But I thought with the library, it kind of has a nice fit.

I mean, I love the idea of having it on the Common, but I reckon, great, because that's where it was originally, but I recognize it's not the best place.

Yeah, so there's some concerns, right, about really just You want foot traffic, but you don't, right? Because you don't want people to get ideas. I mean, I think the front of the library is fantastic because most of the monkeying around, you've kind of seen that back parking lot, I think, right?

Yes, most of the traffic is back.

Yeah. There isn't really access anymore around that right side to get to that children's area.

It's very steep.

It used to be that you could walk up, but not anymore.

You can, but it's not built in there. Yeah. Yeah.

But on each side of the library, there's kind of a curved wall that comes out a little bit. So if it was kind of in that little nook, either the left or the right.

I will say that's one of the only areas where there is grass where we host events on occasion. On the left side? No, on the right side. That's where they do goats and giggles. They do yoga occasionally outside. AND THEN ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT, THAT WHOLE AREA IS SWARMED.

WHAT IF WE WERE ON THE LEFT-HAND SIDE INSTEAD OF THE RIGHT-HAND SIDE? AND THEN THAT WOULD BE MORE PROMPT. IF IT'S ON THE LEFT-HAND SIDE, THEN WHEN PEOPLE ARE DRIVING HIGH, THEY SEE IT.

AND THAT DOESN'T GET AS MUCH TRAFFIC, AND IT'S SEPARATED BY THE GARDEN.

BECAUSE YOU'RE RIGHT, BECAUSE IT IS, LIKE, THE GRASS HERE IS QUITE NICE.

IT'S LIKE ONE OF THE ONLY USABLE, LIKE, TRUCK SPACES FOR THE LIBRARY. I DIDN'T EVEN THINK ABOUT THAT. Sorry, Katrina. I know we haven't run those programs in a while.

I think it would be really nice on the left side.

Yeah, that's fine.

It gets more sun there. There's a bench on the walkway, so between the bench and the gardens.

Yeah, the bench is over... Is that the Jen White's bench?

Yes. Yeah, okay. That is the Jen White's bench.

I mean, honestly, the place where the tree keeps dying.

I was... Oh! Is the tree on that side? The tree is on the left. Yeah, so that... Oh, yeah. I mean...

Which one, the one around the side or the one that's up on the corner? That's on the corner, yeah. We'd have to remove the tree from the fountain.

I would love it to be a working fountain. That would be a sustainable switch.

I think if we could have it be a working fountain, that would be incredible.

I mean, but then people would touch it and, you know, could get injured. And then having a, oh, I see what you're saying. Like still have the rope around it.

Still have the rope around it and people wouldn't, you know, we wouldn't encourage people. STILL ROOPED OFF, BUT I THINK THAT WOULD BE INCREDIBLE. I THINK WE HAVE TO ROOP EVERYTHING UP AND LEAVE IT LIKE THAT. YEAH.

THE PLUMBING WOULD BE DIFFICULT. YEAH. OKAY. WELL, I THINK WE'RE AMENTABLE TO THE IDEA. I DON'T KNOW THAT WE'RE READY TO GIVE A DECISION TONIGHT UNLESS ANYBODY FEELS COMPELLED TO, BUT I THINK IT'S A NICE PRESENTATION. OKAY. AND IT'S A NICE IDEA.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU NEED FROM ME?

If we have any follow-up questions, any other questions?

I just think we need someone to recommend the left versus right, and then if it's going to be on the left, just approximately where it is, and then we can just approve it next month. Are you looking to have it approved sooner than next month?

Soon only because I would look, if you approve it, I would look for you to maybe write a letter to the Historic District Commission saying you're behind this as well, and then I would go to them to get their approval because we can't really do anything there without their approval. And then we could get the ball rolling. Would it be helpful if I took a picture of the front of the library and then, like, indicated where I'm not really good with this AI stuff in superimposing, but I can probably find somebody who is, right? And give you a picture of what it would look like.

Or you can just circle.

Circle?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Because the DPW, they put in the concrete pads for the benches, so I assume they'll do something similar for this, a small concrete pad for it.

That's exactly what everyone's talking about.

Like a chain light type thing.

Yeah. I don't want to say it's discreet because it's this big concrete wall sitting there, but it's not a true fence.

And in terms of funding the installation,

Evan told me they would take care of it. DPW would just do it.

And they'd purchase whatever? Yes. All chain and ? Yes.

Well, I did talk to him about the historical. There was going to be no request from the library, Board of Trustees, for funds. The historical commission has a small budget that we could use. Evan kind of said, Let's worry about the money later. You know, he doesn't see this as a big ticket item and felt we could, you know, between our budget and, you know, DPW's work, we can make it happen.

When will you go in front of the Historic District Commission?

Once I have the OP from you guys. Okay.

Yeah. Is there maintenance required for it or upkeep or?

There shouldn't be, no. No.

Well, it hasn't been out in the weather yet.

Right. It hasn't. But the idea is it's built to be out in the weather. It's been a long time out there? It probably will, the color will probably change a bit as it gets weathered, but it's what you would want to have happen. That's the natural thing for it to do. But I will find out about that. Is it painted?

It looks like it's green paint to me. I don't think it's painted.

Unless it's copper. Unless it's copper.

But it's a dark green, though. It does look like it. Yeah, but in the light of green.

It's more copper. Oh, wow. Like light, light green. And then if there was an issue with it, Is the DTW willing to come and repair or in the event that it needs to be removed, you know, take kind of ownership because...

I will get their commitment on that.

Sure.

Paul Knoyer knows if I was coming and that I'm hoping to place this in. I mean, do you have any issues with it right now?

Do you have any issues about having it on library property?

As long as the placement is okay, it sounds like we've got a plan in place to keep people off of it. I think that's the biggest thing.

That's the big thing. I don't want the teens to, like, get any teens.

Or littles. I don't want to speak out of turn, but if at some point it was an issue, we would remove it. I mean, I feel like Evan would agree with that, and I can get his commitment on that, that it's just, if it becomes problematic. Okay.

I mean, they don't climb on Jerome, so I think we're okay. They just put a cone up there.

We might make him a little bit festive, but... That's good. I'd be in favor of approving it tonight. Yeah, I guess I'm... Pending some decision on a location.

Yeah, are we just concerned because we don't have, like, the full board here? Like, do you want, like, Rachel and Prabhu's input, too?

No, I mean, really... WE'RE A BOARD, SO IF PEOPLE FEEL THAT THEY WANT TO APPROVE IT TONIGHT, THAT'S OKAY TOO.

I MEAN, I FEEL COMFORTABLE. AGAIN, IT'S PENDING LIKE THE HISTORIC COMMISSION, MAKING SURE THAT THEY'RE IN AGREEMENT.

My only worry, if we delay a month and then you're going to have to wait another month for the Historic District Commission. Right, yeah. Don't worry about the weather. Yeah, the weather will tell. And I think it would be kind of a cool addition.

I think it would just really compliment the library and the whole comment, you know? Like, yeah. Great. I think that's what I thought, too. I think I like it better on the left than on the right. I do, too. Great.

That was my big...

It's funny, because when I look at the... I'm sorry. When I look at it, I think that there's all this activity on the left. Because I see the garden and everything, and I think, oh, look at that right area over there. It's just off in the woods by itself. But I don't have a little person that I take to things. That's okay.

DPW will have to mow around it, too, so...

Yeah, and Daryl has been – he knows I'm working on this as well. I've talked to – I was out walking one day, and Daryl's truck came to a screeching halt. I've got a better idea for the fountain. So he knows it's going somewhere.

All right. I also think it's a great location because – The schools, the elementary schools visit the library for their history day. So, and since they're congregating, you know, give them another thing to look at when they, yeah. That's great. Yeah, exactly.

So you considered the town, whatever that place is called, what's it called?

The townhouse tavern?

At the front where they fixed it. That whole walkway, that's kind of a nice area too, but I don't know if there's any space there.

It would have to be in that.

There's like a ramp that goes up.

Right, it would have to be in one of those gardens, which then, I don't know what the clearance would be. This is not a good space, yeah. We've talked to the UU Church about the Peace Garden. And it just doesn't really fit there, and people wouldn't, because that garden is really meant for more of a meditative type of space. And then the other thing was behind One Graft in Common, you know, closer to the patio for the townhouse tavern. Yeah, but don't really see it. And it'd be by the dumpsters.

Yeah, it's all like it's parking back there, and then the tavern.

Yeah, and if you stick it in that, there's a little triangle, maybe that's where that, I mean, if we need to vote, I'll make a motion to support the placement.

I will second your motion.

I'll make a motion to support the placement of the historic fountain on library grounds. On the front .

Okay, motion made. Any second?

Second.

Okay. Any further discussion on the motion? Okay. Hearing none, all in favor of the motion on the table for the fountain? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right.

We can move to Katrina to make the final Katrina.

Thank you. Thank you. This is great. Let's start working. Okay.

Now my real work starts. That's right. All right. So I will get on the Historic District Commission. Did you want this? I don't have to if you want to keep it. Do you want to keep it for the minutes? I don't know. Thank you. I know I always have to.

It might be good to let staff know. Hey. In case you see this.

I'm sorry, Doug. What were you saying? Maybe not.

I was just, I mean, I assume between the Historic District Commission and Evan and the Historical Society and Katrina, you can agree on that position. Yes. Okay, perfect.

We'll figure something out. All right, great. Thank you all so much. Thank you for coming.

So next item on the agenda is some ongoing business. Okay, Doug. The Grafton Public Library Capital Campaign Update.

I guess the only update is that the Campo campaign did agree to fund the beautify the library event that happened last week. And I imagine Katrina will give an update on that. But that's the only activity from the Campo campaign.

Anything upcoming?

Katrina, did you send me a request?

I did. Did I forward that on to the capital campaign? I don't know. I remember seeing something else. Not recently. Okay.

Okay. That might be sitting in my inbox. Okay. So, yeah, Katrina did have another one or two requests. One was for a 3D printer because the 3D printer is just not functioning well. Actually, that's what all of it was, right? A 3D printer and then material.

All the supplies.

The supplies.

Yeah, exactly.

So we're just kind of waiting for the capital campaign to have another meeting. Okay.

Great. Any other questions? Okay. Next item on the agenda is a Friends Update. Carrie.

So we are coming up to the back to school book sale. So it's going to be this Saturday. So it's only Saturday. It's from 9 to 3. And there's discounts for teachers that have ID. So it's one of the biggest fundraisers for the Friends. And it really is just a wonderful community event, really helping support the teachers getting ready for kids to come back into the classroom and for all members of the community to be able to get a really great deal on books. And it's a lot of fun. So we had talked about, so this week the library is closed on Thursday, but Katrina, you coordinated with the friends, so set up will be happening. So Friday is one of the big days. I'm going to be helping on Friday, and I'll be there on Saturday.

I can do that for you. Oh, great. Yeah.

Oh, good. Okay. So we do need to get tables from the church. So Diane is going to, we have some, but there's some from the Baptist church. So Diane, we just were emailing about this, is going to leave a key Friday. So I'll be there. So even if we could bring the tables over.

Oh, yeah. We can do that. I wasn't sure. I know they started to drop off today, correct? Okay, and then you're closed tomorrow. Yeah, so close to the public tomorrow, I think. Okay, so then Friday, all day Friday. Yeah, yes. I'll be there during school hours.

Okay, well, I'll see you there. So that's really the big item. We talked about, we also did talk about potentially the vending machine, but I don't think there's not a decision on that yet. But they're still looking at different options for that. So kind of cool options, too, actually. It's like kind of a modern kind of a vending machine. And then the next meeting, so usually the friends meet on the second Tuesday of the month, but the next one is the 15th, I believe. I think you put it, Katrina, on the agenda, and it was the current date. I believe so, yeah, 15th. 15th, perfect. At 7.30 via Zoom, so again, if anybody's interested in attending, like I will be planning to attend, but if anybody else wants to join, they would welcome that.

Any questions for Carrie?

Thanks.

Do you have enough help for volunteers, or do they have enough help in terms of volunteers? I know in the past, moving tables, clean-up, set-up, take-downs.

I think that the clean-up definitely would be helpful if there are some Boy Scouts available. Saturday, you know, so the sale goes, again, I think till 3. So, you know, so then it's like, you know, cleaning up, right? Because it goes until 3, right? Yeah. Yeah. Because the library usually closes at 2, but the sale is going to go until 3. Yes. So then like that hour, like the 3, you know, even a little before 3, like 3 or 4 to help, you know, to bring books back either into the friend's workroom or to the offsite storage is extremely helpful. You know, break everything down and leave it in good shape for. I KNOW WE DO HAVE SOME HONOR SOCIETY STUDENTS HELPING DURING THE DAY. WHAT IS THE DATE AND TIME AGAIN? THIS SATURDAY. And the sale goes from 9 a.m. to 3, but it'll be set up already. Again, Friday's going to be the finishing touches of getting it ready. And then when the library opens at 9, that's when the sale's going to open up. So it's really more... I mean, during the sale itself, too, it is helpful to kind of restock the tables, but we do have honor society students doing that. So I think the Boy Scouts are really great with, like, bringing the tables back over to the church and, you know, the materials that haven't sold. Yeah.

Okay. I'll mention that.

Oh, thank you.

If they have some, if they're in need of some service hours. Okay. Any further discussion about the friends update? All right. Hearing none, the next item, please help me with it. Library trusts. Library trusts.

I do not have any updates on the library trusts. Okay. Last month I promised to consolidate all the information into one spreadsheet and I didn't get a chance to do that.

Okay.

Very good.

strategic planning update probably is not here does somebody have an update in his absence happy to do that okay so the strategic planning committee met on Monday

We've got two working groups who've been diligently working on a communications plan and finalizing the survey. So Rachel and Natalie went through sort of my draft survey that I had made prior to gathering the committee together, made some suggestions and edits, and they're going to finalize that and kind of move to a different platform that's going to be a little more user-friendly. And then Betsy from the Friends and Nahant, one of our high school students, is working on the communications plan. They're going to get some graphics and copy together regarding the survey specifically, and then we're hoping to launch that in September. So our next meeting is September 14th.

What sort of formats are you considering for the survey?

So the survey is going to be on Microsoft Forms. Good. And then, yeah, because I'm more familiar with the Google Suite, so I created it on Google Forms, but there are some... ranking questions that we wanted to add, and I think they're going to be better presented on Microsoft Forms, so we're going to do that. And there's going to be a paper option available for folks who are, you know, not necessarily tech savvy or don't have access to technology easily.

Or just don't know about the survey because it's right there in front of you if you visit the library.

Exactly, so for accessibility purposes. I've never heard of Microsoft, or I've heard of Google Forms before, but I didn't have any. Me either.

Yeah, we use it at work. We've been, they do it a lot for just like event planning, but I've also done it for I participate in the Whitensville Greenway Challenge, and so that's how we get volunteers and athletes to get them information and to sign up.

I've probably used it. I've probably filled it out, because we use the Microsoft Suite, so I just probably didn't realize.

The back-end metrics are really great in the data that you get. They give it to you in different bite-sized formats.

That's great. For your communications, you should potentially think about running something in... on their big board for the e-board. And then there's like the community paper and there's a town board just so that way we can get as much kind of public, not public.

A town e-board? There's more than one e-board. And like Dana, like Dana always knows. Yeah, Dana always knows. She told Jackie. She told Jackie. She told Jackie, okay. Maybe Jackie will have a list.

There's one at the Y in front of the Skips and Twirls. I get that Y.

Yeah, that's the town one, right? Yeah, I think that's the town one. And then across the street is Gaudette, and they're usually pretty good about community events. Yeah, definitely. Awesome. I think this is something that warrants as much. I would agree. Thank you.

Okay. Any questions? All right. Well, thank you, Katrina. Next is a policy update from Stacey.

We don't have a policy update for this month. We didn't MEET OVER THIS MONTH DUE TO SCHEDULES AND EVERYTHING. BUT LAST MONTH, EVERYTHING, WE HAD A LOT PASSED THROUGH. YOU DID A LOT LAST MONTH. YEAH, LAST MONTH, IT'S JUST HEARING BACK FROM LEGAL AND THEN BOOKING OUR NEXT MEETING. BUT PROBABLY WASN'T HERE. BUT I GUESS YOU AND I CAN JUST PICK A DATE AND THEN SEE.

THAT'S WHAT IT'S GOING TO HAVE TO COME TO, RIGHT? YEAH. OKAY.

AS LONG AS YOU HAVE A QUORUM, I MEAN, IT'S NICE TO ALWAYS HAVE A FULL COMMITTEE. YEAH. BUT, YOU KNOW, WE HAD A HARD TIME GETTING EVERYBODY TO SHOW UP AT THE SAME TIME. IT WAS GREAT WE COULD GET EVERYBODY THERE, BUT SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO DO WHAT YOU CAN.

FORGE YOUR HEAD. YEP. SO OUR NEXT STAGE WILL BE wrapping up that policy and then going through and kind of assessing what other policies need to be updated or when the last time that they were updated and kind of also build a flow chart of how policies get presented to both the board and the library and so on.

That's great. Much better than my chicken scratch in the back of an agenda. It's perfect.

Cool. So that's it for the policy committee.

So what would be the next policy that we would be approving?

The one that we're working on right now is the facility rentals.

Okay.

And that went off to legal. We approved the child safety policy last time. We do have to... RETIRE SOME POLICIES, SO WE'LL LOOK TO POST THOSE, BUT THAT'S JUST BECAUSE THE WORDING OF THOSE HAS ALREADY BEEN COVERED IN THE NEW UPDATED CHILD POLICY, SO THERE'S DUPLICATES AT THIS POINT.

GOOD. I MEAN, THAT WAS ONE OF THE INITIATIVES WE TALKED ABOUT, YOU KNOW, WHEN YOU CAME ON BOARD IS, LIKE, PAIRING IT ALL DOWN. YES, THAT'S THE GOAL. THAT'S FANTASTIC.

AND IT'S READY IN TIME, LIKE, IT GOT APPROVED BEFORE THE SCHOOL SEASON, WHICH IS WONDERFUL.

OH, YES, THAT WAS OUR GOAL. We did it. Yay, Katrina. You're amazing. We did it.

We did it.

Do you have any? I think those are.

I think the only other thing that, so the state officially passed the Freedom to Read Act and Maura Healey signed it into law and it was a big to do. They did it at the Franklin Public Library. They tweaked the language. Obviously we recently updated our collection development policy. They tweaked the language in whatever that bill reconciliation that they do between the House and the Senate. So we'll have to, it does specifically require libraries to have in their policy a really specific language. And we're like a couple of words off, basically. It's basically exactly what they wrote, except we'll have to update it because now it is law.

Now it is law.

That's cool. So it should be an easy fix. Those can be our top two.

Okay. Thank you. Any further questions for policy?

That's great news.

Okay. All right. So moving on to some new business, we have alternative pest control options.

Yeah, that was a very interesting read.

Yeah. So, Doug, I don't know if you want me to talk about it or if you have any.

Well, it's interesting because I had reached out to Shannon Phelan.

How do you say her name? Phelan. Phelan.

Yep. Actually, around the Beautify the Garden event, because I was like, you know, can they post to their group to get some volunteers? And that's when she brought up, like, that she was on the library grounds. She noticed the bait boxes that are around the property, and she's very involved with the rodent side and banning it and crafting. Her gardening organization sounds like they were very involved with it. So she was like, hey, can we convince the library to get rid of those bait boxes and do something more? bait boxes she called it integrated pest management so I know nothing about I mean I know those bait boxes around the property but I don't know if we've had issues with mice inside the building or have we not had issues because those are there right that's what I don't know and I don't know how effective I didn't read that word for word, but I don't know how effective the alternative is, but I'm certainly in favor of an alternative.

She had a lot of support for the approach. It was pretty thorough.

I do think, so there's two things to note. One is the Board of Selectmen passed an ordinance that disallows town property to have these things on town property. So we do, I think, technically have to get rid of them.

That's odd. Why wasn't that ever?

Yeah. Well, I think it happened in May of 2025. And so that was about the time that Tom was, you know, so.

And I don't think those paint boxes have been replaced since last year, have they? Or have they been there this year?

They, yeah, so Brantford, they used to come monthly. Oh, okay. I cut them down because I didn't see the purpose in them coming monthly. And they, yeah, it's been a trip. They, Shannon did warn me that the companies who provide these services are fighting against the removal of these things because of all that if everybody's doing it yeah yeah but almost across the board um you know i think connecticut and rhode island have banned these what is it are are the birds like the raptors like 100 of the birds have these chemicals because they're ingesting the you know the the rodents that eat the chemicals so like yeah So when I was in Northborough, it's an older building, we didn't have any of these traps or anything. We dealt with mice issues occasionally, usually around the fall when it started to get cold. There was a tiny little mouse under my desk in the children's room one year and I named him George. He was very cute. They installed door sweeps on the main doors and that pretty much took care of the issue. We didn't really have any.

And that's what they're advocating in this too, like, you know, making sure you cover holes or you put, like, you know, mesh.

So we have a new building. It's pretty tight in terms of, you know, the ability for rodents to get in and out of the building. I don't see, I mean, obviously there's always things that are unseen, but. I would be in, I mean, A, we would save some money. B, we would be in compliance with the select board.

I think we need to be in compliance with the select board. I mean, we weren't aware of it, but now that we're aware of it, we need to make sure we're in compliance.

Yeah. Especially since we literally have tufts, like, in our town. We should be putting our best foot forward. Absolutely.

And their plan does say that if we run into... issues, we can take steps to mitigate the issues.

So there's really no environmentally friendly road inside. I mean, except for the old-fashioned mousetraps and stuff like that, which is not a road inside.

I've tried, we had a lot of mice in my house because they like to get up in the insulation in our basement. And a lot of the non-toxic things that we used were like those spearmint um you know bags i don't think they did very much um and we used non-kill traps if i remember to go check them often enough then yes we're still alive and i would bring them up to um fapa's farm there good luck to you There's a Raptor solution. You got it.

It's like, hey.

You're on your train to see. But really, like, I had to just pull out all that insulation. I haven't had a problem since. My cats take care of themselves.

I mean, that's a wonderful library solution.

Well, that would be a popular solution. We're going to talk about Japan, too. Those type of cats there. But regardless, like, I agree with you. I think the building is pretty well sealed up, even from the historical building side, because you have the steps that go up to the front door, and a mouse would have to get up there and get through those double doors. Those are very heavy doors.

Yeah, it's all stone. Yeah.

And I think a lot of the things that are ground level, maybe we have little windows, but they would never open. So...

I feel like it's worth moving away from it and then kind of seeing how it goes and like worst case we could go back if we had to, but. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

It's, it's, um. It's almost like, what do you call it, organic farming, so to speak. It's like, you know, because my aunt is an organic farmer, and she would have to get out there with like a butterfly net. You know what I mean? It's kind of the same idea. Like, you do still have to do things, you know, if there's a problem. It looks like there's some options here and there. like tried and true and tested, so I'm in favor of it.

It's also in a healthy area for predators. I know that. But like where the library is.

Dogs in it too, you know, like I mean other, you know, pets as well as, you know, the . Okay, any further discussion?

So the plan is to not renew the boxes and see how it goes?

Or remove them, I guess, right? Yeah, remove. Okay.

Well, they have a limited life, I believe.

All right, so I think we probably need a motion to approve the integrated pest management.

I'll make a motion to approve the integrated pest management implementation of the integrated pest management program. I'll second.

Okay, motion made and seconded. Any discussion? All right, hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Great, I declare the motion carried. Fantastic.

So I did a walk around the outside very briefly because I know that everyone was just there, or many people were, about a week and a half ago, so it looked great.

So the gardens really look beautiful.

On the inside, there was not too much of note. the thermostats that had been historically an issue for you know the first year and a half that i was here kind of continued to read the same ones and those are the ones outside in the upstairs at the top of the stairs and then by the circulation desk those seem to read the same ones which is great so that problem really has been gone for a long time so you're saying they had the same temperature they would be i think one time they were 12 degrees different from each other so now they're within a degree so a normal amount one might expect so i think they got replaced at one of the iterations of things, but that seems to not be an issue. There was a couple up by the fronts above the new front door to the parking lot. There were a couple areas where there was kind of patched wallboard that could use some paint. That was one thing that was noted, kind of particular on the ones on the left. Probably looks like some switches were moved or something in the past. The front reading room was kind of warm, which I suspect is kind of the same issue that has been going on for a while. I know it was roped off, so I didn't know if there was a particular reason for that.

Do you mean the Wheelock historic reading room, or do you mean the...

The Wheelock reading room that's had the temperature issues that I think we're aware of. So it was slightly warmer. It was 76. But, yep, so there's that. But that was it. I thought it generally looked pretty good. The one question that I did have was I thought the carpets looked spectacular, but it occurred to me if we had a thought in terms of if there was going to be a regular cadence to cleanings in the future. Because I thought it was such a large improvement that I continue to notice every time I walk through.

That's great.

Yeah, it was my intention to do it annually on Memorial Day weekend to clean up after the winter solstice. Oh, that's great. Yeah. Great.

Does the, like in the rain room, are there like the fans on?

But it was, yeah, it was 76. And I guess the one other thing I should note is it sounds like the teen room is in good shape. I know that we're, I don't know if there's a solution that we've come to for the teen office in terms of heat, but I know that we have a couple months to do that before it does get cold. So if we haven't.

I've still been on hold with Renaud, waiting for them to come in and consult with me on that.

Okay.

For a temp solution, are they able to have a space heater?

I think that's what they have now, right?

Yeah, I think that we have one.

I think part of the issue is that I think that, you know, you turn it off when you go home, you turn it on when you come in, but then it takes a couple hours for it to warm up. Yeah. I think that's part of it. That's right. And then the reverse. Especially when it's dark.

There's like no return, if you guys don't remember. There's no return in there, so there's really no circulation unless that door's open. So even if hot air was blowing in, not much is going to go in because there's nothing coming out.

How's the insulation for that window, too? I mean... I know, it's one of the old historical...

I think it has cellophane over it now.

Does it have cellophane over it? Okay. I believe so. Like the King Cold, you know, that like King plastic stuff? Yeah. Just to make sure that, yeah. I was like, make sure that Debbie has...

I'm fairly confident that that is on the window.

Okay. Okay. Yeah, I think so. Okay.

So... With some of the inclement weather, and more thinking of like heavy rains, and we've been bitten in the past, we feel that the remediations put in place where we had the issue with the flooding are going to continue to hold. Because I think part of it was that there was remediations in place, but they got clogged with mulch, things like that. You mean back side of the children's room with those extra drainage? Yeah. So I know there were sandbags out for a while. and they were an eyesore. I haven't been around that side of the building in a while, but is that still our remediation, the sandbags, things like that?

I think that side's been pretty good. It's the tea room. That's the door that still has the wafers.

We pointed out to custodial where that drain is and tried to have them keep an eye on it. It's on the right side of the door. And as long as it doesn't get filled with mulch, then our backside of the building is fine.

Well, the problem is it gets filled with mulch when the rains wash the mulch into it. But I think if it's not fresh mulch, it usually stays in place.

Are we talking about the back or the front? The back by the children's room. Because the back, they put gravel around them, and then they put a gravel trail out to the sidewalk.

That was part of the remediation.

And then they also put the curb up on South Street, you'll recall that one problem is all that water coming down South Street would funnel down, but now it stays up on South Street.

And we've had some heavy rains. I think there was in late July, I was traveling, but I remember Jackie saying that, you know, it was coming down pretty hard.

We didn't have any problems, so, yeah, that's good.

I have not done it this summer, but last summer had gone over during some of the trenches up work. Yeah. on that back side anyway seem to handle OK with new things.

How's the teen room side? Not great.

OK. Yeah, that seems like whenever it's wet and you go in there. And it also floods where the book return is a lot.

That part is mediated, or remediated rather. So Barnard Roofing came out, they unclogged, this was back in April or May, they had unclogged the two drains full of leaves and debris and patch up.

I'm chuckling because I think Evan had climbed up there once and got doused.

I'm sure he did. So, I mean, they pulled out buckets worth of stuff.

Was that for the teen room door?

That was on the teen room side and the AMH, that area. So I have not noticed any leaking or any real issues where the automated return is, but the teen room door continues to be an issue. It's not as bad as it was because the Drain is doing more of the work. But there's something about the foundation down there where it is literally coming in through the wall, not even the door. So I don't, and that's not really a gutter thing.

But didn't Barnard, Barnard, Barnard, whatever, replace something with the gutter itself? They added something to the gutter over one of those doors?

They were... going to add an additional downspout, we decided not to do that because there's no drain there. So it would just be leading the water into the ground right outside the door. So it wasn't going.

Well, there is a drain. It's just an underground. I mean, there's going to be an underground. They'd have to connect into that drain. Yeah.

And there wasn't a solution for that. And whatever is, if it's like a French drain on that side, it's not irrigating properly because the wall itself has started to show signs of dampness where they've had to put out Fans, Joe's put towels and all kinds of stuff. And it's going to lead to, it will lead to mold real soon because it's had at least two years of like on and off water damage at this point around that door.

So do we need to have another service maybe take a look at like reinforcing the wall itself?

Well, we're putting another French drain in or actually connect it into the drainage pipe.

Yeah. Or is the slant for the walkway that's there, like, are we able to, like, fix the angle of that away? Because I know it's, I think it's, like, even, it might even slope towards the door at this point, depending.

So I think we all have nice ideas. But none of us are contractors. We can do it.

Like, we'll get up there on the shovel.

Well, it shouldn't be leaking in through the walls, because that would have water pollution. I would assume it comes in at the door. But you're saying maybe not.

But you're seeing it come through the wall? I'm seeing it come through the wall.

I would love to have a professional take a look at what's going on and let them know what we've done to remediate so far that we're still seeing problems.

Yeah, because it's just not like we We keep on trying, you know.

So I don't know if you have funding in your kitty that the board offers to have a professional come and take a look, a contractor of sorts.

We didn't renew because it was the end of the fiscal year. I see. So that fund is empty. And then she just has the whatever comes from the municipal right now. We didn't renew it unless an issue did come up. So we would have to approve a new site.

So did we give $20,000 last year?

Last year, yeah.

Last year. So do we want to, I guess, make a motion to give $20,000 for this year or...

I think we just need to have someone come out and look at it and put a proposal together. Yeah. Like a professional.

Yeah. Yeah. And then we can just determine how to fund it.

Okay. So we don't want to take the same approach that we took last year and have some funds available for Katrina for emergencies?

Well, I think where we landed with that was I do have a pretty good municipal budget for repairs for now. Okay. And then... SEE HOW FAR IT GETS US AND THEN WE RAN OUT EARLIER AT THE END OF THE FISCAL YEAR. I'M OKAY WITH THAT IF YOU ARE. IF YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE.

And if there's an emergency, you know how to contact us.

When it gets down low, I'll come find you. Just before it runs out.

Make sure that we know so we can make sure that that's enough for you to keep going for at least a month or whatever it is.

Contractors for the library are strange. I think in homes they're willing to come out for free and put together a proposal, but I do think that in my experience they want to charge you for everything.

So they'll say that there's a minimum to come out and assess it and for them to draw up an actual proposal for you to present.

Well, if you're paying them on the front side, then maybe wishful thinking here that they're really committing to getting it fixed for us, so to speak. So I'd love it to just be one and done and have it just be a distant memory.

Yep, same. All right, I will work on that.

One thing that might be worth considering is I know that Tom at one point mentioned that he was concerned it was coming up. through the slab. So it may be that it's coming through the wall. There's also some coming up through the slab. So just whoever you talk to should be aware that that at least may be a potential issue.

Hopefully they don't need to see it live.

We have video footage of that. Don't you worry.

I mean, we also have... Is it like Ghostbusters 2 with the ooze coming up from the ground?

I'm like, I'm pretty sure there's significant video footage. I'll collect all of that. There might also be some ducks and gators floating around some of the puddle.

We do have... PROCESS, RIGHT? SO WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIGURE OUT WHERE THE DRAINAGE PIPES ARE IN THE GROUND. OKAY. IF THAT'S A SOLUTION WHERE THEY CAN JUST CONNECT IN THERE, AT LEAST THEY'LL KNOW WHERE AND HOW FAR THEY HAVE TO DIG TO GET TO IT.

OKAY. OKAY. GREAT.

YEAH, I'D LOVE TO JUST SEE SOMEBODY RIPPING UP THAT WHOLE AREA.

YEAH, JUST GET SOMEBODY TO TALK ABOUT IT MORE, AND THEY'LL HAVE TO SEE THE BOOK. THE CARPET IN THE ENTERTAINMENT AREA HAS BEEN changed over and that area's been doing great, so time to get the teen rooms sparkling. Yes, let's do it.

Okay. They deserve it. Great. So that was Milnean Grounds. Any further discussion or other walkabout? Okay, are we on to the director's report?

I believe so.

Katrina?

So did everybody have an opportunity to look? Did everybody have any questions specifically?

Excited for Corrine to start?

Yes, Corrine actually. Yes, she starts on Monday! Yay! I'm so excited!

Is Corrine local?

She is, she's in Shrewsbury.

Oh cool.

Yeah.

because I think she would be or that she would be good to manage like the punch list thank you yes to make sure because those little painting things to me is just a matter of getting the custodian to do it yes free time type things yep I am very much looking forward to having her help me juggle all the balls I did have a question so um

So the stacks overall looked great.

There wasn't a number for the total visits to the library? Yes, correct. So when I went to do the statistics for the foot count for July 2026, I realized that there's an error going on on both of the gates, the front and the back. So the total, as it shows right now, is approximately 1,200 people, which I know is wrong. Heidi had reset them. I'm working with Bibliotheca. I have no idea. It's like picking up nine people a day, which doesn't make any sense. So yeah, working. To be continued. Yeah, I was going to bring that up. The water filtration project on September 4th. I know that was pretty close to the 5th and the 7th, but that was the day that he had.

I think it's a nice plan. I'm so thrilled that he's able to start so early in the morning.

Yeah, me too. I'll meet him at 5. I'm awake anyway. It's fine. Thank you.

Thank you for that. I love it.

Yeah, Beautify Your Library was amazing. I was so impressed with how many people came out and they were just so thrilled to be there and help. Thanks to Doug and the Capital Campaign for funding the sandwiches and the cookies and the drinks and doing all of that.

Yeah, exactly.

Organizing it. Thank you to Chris and Doug for dropping off supplies so that people could cart the Loads and loads of debris. It was a lot of garden debris. And the DPW came right out and picked it up for us and took it to the brush dump.

I love your idea of the adopt a section of the library. And I thought the area by the sides of Hill Hill, I would take that because I spent a lot of time there.

I think that's one of the more important pieces, right? Because everyone drives by it.

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I think we need some planting layers, too.

Well, let me connect you with Christine. So Christine Crespo, who has been doing the gardening for years now, has been a one-woman show. And it was actually her idea. for people to sort of adopt a plot. So she actually sent me today a little layout of the library, and she labeled A through S, the little sections of garden. I know, how many are there? 19. And so I've just been connecting people who I send an email out to everybody who signed up for the program and heard back from a couple of people and I just am connecting them with Christine. She offered to sort of manage that and assign people to sections and answer any questions they have. So I can respond to that. Yeah, that'd be great. I did see it. Yeah. So yeah, I know she's very excited for the assistance because it grows quickly.

And if you want to socialize that out further, certainly if she's not getting all the plots, and people will probably take multiple, I'm guessing.

I would think so because there are lots of little sections.

Because I know some people just couldn't make the date. IT DOESN'T MEAN THEY DON'T WANT TO VOLUNTEER.

YEP, THAT WAS US. YEP, IT HAPPENS. ALL RIGHT. I just wanted to also note that the trial balance for the state aid funds and the trust funds, the town accountant just hasn't boarded over the numbers, which is why they're small. So it's not quite up to date, it's not quite accurate, and that's why she just hasn't moved on. It almost looks like it was just one month of activity. That's basically what it was, exactly. So don't fear, there's much more money in there than zero. So there's that. And then I did want to point out the ARIS statistics that I had sent late today. My apologies for the delay on that. There were two documents. There was what I actually submitted to the state, which is the ARIS report. And then, like I had mentioned, they don't give you the side-by-side comparison in the printable report. So I took some screenshots. from the actual program as I was doing it for the FY 26 to 27 comparison just so that you can see the change year over year and that our circulation layer total circulation numbers jumped like through the roof, children's circulation jumped through the roof. So our total circulation went from 185,000 to 244,000 items. The foot count, or the people count, and this is with the possibility of it being incorrect, went from 75,000 to 97,000, so that could be an undercount. Let's see, and then the programs. We went from 12,000 attendees to 23, almost 24,000 attendees, so almost doubled in the last year. That's incredible.

E-books.

E-books are absolutely going up.

Let me see. And you can't, like, account for when the children's room was closed, because that last year, that wasn't really the case. That wasn't, yep.

So electronic content total went from 45,000 to 76,000. So that's definitely jumped as well. So people are using the library. They're coming out for programs. They're circulating materials, both physical and electronic. There's no, you know, people are choosing electronic over the physical items. It's just not the case. I think staff are being more efficient as well, so you'll notice that. In some cases we're having less or similar amounts of programs, but getting more attendees. So like in-person, on-site programs, last year we had 797, this year we had 715, so less programs. But last year the attendance was 7,400, and this year it was 19,000. So it's, yeah, we're maximizing the effort, which I think is great.

Great. It's awesome. It's almost hard to believe.

Yeah.

Last year was probably better than the year before.

Yeah, definitely, because of the closure.

So, I know you said there was no technology update. I think you and Doug were working on some computers. I didn't see that listed in the minutes from last month. Kind of where do we stand in technology?

So we had, my apologies, we had purchased the five replacement computers for the staff desks, and that was prior to the new fiscal year. Those have been implemented, and they're up and running without issues. Wow. Yeah, so thank you.

That's good. What about something that's always foremost in my mind is e-waste. Like what happens to the old equipment?

That's a great question. Right now it's living in the tech closet. There's no formal technology recycling or recycling. like any options through the town that I have learned about?

There are programs, you have to pay for them, like at the St. No. You can go to Staples. Staples. Oh, really?

Staples has changed their policies a lot, especially surrounding things with batteries, I think. But maybe they will take it, but more just thinking about the hard drives being pulled out. But I think your IT company might have some suggestions.

Also the teen room used it. They had a Tinker Maker where they took apart a lot of electronics and old clocks or a blender or other things just to give teens and tweens access to seeing what's inside. So I know that was a program that they ran a while back. So that might be...

Yeah, I don't think there's an action item at the moment as long as it's, you know, not cluttering any spaces. But something to think about in the future.

And we didn't, I mean, so that addressed like the emergency issues. I mean, we haven't really gone through and come up with like a tech replacement plan yet. that's something we should probably think about like the next round.

Yep. Yeah, I think the general, I think where we landed was maybe earmark around $10,000 a year. And as issues come up, you know, fit it into that amount that we've set aside.

Yeah. Smart. Yeah.

It's good to think about it because, like, before you know it, you're going to be starting the budget for next year, too. So if there are more computers that need to be replaced that are in addition to that $10,000, you want to...

I have kind of a sidebar question. Since the website has been updated, have you gotten any positive, negative feedback?

It's awesome. That's pretty much what I heard. It's easier to find things. It's a little more attractive. It loads faster. It's not as clunky. The I know the old website used to cache much older articles and pages and that kind of thing that people could Google search and find even though they were out of date.

I only ask because I got an email from a Grafton resident saying, I want to talk to you about the website. Who? Okay.

Okay. No more. What'd they say?

They didn't say anything. They just wanted to talk about it and the trip to Japan, but still, like, you know, so I'll share any feedback.

I'd be very curious to know what the feedback is.

Yeah, me too. So, yeah, I mean, I haven't heard anything, and I think the website looks great. So that's good. And our policy pages look great, too. Yay.

Awesome. All right.

Any further questions on the director's report? OK. Awesome. So hearing none, where are we on the agenda?

I just wanted to bring up, we talked about it, mentioned it last week, last month, but the staff appreciation. Were we, did we have any ideas or plans or did you get any feedback from the staff of what they might want?

I talked to the staff. Oh, good. Oh, good. Well, yeah, because I got a big shrug, basically.

Oh, okay. I would just add, I don't remember who was here. oh, I'll host if they want to come to a home and do that type of thing.

My general consensus with that is that a lot of them have family commitments, so coming to something after being either at work on that or coming up on their only day off on a Sunday, that's hard. So for some of them, they don't see that as a... they see it as a as a requirement not as in like an appreciation so it's hard but i i understand that um some of them had mentioned they love their water bottles and their jackets and now we've had a larger staff turn over oh and we've acquired some new staff so um they had mentioned maybe another kind of promotional maybe like a hoodie or um i think they were thinking I don't know, maybe a, they had mentioned a sweatshirt or a zip, like a three-quarter zip that they could wear with like our logo or something like that.

And that's also, so if the staff wanted, and it also promotes the library. So when they go to the, you know, Harvest, is it Harvest Fest?

Oh, Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest.

Or the fun fair, the community, the community. The Grafton Day, oh yeah, we didn't talk about Grafton Day.

But yeah, nights out, anything on the common, things like that, they like to wear apparel. That's what they lean towards. And I'm not sure if, could we use funding from? Yeah, we can. For promotional, if it's considered a promotional item, kind of like the pens, I thought maybe an apparel item for them could fall under that potentially.

Yeah, that's what we did with the water bottles. We were able to find that. So it's similar to that.

As much as I like the getting together and socializing with the staff, that's so much fun. But that's just my personality.

Because a lot of the staff, we just don't get to ever meet them. That's the thing I have. I mean, I think the swag is a good idea regardless. But I feel like some way for us to interact and mingle

professional development day like what we came to the one going to the one that was it was actually before we heard you Jean actually came and it was upstairs in the large print room and

And that, remember? That's actually really nice. That's how I met Rachel. So I would love to pop in during lunch, but I know that's not always...

They're there. We can pop in, have a bite to eat with the staff.

And I know that not everyone's schedule allows for that, but not that we all have to go to the same professional development.

You could kind of... Well, you don't have to... catered to our schedules so much as long as like enough of us can go yeah I mean it's one day like in the year so yeah we have tomorrow in terms of like the last time the library was Yeah. So we'd have to come up with something that we can do kind of above and beyond what's already being provided. That would be an appreciation, not just come in and say hi and high five and say thank you. You can bring the sweatshirts. So I think that's a great idea. So maybe you can see if they're amenable to that idea.

We could do, I have lots of like... random PTO ideas like we could do like a gift card thing where if we wanted to we could each buy a gift card and then like sort of raffle them off as like... Yeah, that wouldn't be state aid though.

Oh, no, no, no.

I meant like as like an outside appreciation. There's things like that or sponsor a massage chair or something unique.

Something cool for the staff room. Yeah.

Excellent. Don't fall asleep. I know, right? Katrina's napping in the staff room again.

If there's, I mean, how is the staff room these days? Is there anything that, you know, could be like a creature comfort? Because I know there's probably a tea kettle, things like that.

It looked really nice. Somebody told me to go in there and it looked really good. The shelves. The shelves for all our art supplies. Of course these are shelves. Yeah, that's what it was.

Maybe like a beverage cart or something and like teas and seltzers or whatever it is and maybe we could stock it.

The hot cocoa thing that we got was amazing. Yeah, that was amazing. That was Rachel.

Promotional items, we could do that, but not food.

Yeah, it would be difficult to do food with state aid money.

I think for the hot CHOCOLATE COCOA BAR. I THINK RACHEL ORGANIZED IT AND WE CONTRIBUTED TO IT, I THINK. I CAN'T REMEMBER. THAT WOULD BE A GOOD HOLIDAY ONE.

OKAY, SO I THINK WE PLANNED SOME GOOD IDEAS. WE'RE GOING TO NEED SOME FEEDBACK.

SURE.

AND WHEN IS THE NEXT STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAY?

TECHNICALLY TOMORROW, BUT I KNOW IT'S IN NOVEMBER. SO THAT GIVES US TIME, THOUGH, RIGHT?

BECAUSE IF WE START PLANNING NOW AND SAY, OKAY, IF THE STAFF THINK IT'S A GOOD IDEA, WE CAN VISIT FOR THE NOVEMBER LUNCH AND THEN WE CAN If we want to do the sweatshirts, it gives us time to get the sweatshirts. Stacy, you're usually good at finding the good deals that you think the staff would like.

Sure. What do you guys think? Or if they have ideas, you can pull them, and then I can stop them.

Swag is always a good idea. I think the staff like that, but also... We don't always do the same thing every year. We try to mix it up.

But it's a different item, right? So we did the water bottles. This year, like the sweatshirts, we can use the state aid money.

Yeah, but any creature comforts, some sort of amenity or something that we can kind of offer that maybe is what it's like. Like, I really wish we had this.

One of their big asks was a water cooler. I know, I was just about to say that. And they do. Well, they do have one now. That was Sarah's biggest ask, because they used to have one. And then when we... Just like a...

The building. Like a Fulton Springs water club? Yeah.

So they do have one, and that was like their big... One of the things I absolutely loved was just having a carbonator. I was just going to say, that would be awesome. Maybe.

I don't think they talk about that. And they get snacks sometimes through WB. Sometimes they get snack packs. Really? Yeah, usually when deliveries get messed up, they get them as like thank yous. I've never seen that before.

All right, any further discussion on staff appreciation or on business?

So I guess we can just make sure we put it on the agenda for next month to get the feedback from tomorrow's meeting, and then we can plan ahead.

We'll have to make a decision.

Other business, I guess I could give a quick update about Grafton Day. Mm-hmm. It was fantastic.

There were a lot of people there. I heard that.

My mom actually had him going. Doug was able to stop by the table, which was fantastic. And my family helped set up and break down.

Thank you, Cissy, for doing that.

Yeah, it actually was a real lot. So I think if this is going to become an annual thing, we'll need a little bit more organized support. You've got a lot of stuff there.

You've got a lot of stuff.

I did not anticipate there was easily 500 to 1,000 people. And you were kind of interactive with them. All of them, because that's what we do. It was great because some of them did go up to library afterwards. One thing I didn't understand while I was at the table though, yes, there were a couple of other boards, like the Democratic Committee was over there. I was a little confused why they wanted the trustees versus the library staff itself in terms of being on both sides of it. I don't see a difference. Yeah.

Oh, like how were the trustees requested as opposed to the library?

But I guess it's like the staff, it was after hours for staff, right?

So it would have been... No, so the request was grafted boards and committees.

Okay.

That's what the event was about. It wasn't like graft.

Because that's not who... I was placed with. Yeah. I was literally next to, like, Savers Bank. Yeah. And then Beats. I don't think there were any other boards or committees there. There weren't any other boards or committees. So I found that a missed opportunity.

Let's give them some, well, for the library, but I think we need to give them some feedback. Yeah.

Because for me, I was like, okay, and I felt like if Grafton Rec is hosting something, we don't generally, we never try to compete. We try to cross-promote. So I feel like THE LIBRARY ITSELF SHOULD HAVE BEEN REPRESENTED. I WAS HAPPY TO DO IT. I KNOW ALL THE PROGRAMS INSIDE AND OUT, AND THEN I WAS ABLE TO SHARE THE FRIENDS AND THE UPCOMING STRATEGIC PLAN. SO I DID FEEL LIKE THE TRUSTEES SHOULD BE INVOLVED IN IT, ESPECIALLY TO GIVE SUPPORT. I DON'T THINK, I THINK WE SHOULD HOST, BUT ALSO ALLOW POSSIBLY SOMEONE FROM THE LIBRARY AS WELL, SO THAT WAY WHEN Because it was a six-hour event. And thankfully the weather was really great. But I literally only left the table while Doug was there. So that part was a challenge.

You know what it was?

I'm sorry. We have a lot of great family-friendly things in store for this event. and are also planning on incorporating all town committees and boards that are interested in attending as a vendor. So I think we are the only ones who attended as a vendor. So it looks like we were invited. Okay. Because it's an opportunity to get out in front of the community. And it was. And show us what we're about.

I did get to meet other trustees from other libraries, which was actually pretty neat. So I met a couple from Sutton and one from Millbury. So it was really great in terms of that.

I think, like, next, like, it was a complete shock to me that we even had, like, it was the first one we ever had. So, like, so it just happened to be, like, I had, like. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But the coming year, now we know, like, okay, this is a thing. So we can, you know, I think better support it.

And I do think other towns do it annually. And I believe that Adam does want to make it go annually. And it did run smoothly. I think there are very many growth opportunities that he has now lived through as someone who has done a large community event. I think overall he... presented like an amazing evening so my things are extremely minor and limited to just I gave out little ducks and little bumper stickers and the pens were amazing. I had so many kids get those pens.

Did you say bumper stickers? You mean the magnets? Yeah, I did.

So I gave it out magnets. This is so cool. I know, I love it. If there was a family of littles, I was like, check out our 10,000 books. So it was really easy because I had all the flyers. The staff was a huge support system in gathering all the marketing material. They pretty much had it. Yeah, we did tattoos. And then... I know we know how to do it so I brought a jug of water with like the sponges so they could add their tattoos right then and there because that's a very big ask for Littles.

Yeah and I didn't think we would get anybody to come visit the table but it seemed like this is not your first rodeo.

It was not. Doug, how was our table?

It was very, there were a lot of people wandering around stopping in. I know we need to fix the little Wheel of Fortune and Spinner thing.

Oh, yes. So I have two asks if we were to do it again. One, I borrowed the Friends table. Unfortunately, that table is definitely towards its end of life. It's breaking. Okay. The peg for it, even Heidi, Heidi was like, I've tried to use it. We'll need a new folding table for marketing.

There's a few.

That's the one that was in the closet.

Okay.

The other ones might be in the off-site storage. Maybe that.

Sure.

But you're saying that one needs to get shipped out. That one has seen better days. And then our prize wheel, I know we got it off of Buy Nothing, and it worked great for that, but it does need a tiny bit of TLC. I'll help Sarah find it. It needs a couple washers and some things.

It needs to spin a little easier. A little easier. Sure.

Okay. But for a buy nothing wheel, it did great. All right.

Well, thank you for making it available.

we are well represented and you said you saw people like go to the library oh yeah so they brought their slip for signing up for little kids tried to read like a thousand books before kindergarten so it helps them like start the process and they the only other

business, and I'm guilty of this is not doing the ethics training yet. So, it's just another reminder. I saw that in the minutes last month. This is the state one. Does anybody need a link? I'm going to have to dredge it up. Yes.

I think we were good.

Oh, am I good? I think you're good. I didn't look because I thought I was good.

I think last month everybody was good. I think I'm good. I think Rachel was good. Because Rachel's new, too. So I think you did it already, right? I think so.

Yeah, you may have. But I assume that individual would get notified by the town clerk?

It took me a year to eventually get a notification. Oh, okay. Okay.

There are, like, filings, like, with the, I'm sure you did the other ones already, but, like, that you didn't take campaign funds. Oh, yep, yep. So I think we did two, and then there's one that we have to do at the end of the year. Okay.

I always thought that was the same. There's two different things.

One's an acknowledgment, and the other is, I think, confidence. There was two things. Why are you going through September 18th for the Ethics of Knowledge?

Wait, I'm only good through the 18th?

Oh, okay. For this year. Just for the acknowledgement. So your training is fine through next year, but the acknowledgement. Chris, you need to re-up on your acknowledgement, but not the training. I did the acknowledgement. Oh, okay. Then this is just from what I originally sent out. Oh, the training portal. I found it. I'll do it.

Yeah, that was done over July.

Kabu doesn't have either thing on either. And then... Rachel just missed out to her ethics acknowledgment as well.

Yeah, I see that my head completes. If somebody just needs the link to the website, I can certainly send that along.

It was in your email too. It was. Yeah, there's the training portal.

Yeah? Thank you. So, don't need to do anything? Everybody's good? I think so. All right, very good. Okay, any other new business items? Sorry, is it new business? No, it was other business. Okay, we don't have any further public input. The next meeting for the Policy Subcommittee, you guys are gonna work on a date? Yes. Okay. The Friends of the Grafton Public Library, Tuesday, September 15th at 7.30 by Zoom. Next Board of Trustees meeting is September 23rd at 7 p.m. Same place, same bat time, same bat channel. Great. And that's it. So do I have a motion to adjourn?

I make a motion to adjourn. Second.

Yeah. I like to second. It took you too long. I like to second.

Yeah. All right. Motion made to second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? All right. Any opposed? All right. The motion carried, and the meeting adjourned at 8.37 p.m. Yay. All right.