Board of Library Trustees - Grafton Public Library - Regular Meeting

We'll [Music] call this meeting to order at 7:01. So, welcome everybody to August. Um, it's scary to think it's the end of the summer, but um I know I saw school buses this morning, so yeah, some people went back to school. Um so first thing to do is to welcome um first meeting with our new interim director. So Jean Collins. Welcome. Thank you. We're excited. Welcome.

Um so um as you guys all know, Jean started on Monday um and is quickly meeting everybody in the library. Um she's learned Hback stuff already. Um so she's quickly learning and picking up on a lot of the uh open items. So welcome. Thank you. Um, we're not expecting her to really answer many questions today, but um, if if you have any input, feel free to speak up and if anyone has questions, they'll ask you, but okay. Um, right, she's only day three. Yeah, I'm happy to give you a little quick overview if you want, but any of the needy questions have come for the invoices. I went through them so I know what we're paying a couple of times. I wasn't sure what something was, so I asked Eileen because I'm not familiar with certain companies, but Okay. You know,

we should add back on the agenda like a director update. Yeah. our interim director update and next time I'll have Yeah, sounds great. Awesome. If you could put your Oh, yeah. Good point. You need to kind of talk. It just needs to be more towards you. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Oh, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Um, great. Um, so moving on the agenda, we're going to go through some minutes. We have three minute minutes to approve. So, I will entertain a motion um to approve the minutes.

Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the meeting minutes of June 18th, 2025. Motion made second and seconded by Aaron. Um any discussion? Uh one brief um is that if if could be added that no quorum uh of the trustees was reached. I don't remember. I'm trying to look through there's only three people only three because just so if there's any question of what a quorum would have otherwise been. So okay and that's all. So in addition to no deliberation took place at the event just say no quorum was reached.

Yep. Um with that change um any other discussion? All right. Um all those in favor of approving with that change I I opposed. I declare the motion carried. And we don't have pre prau yet. That's why I was raising my hand. So he's here and uh can you hear us prau? Actually you might not be able to speak unless you give him as an attendee. Let me see. Or a panelist I'm sorry panelist. here.

Maybe ask. Oh, we see him. Maybe ask him if he would have otherwise voted yes or um Prau, sorry we didn't catch you. I assume you were listening to that one. So, I think I have to do a vote by roll call for you. I can hear you now. Can you guys hear me? We can hear you. Yep. And I'm It doesn't allow me to come on board on the camera for some reason. Okay. Um, did you hear the motion for approving? Okay. So, um, just vote by roll call and just say your name and say I Okay, great. And I think you need all of us. That's what I thought. Just want to go around. I can go.

Yeah. So, um, just FYI, since we have somebody on um, Zoom, then we have to do all the votes by roll call. Um, so Prau said I. Rachel I. Roger. I Doug I. Carrie I. Chris I. Aaron I. Okay. I declare the motion carried. Thank you. We'll get really fast at that. Yes. All right. I move that we approve the meet draft meeting minutes of July 23rd, 2025. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? Uh yes. This was our last month's meeting.

Okay. And I didn't get a chance to um double back with you, Kim, because I had initially read these in fast fashion and then took a more slow approach at dinner time tonight. And so, um the under ongoing business, second page 5C, um there's the fourth bullet point that we voted to authorize up to 10,000 from leads. Um, and that was based on um Doug's motion and Rachel's second on that if that could be added or incorporated into that and it was voted unanimously.

Can you repeat that? It was Doug's It was Doug's motion and Rachel's second on that vote. Okay.

So, that's 5C, fourth bullet point, the final bullet point down. And on the next um agenda item 5D, final bullet point down, the board voted to authorize payment from state aid. Um I made the motion carry seconded and that was a six nothing unanimous vote. Um and on page three, the final agenda item 8C regarding the ARIS uh report responsibilities that Doug uh oversaw that discussion. Um the motion to appoint Mary Merlin as acting director with one abstension. Doug declared the motion carried. I don't know who made the motion and second. I I usually write these little scribble notes. Um so

I'll go back. All right. And All right. Thank you. And then um and the same on 8 I which actually goes to the top of page five. So you flip two pages later. There was a it had to do with resurrecting the parking lot policy um from what had been inactive. It had been taken down. And so I don't know who made the motion and second on that those on on that particular item.

I will look. Yeah. I don't want to guess. I don't want to guess either.

No. And then lastly, um All right. So what I did is I filled in the gap on 13 adjournment. Okay. Um that was taken out of order to be the last item in open session. So it reads executive session call that meeting closed 9:41 to discuss potential director candidates. So what the meeting didn't close, the open session did. And so that would really need to read that. Um, I made a motion that we enter executive session. Um, Aaron seconded it and then we voted 6 nothing to go into executive session. Now, if I could pause when we went into executive session, when we I I agreed to take the minutes for that executive session. So there will be a separate set of executive session minutes. All right. Um that will show that we went in and then we adjourned executive session came out of it. So the next thing really is following executive session um pardon.

I think then we just would have journal. Yeah. Motion made by Rachel and seconded by Prau to adjurnn. Should we um should we just hold this one off till next time if there's like a few edits and stuff we need? Like I think I think this is right. Will it I mean we could I'm not sure what you're getting at. No, I just didn't know if there was like more if that was like

I think if that's that was it. In other words, that's the very end of the meeting. In other words, so so um so what happens is there's there's an intentional gap that will be filled by the executive session minutes that we finally approve when we deem them no longer needing to have privilege because of the nature of the discussion. So really following executive session motion made uh by Rachel to adjourn um seconded by Prau and then we adjourned the actual meeting at 10 p.m. At 10 Sorry for the last minute edits as far as and if you have any questions obviously you can go back and watch the recording

which I hate to have to put you through. I usually they're so exciting. I usually have my chicken scratch in there that would have filled in the gaps but I mustn't have been on my game. So thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion on the um meeting minutes? And so that was that was approved 6 nothing as far as the Yeah. So then um we're voting to approve the minutes given I I counted three maybe four changes. You got those? I have them. Okay. Um by roll call. Paboo. You want to go first? I. Rachel I. Roger I. Doug I. Carrie I.

Aaron I. Chris I. I declare the motion carried. Thank you. All right, Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the draft minutes of the meeting of August 4th, 2025. Second. Motion made and seconded. Um, any discussion? My question was really, does this group approve the minutes or does the subcommittee approve the minutes? Oh, this wasn't the subcommittee though. This is the whole committee. This is the whole committee. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, it's not the Never mind.

But um I was there and I'm not listed as in attendance. So if you wouldn't mind adding Sorry. That's okay. Thank you. I see this is Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm sorry. I was thinking it was the other I was partying in Canada that night, so sorry. Uh any other discussion? All right. So, the motion is to approve the minutes with the addition of adding Carrie in attendance. Um, by roll call I Rachel I. Roger. I Doug I. Carrie I. Aaron I. Uh, Chris I.

I declare the motion carried. Thank you. Um, next on the agenda are the bills. We've got warrants four, five, six, seven, and eight. All right, Mr. Chair, I move uh I make a first a procedural motion that we uh vote warrants four, five, six, seven, and eight as a consent agenda as as one vote. Motion made second and seconded. Chris got that one. Chris got that one first. Yeah. Um any discussion? If not hearing none, vote by roll call. Rau, I. Rachel I. Roger. I Doug I. Carrie I I Chris I

I declare the motion carried. It's a lot easier when we have like this big circle and you're not looking at a zoom like trying to figure out who to go next. So Mr. Chair, so any discussion? Oh no, you should have done the discussion before we approved. No, that was that was a procedural motion. That was just a vote by consent. And so um Mr. Chair, I move that we approve warrant number four in the amount of 94 $9,42.88. um from the um sources noted in the meeting packet. Are you going to go through all all four?

Oh, okay. Yeah, that's right. And warrant number That's warrant number Duh. Okay. Warrant number five in the amount of 5,000 500 557920s as noted in the meeting packet. the sources. Warrant number six in the amount of $18,24.94 from the sources noting in noted in the meeting packet. Warrant number seven for $6,214 as noted uh from the funds as noted in the meeting packet. And lastly, warrant number eight in the amount of $3,43087 from the sources noted in the meeting packet. Second.

Motion made and seconded. Any discussion on any of the five warrants? Quick question. Yep. Yep. Go ahead. Prau, are these all part of uh in the budget? Can we have that confirmation or are these the warrants are all the ones from within budget? Yes. Okay. Um the ones that are outside of the budget are what we're going to be voting on next. And so some of them like the big ticket item um some of them are from the library budget and some of them are um from the building construction, right? Some of the HVAC invoices, those are all included in these warrants and defined in the warrants themselves.

Thank you. Any other discussion? All right, hearing none. Vote by roll call. I Rachel I. Roger. I Doug I. Carrie I. Aaron I. Chris I I declare the motion carried. Thank you. Um next on the agenda is ongoing business. So we do have a series of um invoices um that we need to go through and approve. Um some of them I think the majority of them are likely going to be coming from state aid but not all of them. Um we were going to have uh Ken Boutit I think is how you say his name from

Bodat. Budat. Thank you. Um but uh so Ken I'm sorry myself um Fen Ken and Tom from Renard we met yesterday. Was that just yesterday? It was just yesterday. So we met yesterday and they've gone through um Kim's Kim working with them have gone through and we can circulate this later but basically just a kind of a a log of all these um different activities. Um, as you guys know, there's, you know, five or six different incidents over the last year, um, that they've been taking care of. Um, you know, we met with them, you know, trying to understand, is this like a system design issue? Is it a, um, um, something that was incorrectly installed, um, or is it just normal failures, you know, that you can expect? And I think the the overall kind of high level was that combination of everything. Certainly the compressors and the condensers aren't expected to fail that quickly. Um but those are the things that are covered under warranty. So we have not been paying for the replacement of those, but we've been playing paying for the um labor to um replace those. So that still adds up. Um I think at the end, Jean, you can um chime in. they are going to reach out to LG again and have them try to give an assessment of the system design. They've already been out once um but they want to try to look to see if LG has any um I guess overarching recommendations. Um I think that's going to be the next step from our perspective. Now we do have of course a number of existing invoices that we need to go through and approve.

So Mr. you a quick quick question. So, and I as far as the warranties and things, so none of the labor is is covered at all. No. Oh, that stinks. It does stink. That adds up. But at least we have a hyper local vendor. So, correct. Uh, one other question, Doug. Yeah. Um, I'm assuming that the warranties reset with the install of each new unit or is it from the point of original purchase? I don't know if that varies. That's a good question. Um, I was guessing it was from the original purchase, but Okay, that would be something we'd have to ask. Okay. They did say the warranty was 10 years, so we're kind of in the middle. We're in the middle of the 10-year warranty period. So,

um, I would love to have if there was another trustee that was willing to kind of jump on and help us review all this stuff um, just for a second pair of eyes if anyone has any interest. Otherwise, we're just going to wait for Renard to come back and um give us like an overview of what their ongoing discussions are with um LG. Okay. Don't you're probably thinking don't all answer at once. I'm like I want it like step forward so someone steps back or whatever the other option. Yeah.

No, I would I would like to just the fall is not a good time. So my question is and we're going to review um item B in just a moment. Right. Correct. Um I think it would be interesting to see the dates on these. Do we happen to know what they are generally because you almost think like well why why do you pay preventative maintenance if you have three service calls? Like what and that's the most expensive piece of it. Y right. So I can speak to that a little. Um the preventative maintenance they do twice a year

cleaning out the filters. So the other items were outside of that. This is something that's the I don't Yeah, the other items were actually failures like failures of a board which I think I don't think really would have necessarily been caught for preventative maintenance. Right. I got you. Or compressor or condenser. Yeah, it's cleaning out the filters and things like that. That's very helpful. Thank you. It's It's not running the system through its paces, checking the electronics and making sure there, you know, no warning lights and failures and stuff. Doing that deep diagnostic maybe that LG would do or that somebody is not kind of doing routine maintenance.

So there is they do review a there's a web console that gives you like history of warning and all that stuff. They do review that and they typically will not typically they do send that to LG if there's any warnings so that LG can give us some advice coming back. that is part of their service. So, so they're looking at it um in part of the preventive maintenance goes, okay, you probably need X, Y, and Z done, so I'll kick off service calls for that or whatever that might be. Correct. Better than not having better than nobody ever looking at it, I guess. Yeah. Well, I mean, their their comment was it's pro, you know, probably a million-doll system. Yeah. And, you know, this is a small percentage to keep it running type thing.

Yeah. Um I don't know if we've seen the the the benefits because the things that are happening are are kind of unexpected failures. Yeah. Like a whole unit type thing. I think if I could just this discussion it's different teams of people who do different things too. So preventive maintenance team is looking for certain things but then they talked about their their um specialty engineers or whatever looking at some of the other elements. So it's so it's separate from the preventive. Yep. Yep. So I just had a question. So the 5,500 preventative maintenance that wasn't included in the budget. So that's something that we have to find funding for. Correct. Correct. And that's half a year. I think the is that h that's only half the year. So the full we need to make sure we budget for that for next year.

Correct. So what fund funds I noticed on all of this these lists are they coming from the same funds? It says please identify which account they should be paid from. I guess for the for the motion and discussion. Can we use leads money for this? I think for the repairs um I would suggest the leads monies

like um second, third and fourth one, but the preventative maintenance, you know, that's something that would have been in our should have been in our annual budget. Um so that one I would suggest maybe um state aid. So operating the library for the past let's say almost five years in the new configuration um they're just doing preventive maintenance now. Is it every you said twice a year right? So it's almost like we had problems and they said you should probably be on preventative maintenance you know right away because like I would assume that the past five years we would be paying this out of the budget. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, as we know, the last director budget kind of right, he came in right at June, so he didn't really have much input to that budget. So, I think that's why he got left off this this current fiscal year. I mean, sorry, the last fiscal year and this current fiscal year. Yeah. So, we would expect to see a maintenance agreement somewhere. Yeah. So, or we've been paying it, right? Board has been paying for it for the past five years. This seems like a new item to me. So, would I don't think we've been paying for it for the past four years. So, I think those first four years we didn't have it. either it wasn't being done. I don't think it was being paid out of the budget. Yeah, that would be a good question to ask as well. Is there any reason we wouldn't want to pay this tonight or that what would

be achieved by would be achieved by kicking the can down the road another month? No, it's already been done, hasn't it? Well, I think the only reason to do that would be is if it comes out of the budget or or we've been paying for it in the past, right? That's the only question on the table. Yep. where it gets paid from. And I would I would propose out of state aid because I don't think we have the budget in our maintenance budget. Yep. 5500 and another and then we're expecting another 5500. So this this is for the second half of the year. So we wouldn't get the next one until January. So Mr. Chair, are you ready to entertain a motion? I am.

All right. Um, I move that uh the board uh approve the in uh Renard HVAC invoice number 55869 for $5,500 to be paid from state aid. Second motion made and seconded. Any other questions? Uh hearing none by roll call. Prau I. Rachel I. Roger I. Doug I. Carrie I. Aaron I. Chris I.

I declare the motion carried. Um the next the next three I think. Sorry I'm running. Yeah those were all the the service calls. I think the next three we could um do well we'll just do them individually so we don't consent agenda. Never mind. Sorry. You could do consent agenda. I don't see why not. Okay. Unless because I think the next three can all we can propose out of leads. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Uh, Mr. Chair, I move that we uh pay Renard HV back invoices number $5,613. Nope, that's the invoice number.

Invoice. I'm sorry. So, wait a minute. Am I doing a procedural motion? Yeah. All right. I'm sorry. I I I withdraw my partial motion. Um I move that we uh procedural motion that we take um the next three items um uh for from u HVAC as a consent agenda as as a single vote. Second motion made and seconded. Uh roll call. Bravo. Any. Rachel I. Roger. I Doug I. Carrie I. Aaron I. Chris I.

I declare the motion carried. Okay, Mr. Chair, I move that we pay the following uh three invoices from Renard HVAC from the leads account. Invoice number 56013 in the amount of $3,836.88. Invoice number 5,6067 in the amount of $3,929. and invoice number 56074 in the amount of $2,1536. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion on these? I would just like to say fantastic job, Roger, with all of this.

You're doing quite well. No, can I tell you I I'll I I'm the Wednesday version of Mark Alamo. That's a shout out to the select board clerk. Yeah, he's he's the guy. So, I'm I'm sort of I'm I'm marked tonight. So, funny. Uh, no other discussion or hearing none. Uh, vote by roll call. I Rachel. Roger. I Doug I. Carrie I. Aaron I. Chris I.

I declare the motion carried. Thank you. Moving down the list. Um, the next one is CAVT solutions. As you'll recall, this was the repair of one of the video HDMI outlets in the community room that allows us to have these big presentations. Um, so I'll entertain a motion. I'll make a motion um to uh approve the invoice number 65175 for the repair of the HDMI outlet in the community room from CAVT Solutions in the amount of $1,140. um to be paid out of state aid money. Second.

Motion made and seconded. Any questions, discussion on this? Do we want to do that out of state aid or out of leads? Because it's I think this is more appropriate out of state aid personally, but I agree. That's why I mentioned it that way. Any other comments? Okay. Hearing none, vote by roll call. Will I Rachel I Roger I. Doug I. Carrie I. Aaron I. Chris I. I declare the motion carried.

Lots of motions here. Um so the next one is the serve pro invoices. So this was you'll recall that um the capital campaign paid for replacing the flooring in the teen gaming room. Um during that process it was discovered that one of the walls had considerable mold on it. So we had to have Serpro um come in. They assessed it. They remediated. They took like um took some of the wall board down so they can see where the um the mold was coming from. They didn't see any issues behind it. And then of course the second pieces to replace it. Um, so

I think these could probably be leads I would think for its repair of of building. Um, yeah. My only my only thought of that is that it Yeah, it's a good question. We don't really know where the mold came from, like if the leak came from outside or the leak came from inside. Does that impact whether it can be leads? Well, I mean, the leads is is the idea with the leads is it's it's something that originated with the renovation project, right? Like the HVAC was part of that renovation project, so we're paying for that. This seems more like a just a building maintenance type issue.

So, I mean, I personally I see two options. One would be um that we could pay for it out of state aid. Um the second option is we could defer it a month and we can request funding from the capital campaign. Um it's not really a capital campaign, right? Because it's not kind of like a building permanent thing, but it was discovered as part of the uh the project, but they might decline the decline it as well. So I still feel strongly about um it being a leads item. Okay. you know, but um if he wants to mention a different source, then fine.

Yeah. I mean, if the board agrees, we can propose it and then um then the only thing would be if the town came back and disagreed.

So, let me let me ask you this. I not to go down a rabbit hole, but when we are lead certified and all the things that go into leads, how are what guidance, what document or documents do we have as guidance as to what is included in what is exclus excluded for such leads? It it seems like we're we just put our heads together and I think we guess reasonably and in good faith that this is related to things that would otherwise fall under leads. But what have we ever sought guidance or are there any documents that guide uh boards of trust library trustees in these matters I or any board for that matter could doesn't have to be a library uh building could be.

Yeah. From my my perspective, what I understand is we the town took out the bond to pay for the project, right? The 16 whatever million dollars. Yeah. Um they, you know, they have the bond that's paying for that. The lead's money is like a reimbursement. So, it's a reimbursement into that account. So, it just goes back into that construction account. Um, I think technically the town could, you know, it's, you know, it should be for the library because that's what that whole account is for, right? Um, do we even have perview over over that money? I I thought we did. In the past, the town administrator, and you know, maybe we should meet with the town administrator again. The town administrator always wanted to see the approval come from the board. Yeah.

For those expenses. Okay. Yeah. Could we slightly shift the motion to be like we approve it with leads, but if that's not the right source and state aid, like could we do a like a two part? I think they would just they would just kick it back just kick it back to us again. I just didn't know if it would like delay the payment too much. I don't know like when the payment's due if that I don't I don't think we have to worry about that,

Mr. Chair. I think we've deliberate deliberated these types of um um funding sources when we've identified leads as a source in a in a good faith and thoughtful manner. And so even if it kind of falls on the periphery, I'm not too concerned. I don't think anyone could fault us if if you know it kind of sort of somewhat felt uh fell outside of exactly that which we typically see as leads. Mhm. So, okay. I don't think it's a restricted um it's not a restricted, right? It's more just if the town agrees with us or not. Correct. That's that's my impression as well. Yeah, I agree. Okay. Any other discussion?

Y just one question. Um I know these invoices need to be paid in 30 days. Um so I just wanted to put that out there. Yeah. I mean, if if we approve it tonight and the town has no issues, then yeah, it would get paid. Yep. Can I make a not a comment? I don't might not be relevant. I'm not sure. But sometimes if you're talking about the town capital account, it's not a town capital account. Those have to be a certain amount like anything under 10,000 doesn't, you know, you have, right? Yeah. In this case, it's not a capital account. Thank you. All right. Hearing no other discussion. Um, vote by roll call. Bravu. I don't think we have a motion. We don't have a motion. Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Yep. We were just talking about it.

Okay. Thank you. All right, Mr. Chair, I move that we approve serve pro invoice number 25-02211 in the amount of $3,396.73 from the leads account. Motion made second and seconded. Any further discussion? Uh hearing none. Vote by roll call. Rachel I. Roger I. Doug I. Carrie I. Aaron I. Chris I I declare the motion carried. Thank you. And then the second Can I make one suggestion, Mr. Chair? Yep. For the future motions, can we have the motion first before we have the discussions?

Yeah, my that was my fault. I was thinking we already had the motion. Sorry. I think we the reason why we did that is because we wanted to talk about the funding sources before we had a motion determine which source. So So I think that's appropriate, right? It's an agenda item. Yeah. Um Okay. So, we can have I think we can have discussion and then we can discuss the motion afterwards, too. Yeah. Okay. I hope you don't mind me just saying that. Probably not. No, it makes sense because we didn't know which funding source to make the motion in the first place. We're just trying to confuse you. Prau, that's um do I have a motion for today? Do I have a motion for the second invoice?

I move that we um approve serve pro invoice. Oh, wait a minute. That's a proposal. That's a proposal. Wait a minute. It's not an invoice. Yeah. So, they did they did send the invoice, but it came in after I submitted this. Okay. It is for 2000. I just don't happen to have that number. So, they've done this work already. They've already completed the work. We can still approve the invoice then even though we don't have the invoice number. So, would you request an up to amount? Do we know approximately? It's 2,000.

I think it's I think it's exactly,000. Yeah, I think it's within the scope of the um agenda to to vote on this even though we don't have an in even though it doesn't say invoice. Um, so I move that we uh vote to fund and and pay the $2,000 um invoice uh the serve pro invoice um related to the rebuild of the teen gaming room wall uh priming and painting from is that also leads? Yes, from leads. Second motion made and seconded. Any further discussion? All right. Hearing none, you're up. Prau Pu I.

Rachel I. Roger I. Doug I. Carrie I. Aaron I. Chris I. I declare the motion carried. Isn't this really exciting for those members of the audience? Um, next up for invoices is the American Alarm invoices. So, um I don't know, Kim, do you want to go through the history of that or just

I can Yes, I can speak to that. The American Alarm invoice 1662646838 that was for the corrupted um panel in the main entrance. I don't know if you remember, but the it was going off continuously. Uh we had the fire department come. They were called several times to shut that off. So, um, American Alarm came and they did repair that for us. And that is the amount $838.

So, I just have a question. So, I noticed both of these items were 838. Is that like the is that the cost of like an on-site like visit? Is it like that the labor cost and it includes the truck they for the gas the fuel? Exactly. So So basically if they have to come on site to to fix something that's the set pretty standard. So there wasn't like the the corrupted security panel that maybe was under warranty but it's the actual visit to fix it. Yes. And I think it's a a total coincidence that they're the same dollar amount, right? Yeah. I thought that was a little strange, too. I had to look at that twice, but yeah,

maybe the same come from the same place. I mean, it's probably the same hourly rate, probably. So So would that be state aid? Um and and what is the state aid balance? Are we are we um We're not in the We're not in the red on that, are we? No. No. The state aid is I think um Did you get that recently? Well, because that carries over. It isn't only I had to give it to you and then I didn't bring it with me. I think it's pretty healthy. I think it's I think it's upwards of 75K or or even Okay. I didn't know how it might even be 90. Might even be higher than that. I I I keep on thinking I'm in the prior fiscal year, but but then it carries over anyway. So, correct. So, it doesn't zero out. Okay. No, we get more.

Would it be possible to um start looking at the available trusts um at the board meetings? Yes. Yes. I know we we used to get that at some point. Yeah. I met with Mary yesterday and we started going through like she had three screens up and looking. Yeah, because I think just having that at our fingertips would be fantastic during these meetings. Thank you very much. In the packet, too. So, that's just a a monthly balance from this from state and everything. Yeah. Just note that there was a note on 5D in last month's agenda that notes uh those balances uh in one the last bullet point. Okay. Okay. Great.

Oh, good. Thanks. Um, so I will entertain a motion to pay these invoices. I'll yield. I'll make a motion to approve um invoice uh invoices number 1662646 in the amount of 838 from state aid money and invoice number 1670355 in the amount of 838 um for uh out of state aid money. Motion made just a question. So how come we didn't have to vote as that as a consent agenda? I can do them separately. I figured it's from the same company

and it just is two versus like six detailed ones. But okay, but but just procedurally like you're we Yeah, it's inconsistent. I'll I'll I'll modify my motion to approve only uh the first invoice um uh with the source of state aid money invoice number 1662646 in the amount of $838. Motion made seconded and seconded. Can we just amend the motion just to mention that it's American Alarm? I I think I don't think that was mentioned in the motion. Um from American Alarm.

Motion made and seconded and amended. Any discussion? All right. Hearing none. I. Rachel I. Roger I. Doug I. Carrie I. Aaron I. Chris I. I declare the motion carried. Um, and the next one, Aaron. Sure. So, um, I make a motion to approve invoice number uh 1670355 uh in the amount of $838 from American Alarms uh out of state aid money. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any questions on this one? All right, hearing none. Rau.

Rau. I Rachel I. Roger. I Doug I. Carrie I. Aaron I. Chris. Oh Chris I. Excuse me. I declare the motion carried. Um and then finally um Encore Fire Protection. Kim. Encore Fire Protection. Yes. Um, they had come out to do the inspection and found a faulty there was a a crack in one of the valves. So, they had come out to replace that.

Um, and there was just a little detail that I included there. So, the amount for that invoice was $4,455. I'm so curious as to what an ITV is, but I think I don't think we really Okay. So, I'll I'll make a motion to pay um Encore Fire Protection invoice number 2166511 in the amount of $4,455 from from leads, I would think.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean this was a defect in the original installation, so I think that sounds appropriate. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? I I believe it might V meaning valve since they said same orifice. Oh, it valve something. I don't know what it is, but maybe that points us in the right direction. Okay. Um hearing none. Um vote by roll call. I Rachel I. Roger. I Doug I. Carrie I. Aaron I. Chris I.

Declare the motion carried. Um, thank you everyone for going through all those invoices. I know it was a lot this this month. Um, but this stuff has been building up probably for three months. So, um, thank you and thank you to Kim for helping us organized and make sure that all this got done otherwise we'd be in trouble. Absolutely. Definitely. Yeah. Abs. Yeah. For the last one. Yes. Thank you. Um, okay. Moving on to the agenda. Hopefully some more exciting stuff. Um, teen room space. Actually, I don't I think we've already discussed it. Um, combination of the flooring has been completed. The, um, mold remediation's been completed. Have they repainted as well? Yes.

Oh, great. So, it's repainted. I know um the teen room and Debbie were really excited to get that stuff all done and ready for the school year. So, that's good. Squeeze it. It was perfect. They actually I talked to Debbie. They actually had 25 teens after school. That's great. That's great. All right. Next is the Friends Update by Carrie.

Yeah. So, the Friends had their uh annual um back to school uh use book sale. Um it was this past weekend. Um so, they um they collected donations um throughout the week leading up to the weekend and um in in collections throughout the year. Um it was very successful. It was held on um new Saturday from 9 to 1. Um and part of um the sales on Saturday um provided um a 50% discount to teachers. So um we were just thrilled to have so many um new teachers come and stock up their classrooms, you know, for back to school. They were it was it was really heartwarming to see that. And then on Sunday, um the the library was um was open uh for the back the the uh the bag sale. So fill a bag for $5 from 11 a.m. to 200 p.m. And there was a lot of foot traffic that day as well. So um so they took in quite a bit of money and as we all know the friends, you know, provide funding to the library um to fund things like our museum passes. So um so it's just really appreciated you know the effort of the community to make the donations the efforts of the friends to you know to organize and do all the work to get it running the support of our wonderful librarians you know um you as as well so um it was it was very successful um and the next um the next friend's board meeting will be on Tuesday September 9th um via Zoom at 7:30 and um I actually met with Jean today and just gave her a little bit more detail about, you know, how our friends operate and invited her to join the meeting and we'll share those meeting details with her as well. So,

great idea. Looking forward to introducing Dean to to the friends board. Great. So, thank you. Any questions for Carrie on the friends? I have a question. So, um the old book drop um is becoming a bit of an eyesore, right? So, does is that a library uh item um asset or is it uh really given to the friends at one point?

Yeah. So, actually I talked to Dean about this today a little bit. So, it it used to belong to the library before we had the new building and we have the automated book sorders. Um, so it was gifted to the friends, but the friends have come up with a a donation um policy um and that doesn't require that book drop and it really hasn't worked for them. So they do not want the book drop. So I think it makes sense to to remove it. Um but you know, but I guess we would have to look That's on me to um No, I have I have a great I I brought it up for a reason.

Oh, great. So, so um the the Grafton Troop 106 Boy Scouts are they have a scrap metal drive. I don't know that they can get a lot of money for nonferris um metal, but I know that they would take it part of their, you know, for fundraiser. It's a big fundraiser for them. They do it twice a year and they would even probably show up with a truck and and remove it. I think I mentioned it to one of the librarians and she was kind of nostalgic about it, you know, but you know I think it's just become an eyesore and um you know we should and it causes confusion too because you know people see it garbage next to it too. They don't want which we don't want. Yeah.

So um so I can confirm with the friends when I meet with them next on um the the 9th but I think they would be thrilled to to have it because we have discussed it before. So I don't think think they Yeah, that sounds like a a very good solution. So my perspective is I'm not sure what needs to get done to actually do that like to donate the thing donate the the thing since it's a you know it's an asset of the town. Yes. So we might have to talk to the town administrator.

So generally and I don't know how it works in this town. Something has to be sent around to all the department heads to see if anotherbody else wants it first. If not, then you're allowed to. Sometimes people put things out at DPW and people from the town can take it, but you it does belong to the town. So, you're giving it to another nonprofit. So, that's a little bit different than a business. But, that would probably have to come from me to send around to all the department heads, administrators to make sure nobody wants it first and that they're it's okay that they, you know, that we donate it,

right? Do we think there's any value in it as far as if we wanted to sell it? I would guess probably not. But so then I guess maybe as a board we would just approve having the director discuss with the town about donating it. The interim director. Yeah. What? The interim director. The interim director. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I think we don't need to make a motion. I don't think we authorized it. So the scrap metal drive is in November and even if we don't um decide by November um they do one in the spring, too. Right. Okay, because I do agree it's a it's kind of an eyesore and you know we're always worried about what ends up getting put in there.

I'm just going to throw this in there not for general discussion because it's not on the agenda. But speaking of eyes is those two bikes that are just rotting in front of the library. I took a photo of them and maybe we can even talk about that during the um um the walkabout. I think maybe two bikes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Anyways, I'll leave that to the walkabout. That's more appropriate. Yeah, sounds great. Thank you, Carrie. for the friends update. Um, next on the agenda is the policy committee update with Aaron.

So, um, great news. We get the policies back from legal. Um, so the next step and it was just just before uh this board meeting. Um, but the next step is for those to go to um the uh the union uh reps and they'll take a look at them. Um, and I I spoke uh with with Cindy and she said just give us give them enough time and um enough time to review them so that we can have them on the agenda for the next board meeting. There's five policies. I don't think I mean it'd be awesome. I'll put all five on the agenda uh for for next month as so long as you know they pass um you know the the union um but um you know that once they come to the board right I just want to caution if we do have you know five policies for review that we um um you know if there's too much deliberation to approve a policy we'll just kick it back to um policy committee and and take it offline. So that'll help facilitate those meetings going forward. I mentioned that because we haven't had policy in a while to review by this board.

Yep. Erin, would it be possible for all that? Again, I don't expect a lot of deliberation, but could we get those policies in advance? Our meeting packets get longer every meeting it feels like. So there's five. It would just be helpful if we know that's coming to have it. Yeah. So So when I when I would send them, it's not for like commentary. It's for you to read them, right? Yes. And whether you feel that you're going to vote on them at the meeting. So then you come to the meeting and say, "You know what? Uh I disagree with this. I'm going to vote no on this and here's why." So that's what I would expect at the meeting. Yep. Yep. That makes sense. But this I would say no correction. Absolutely. Um Yep. I can send those for review.

Thank you. Great. So that's it. So I I'm going to ask, Mr. share that the the item under 8C library parking lot that's actually was I would ask that we just continue the discussion on policy.

Okay. Um and so we had u this on our agenda last month and um it led to to an email reply from um our town administrator and then a reply to um back to him. Thank you for smoothing things over um regarding that. And so during last meeting um our regular meeting we we did all provide input um on on the parking policy. Then we subsequently voted to remove it from sort of limbo status. And so in advance of that meeting, because it was taken down, I wasn't familiar with the preamble that the reason why we had the policy so strict was that at the time that we had the grant. It was our understanding then that we really needed it only for library parking. and and we now find out that the MBLC, Mass Board of Library Commissioners, really doesn't have take issue with us having that parking lot being used by others. So, what I'm getting at is that in advance of the meeting, okay, I'll concede that I kind of went down a rabbit hole, all right, with some misinformation because I'll admit that I I actually didn't do the proper research and I I I had basically put forth the notion that there was sort of a um a turf war, okay, that didn't exist between the library trustees and the town administration. All right. And in hindsight, I realized that I kind of, you know, in that email from our town administrator, he had mentioned

among other things that you know, he felt that there was uh some tension between the trustees and um you know, town administration. And I'll concede that I think I uh uh inadvertently contributed to that. Okay. And and so um we know that uh our town administrator Evan Brassard and our assistant town administrator William Blake have done an amazing job especially during the flood during the uh um the absence of a director and and I just wanted to um uh you know publicly apologize that I I basically took an accusatory tone uh you know toward uh our town administrator Evan and our assistant town administrator uh William even though I didn't name them by name. I use the term town administration. And so I just wanted to um while saying that yeah, the parking policy does need to be discussed at some time, um I just wanted to offer a public apology that um to have gone down that sort of accusatory tone

uh that that I think contributed to the some of the tension that our town administrator mentioned. And so I'll I'll leave it at that. and um and we at some point we can talk more about and and partner with instead of against um the the town in in really coming up with something that works for everyone. So, all right. Well, thank you, Roger. Um I you know, I think we all recognize that we've gotten various feedback from previous directors and MBLC and the town. So, it's it's been certainly been a confusing confusing issue. Um, but I certainly agree that we need to um work well with the town administrator's office.

Um, and actually, I think that's a good segue into I would love to have a group of trustees, a small group of trustees um, join me in meeting with the town administrator just to talk about a lot of these ongoing things like the HVAC and the leads account and we can talk about parking. So, okay, that'll be another one if someone wants to volunteer. I'll I'll help with that, Doug, because I had actually wanted to meet with them because I was just trying to understand roles and responsibility between us and them. So, happy to join you with that. Thank you. And if there's room for a third, I' Yeah, like on behalf of the policy committee, if you think that would be helpful, I'll volunteer my time, too. Okay. Oh, great. Thank you. You just have to be careful not to have a quorum.

Yeah, I would only I think there'd only be three of us would meet. Um, and both Evan and William have offered like basically they're waiting for us to come up with some options for dates. So, I'll reach out. This will be during the day. I would assume it would be during the day. Okay. Yeah. Yep. All right. Well, thank you, Roger, for clarifying uh last meeting. Yeah. Trying to smooth things over, but you know, don't look at gift horse in the mouth. They've done an amazing job and without them, we would have been sunk on so many levels. So, yeah, I think the board definitely agrees with you on that. some. So, okay. That being said, should um I I I don't recall if we mentioned at the last meeting,

but is there any policies right because there are a number of policies that say under review that have been taken down. Are there any policies that the board feels the policy needs to look at next? And and I I want to remind you that I'm the only policy committee member from the board, right? I am looking for somebody else to help and I think Prau maybe you mentioned um that that you would be interested in policy committee. Yes, that's correct. Okay, great. Great. I I did have a quick question. I thought we had paused the policy committee until we had a director in place. Yeah.

So I I guess are you looking to start reviewing policies we don't have a director in place or are we still waiting for the director? So that would also be a discussion too if we feel that we wanted Gan to fall into that role uh as a as an interim director as well, you know. So I think that makes sense. Um Jean, I believe you you have extensive experience with um establishing policies.

Yes. And and I have no problem with working with the policy. My suggestion is that you do wait for the permanent director to sign off on them, but certainly they could be worked on and you know developed and then whomever the permanent director you should probably wait. So they might want to have buy in and they have to be able to interpret them and make sure that they understand them correctly too and um and know the people to work with. So that would just be my suggestion. And my only other thought is Jean's three days in so I don't think she quite knows what what's on her to-do list yet. So I just kidding like just maybe we should see everything before we we get back into policy. Yeah. So I I guess I I'm saying this is an absolute mess.

The policy is absolute mess and and that was what was communicated to me with uh from Mary Merland and Tom before he left. Um and that's why these were taken down. Yeah. Right. And so we need to make a decision whether we put them back up or let them sit there.

So I I have a question uh through you, Mr. Chair. Um and to to Aaron's point. So, in hindsight and and in and um piggybacking on my just recent comments regarding this parking policy and our discussion at the last meeting, it had been taken down without a committee vote. And we've really never talked about what the quoteunquote policy is or or procedural policy regarding um you know, a director having the authority to maybe on short-term basis take things down

for short periods on uh under extenduating circumstances. My point being that it was taken down and we voted as a committee last regular meeting to resurrect the parking policy as it was written. Are we going to leave it up there as written or are we going to vote as a policy as a committee tonight to take it back down? You're and you're referring specifically to the parking policy because it's on the agenda. It's it's up for y

grabs as far as whether we want to do that. I I I think that um in light of the NBLC saying, you know, um that they really to take an issue, I I would prefer a written, you know, communication from MBLC versus um you know, us any one of us having said they we spoke with someone, right? And um but it's a very strong preamble that says that suggests that the reason being such a strict 247 policy was that it was a state mandate and that we were just kind of following suit with that versus um and then we rode with that and so um did the policy committee so so that's fine.

So you have a separate agenda item to talk about library parking lot. I know. I know. So, we need to kind of focus. Well, it was under policy and I had and that's fine if you want to talk in more detail. That's good. Okay. All right then. So, that's fine. I So, I'm just trying to make a point, right? So, I I think the homework now that I'm recalling, right, was to determine if we wanted to put these policies back up or not. Um, and I think it'd be nice to make a decision tonight rather than leaving blank policies that say under review, maybe just to remove them and then we can workshop them or maybe never put them back up again.

Um, so notary service, right? We don't offer notary services, so why leave it there? That was their point. So there there's a, you know, taking somebody down was valid. I don't agree with the approach, but um I think, you know, I'd love to hear from you guys if we want to just leave it or if we should actually remove these.

Are there certain ones that we think should should stay up? Because I'm concerned about not having a policy in place. You know, I I know there might be some tweaks that might be necessary, but if you don't have a policy at all, then you don't have any guidelines to go by. And if they were previously app, you know, approved and were in place for quite a few years, you know, to take them down without, you know, we didn't have a discussion about it. It was Yeah. Yeah. So, so the idea is uh either some are completely wrong or the procedures are outdated or something is really glaringly wrong with it, you know. Um, do you

and was that as sorry, was that as determined by the library director at the time or by the policy committee? by the library director and um the senior um librarian. Okay. So, library staff was involved. Okay. Would a sort of compromise, Mr. Chair, B2, if we um Well, let me back up. Were you talking about the combination, Aaron, of some that we felt should be taken down for now and then others that should be resurrected or one or the other? They were already taken down.

All right. So, if we do decide to resurrect them, it allows us to acknowledge that they once existed when they were last revised. And if we do um resurrect them, we could always qualify within the website under that policy that as of um a certain date, call it tonight, that these are are currently under revision or under current currently under review for revision. So, that we're not saying that they never existed. Um but that you know here's here's how they read and um you know that they're under review.

Does it does it matter that they're posted whether or not they're under review? I mean they could be they could be active but under review. But if we've all but if if the former director and one of the library manage managers said that there's some glaring error in in in something that really requires it to be taken down maybe that that allows whoever might be reading it and realize that there's certain errors that they that we're affirmatively recognizing that that this needs to be reviewed. Okay, that's all that I guess I just I just I sorry,

you know, I just throw out that there seems two there that were probably pretty easy for us to vote to officially take down. Once the notary service policy that no longer exist that we don't provide and then the pandemic fine free library policy which was replaced with the fine free library policy. So, is it even helpful if we just vote to take those two like vote that we are good taking those off and just start with with those two unless there's a reason we would want to keep those, right? Is that kind of the the ask here, Erin? Like I think we need to treat each one as a a special case where Yeah. So,

so why why don't we just send those under review to the policy committee and then have them propose at the next meeting which ones we're

I think we're waiting on the polic we're going to wait to have a policy committee till the director gets in. Um, so I think the question is, do we just want to really hold where it is knowing it's it's not perfect, but it's not perfect if we put it back and just leave it as is, or is there anything we we feel strongly about having a procedural vote on? Personally, I'd say since there's no like good solution either way, I'm I'm comfortable if we just leave it as is until we have someone come in, do a full review, and then assess it there as long as it's not causing any questions or concerns from the library staff, right? Because the policies there to support them and and how they operate in the library. And so, if we're not getting questions on them right now and and we're in this influx period, it might be better just to let it rest. So, if I could make a comment. Um, I haven't seen the policies. I've seen a couple that I've just found in the office, but um, I'm certainly willing to take a look at all of them from a different perspective and and give my input about whether it's redundant or, you know, is it operational or is it procedural or is it a policy and then does it fall under patron use policy or is it building like there's different categories that it might be under. So, it might very well be that um if we don't have a notary public that should that should come out. Are they, you know, are they policies the board would vote on? I I don't know. I haven't seen them, but I'm happy to take a look. And

I think that's my challenge is that I don't have enough information to know why they were under review. So, I wouldn't have Frankly, I don't have it either. Right. So, I don't have enough information. We don't I don't think we have enough information to say yes, it should stay under review or go live or stay off. So, so I would recommend we just I I I think so, too. So, I mean, I think it would be great if we could get copies as a board of all the ones that are under review and if we have any commentary about what the issues were with those. We should have that. Yeah. Um, are those hyperlinks linking to them? Not the ones that have been taken down

for me. Yeah. For me, I I think that um it's too Orwellian for things to just kind of disappear and and um it it'd be nice to know where they're parked and for us at least as trustees to have access to those which have been taken down without our vote. You know, I mean, it's just we do have access to them. in that Excel sheet that Kim sent, she linked them all in there. So, we can actually go through and review them all because Kim's super organized. So, all right. So, do we have I'm sorry. Did we have a second volunteer to join? That was Prau who's going to join you. Okay.

So, uh what is the directive then for the policy committee? I I'm wondering I without getting into the weeds into further discussion about all of these and whether to keep certain ones and put certain ones down. I'm wondering if maybe for the time being where the public lands on the website because that's where people go to see these things. Um, not that we have a huge audience, but for anyone who may land on there, maybe having a sort of qualifying or a preamble statement that that the library of trustees has a uh and and its policy subcommittee regularly reviews these policies for um accuracy and and current services or something to that effect. that is a uh allows any public who may have some um objection to how things are worded or recognize inaccuracies know that these just aren't there without us being look without them being looked at that these are we regularly look at these

right so maybe the directive is and just for prau and I to meet and look at all these policies and I would invite all of us to do this but for prau and to look through these policies, particularly the ones that um you know, some of the library staff and the previous director felt were inaccurate um and make our recommendations. Um but I would say how does that change this discussion when we come back with that information. Um, I guess we would decide either to pull these links off the website, which is what we're talking about, um, you know, these dead links, um, or put them back, right?

Yeah. Just a couple of the policies I think are important to have active minimum staffing policy, right? I mean, that one that that's a huge one. That's a huge one. So, and I feel like that was that was written by a previous director and a lot of his philosophy, too. And a lot of it is history and a lot of it was based on the building and the design, right? And that was a very very um meaty, you know, and and we've been following that for years. And even at the um you know, contest contestations or whatever you want to say of people who say, "Well, this is really hard to follow, but we have to follow it anyways." You know, we have to close the library because we don't have enough staff to operate it, right? We had to do that a lot especially during the pandemic. Right.

Right. Um and that's because of that policy and the way it was written. Now if things have changed, we don't just throw out the policy. Right. Um but we still have to adhere to it. Um because maybe it's not the way we do things now, but it should be right until we vote otherwise. And then the circulation policy, right? Like that. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I honestly don't know what some of these what the issues were with some of these. Yeah, there's no notes as to what the the issues were.

So, I I guess the other pieces I know you said like you'd recommend we like leave it off or sorry, we either delete it or put it back on. I guess if there's any that like we don't want to do either like feel like I'd be interested if there's any that do fall into that third bucket for

it's going to come off, right? It's still going to come off because then it has to go back to policy committee. We have to rewrite it with the director, right? It's a lot of work that's going to be um involved, right? So that's why I'm kind of proposing that maybe we just remove it all right now and it all goes back to policy committee. The the issue is like I would say if there's anything that is super um critical to keep there then I would advise maybe not putting pulling it down. Um you know one thing is a minimum staffing policy. The other is um I don't know that they felt that service to people with disabilities um needed to be a policy. That was a feedback I got on um from the policy committee that yeah, we're going to service people with disabilities. So, they felt it wasn't needed, but I'd have to really read it to see why it was written. Um, you know, is there anything else that needs to needs to go back or is all of this going to come back to policy committee?

Aaron, I I have a question for you though. I I unless I'm mistaken, did you as much step back from policy committee in a recent meeting or not? I I No, it's just we can't operate because it's just me. Just Yeah. Oh, that's right. Okay. All right. So, it was a pause. Yeah. Okay. My only sense is Sorry. Go ahead, Doug. No, go ahead, Chris. I say that just that it's difficult to review and make a decision with without knowing what the potential issues are, which I think has been mentioned by a couple people. And so, it just feels like it's it's not a decision I feel like I personally can make today without knowing what those issues are. Yeah. and the previous director made that call, right? No longer with us, right? So,

and you know, I'm I'm okay with the current policy committee, you probably the staff member and the interim director of Jean like reviewing these and seeing like was this was this reasonable the concerns or are we okay with them and would they go back live or should they go back to the committee? Yeah, I think that's appropriate because we're not we're not writing we're not creating new policy which you know Gan mentioned would would be the the permanent director's responsibility to put their approval on it and say hey this is what we want to do at the library. Um but reviewing this stuff. Absolutely. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Almost like a working group as opposed to, you know, getting the band back together. I love it. Get in there, start, you know, sorting it out.

Yeah. And hearing from Mary like what the what the concerns her perceived concerns were and then, you know, getting your interpretation and trying to work this like, okay, you know, is it, you know, can it be tweaked or does it need to be totally rewritten? Yeah. And I think the easy ones, you know, things that we're not doing anymore, like the notary service, we should just vote next month and take those down and or keep them. I'm trying to think the right word is um not terminate them, but retire them. Just retire the policies if they're no longer relevant. Okay. Okay. All right.

Thank you, Erin. I know it's a it's a it's a um big responsibility for this group because that's one of our main directives is defining and helping the director and the library define policy. I think the um the design of the policy committee has been good. We've been good at reviewing and writing and revising policy. But I think where maybe we need and this is you know it's for everybody to to kind of chime in on. we need to um perhaps so we don't get in the situation again maybe go through different phases of writing versus you know uh reviewing what we have

because I I never thought for a minute that any of this stuff you know would would just go stale or inaccurate right but times change so I think that's probably just a failing of the way that we've been working does the MBLC and I I should know the answer to this but um does the MBLC maintain in draft policy language templates and things. They do for some of them. Yeah, they're pretty broad in general, but it's a place to start. Sometimes the general idea is people put too much into a policy and then you're you're caught into something that you don't have enough room around it. So, the language is really important. So, it's

concise enough to be meaningful, but not not too much where you can't define everything and then then you end up with a situation that's not listed. So, but they do have some um I can I can take a look is there. So I wonder do we need like an overarching policy like like how like the procedure to establish policy who can you know how it you know gets approved and what should be policy versus procedure like is that generally I would think that would be a good idea because my understanding just I've heard a little bit and I didn't get into the discussions that some of them might be operational in which case they really don't need to be public and those would change

um you know because it's you know operation so I don't know I haven't seen them either So, we're all kind of working with information that we don't have, but um I think that would be a good idea to establish what the protocol is moving forward to Yeah. Because as Eron mentioned, we were surprised that they were taken down. And I think it and it really I think our perview is that it should be that the board approves taking it down. It it if there's a valid reason, of course, we would take it down, but it shouldn't just be done with a approval. Right. So they were they consulted with MBLC and they said it is under the director's purview to pull anything down they felt was inaccurate or illegal and that's why it was done. Okay. So okay but if it's illegal so you know it's illegal. Um

I think that's if something's really of an emergency nature they you know I think because the board policies you really have final authority. I think we can probably end the discussion. Do we have the information about why they were pulled down? I don't like so so perhaps I can try to uncover that. I can talk to Mary. Is it maybe? Yeah, maybe Mary has some of that information if she was the one. She might have notes and you know that I can. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um and I suspect we'll be having similar conversations. Hopefully some of the res some of them will be resolved by then. Um all right. Next up is the walkabout. Chris.

Yeah. Um, and Erin, I'm mindful you had kind of some additional pieces to add in. Um, but walked around during a rainstorm. It wasn't quite as uh hard as I had hoped to be able to walk around in. Um, but did notice a bunch of dripping in various locations along the north side of the building that faces the inn. Um, at least as far as I could tell. And as I understand the quote that we that was discussed in July, um, I think that that quote covered the deficiencies that I noticed. There was a couple videos that I took um that kind of show those various pieces, little bits of dripping, but it was a lot of times it was the solder in between uh sections of gutter. Um there was a loose rock on the patio wall on the northeast corner. I don't know if this is the same one that had been noted by an email to Tom. I think that was back in May or June. I don't remember which month. Um but there was one there. Um right on the top. Um, there was an exterior light again on the north side of the building facing the inn near an old basement entrance, one that's been blocked shut. There's a a light above it. There's some exposed wiring. I expect that it probably is not active, but it didn't look functional in either event, but it may be something we want to get evaluated and taken down. Um, uh, lot of sandbags, which doesn't, uh, probably surprise anybody, but some of them are broken open and kind of along the back side of the building. Um, and so, um, there were some being actually used since it was raining kind of by the children's room, which is great. Um, but just didn't know if we wanted to if they're broken and open, you know, get rid of those to create more space, particular on that back patio area.

Is that something that the custodian can take care of? I was just going to ask, but the procedure seems to me for these sort of minor, relatively minor building issues that probably the director would contact EPW and have them. Yeah. Or the custodian. the custodian if it's a if it's something small in my custodian and if not then they'll tell me but I think they probably okay um yeah there was a damp carpet near the teen room um I didn't have a picture of that um but we've seen a couple pictures of that in the past but the exterior door the exterior door not um yes the exterior door again facing the in where we've had issues in the past um

and had a had a fan there um there is a picture of the new floor that was installed they still had some sheeting up because the wall hadn't been repaired yet so there You can see the floor in there if you haven't actually been in. It looks quite nice. Um, in June had noted that the thermostats at the top of the stairways uh kind of showed very like very large disparity between two of them by the circulation desk and top of the stairway. Tom had noted they had been fixed I think in one of his last notes. Um, and they showed the exact same temperature this time up and things seemed like so that seemed a little better.

Um, this day was pretty cool that I was there. The front reading room was at about 75 degrees. um which was a little surprising um but worth noting. Um and then I did notice also the AV equipment in the large conference room. Um there had been a piece that had been dangling for quite a while that had been replaced or fixed. It was no longer that way. So cool. That and then Erin, I know you had a couple uh at least some bikes you wanted to talk about. Yeah. So I think these two bikes um they're they're rusted and the the tires are all flat. Um they look identical, but I feel like um if they don't belong to anybody, they're just abandoned bikes. Where where they're in the Right. They're Oh, right. You don't even notice them. They're so long. That's the main entrance. Yeah.

It's a bike stand in the main entrance. Yeah. Yeah. So, um really rusted and look like garbage. I can just have DPW come and pick them up. Yeah. Or can we do like a Facebook post that says if these are your bikes, come get them. Otherwise, they're being taken care of. The Boy Scouts might take that for their scrap metal. That's true. Yep. It's not smart. That's good. And that's also why I brought it up, too. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for reminding me. Yeah. Oh, boy. Fellow Boy Scout. There you go. No, some I'll tell you some some nerd is going to be watching this meeting on playback and all of a sudden get an idea and then they'll disappear. No. Yeah. No. Scrap metal's a good idea. Yeah. I don't even think they're chained up.

Okay. So, yeah. I I think they can probably go. Yep. Thank you. Y All right. Thank you, Chris, for doing that.

All right. So, onward to new business. Um, first item is the library director search. I mean, I can give you a quick update. Um, we hired the interim director. So, Jean started on Monday. As I mentioned earlier, um, the, uh, search committee is continuing to review um, applicants for the permanent director. I'm not sure we're getting a meeting in this week. Um it might be tight next week with the holiday. Um but hopefully in the next week. Um we've reached out to a couple candidates um to make sure they're still available and interested and um we're in the process of setting up interviews with them. I don't know Rachel if you have any other update. Any other comments? Um, I think it's just been a really good working committee with the combination of people from the library and the board and the we're get we just did initial phone screening. So, looking at that that first round. So, we we feel good about the candidates we have too. So, some good options coming through.

When will those um when will the board get involved in that process? What do you think? I mean, I would guess it's going to take us a good two weeks to get the interviews done. Um, and then assuming there's a, you know, candidate that we want to move forward, then it would be sometime after that.

Yeah. Yeah. And if it's helpful for the board, we can also come with proposed questions for this team, for this group as well, right? Because that I know that's one of those things we do have to figure out in advance. So if it's helpful, we can I know we've planned ours like that we will have for a first round, but we can kind of build out what that second round of questions is knowing what our first rounds were and and kind of help with some of that too if that's beneficial for them. That's a good idea. We can share those questions with the board. Are are you sorry are you anticipating uh all of us to interview each of these candidates too that you bring to the well

so the way this second round will work is it's a is it like a panel in front of this I doubt we will have the final candidate in terms and ready for our next board meeting. Yeah. So next board meeting we can bring the second round questions we're proposing if there's any feedback and then we'll probably have to have a special board meeting just based on how long these meetings are anyway to do the final round interview and then then make a decision from there would be my expectation. Would that be an executive session to discuss those questions? Because I think I doubt

I don't think so. I think um the the only reason this committee would go into executive session I don't I think would be if there was more than two you know if we were interviewing all five candidates but um our thoughts were that the subcommittee would recommend you know two maybe three I you know depending on the numbers but just the finalists that would then come in front of this committee. Yeah. And that would be that has to be in public open meeting at that point. But just getting the questions ready in advance like we wouldn't we

find out I feel like executive sessions been like reserved for like HR items or like like employee stuff. I believe we actually have to land on those so people would know the questions in advance. Um but we have a we got sent a document that kind of told us procedurally what we can and can't do around hiring. So we can look at that again. Yeah, I think that there was some information either in the June or July meeting. There had been a bunch of links. I think it was in the July meeting packet um up top and it described some of that and I if I recall correctly, I think that the discussion the the qu the development of the questions has to be an open meeting if I remember correctly. Okay, we're just following what the paper says. Yeah, I'm not 100% sure, but I'm fairly confident. Yeah,

great. Thank you. Okay, any other questions on the search director search? All right. um strategic plan. I think we can pass over this um because we're waiting for next steps with the director. Um we already discussed the parking lot, Roger. Correct. Yes, we did. Okay. So then, um D is town building inspections area.

Yeah. So, this came up um when I was doing my uh office hours at the library. Um, uh, Cindy Zarello mentioned that some people, uh, representing the town said that they wanted to see the library and they got into some not sensitive spaces, but you know, uh, areas of the library. Uh, maybe the I'm going to call it the boiler room, but I'm I'm sure that's not what it is anymore. It's a facilities assessment committee.

Oh, okay. So, but the idea is like, well, there's no director at the library to kind of um, oversee these people at the library. So really it's just kind of librarian saying oh where are you? Oh we're here to you know inspect the library and they're like okay well you say so but again I think having in the absence of a director they did the best that they could. Y but um you know Cindy felt that the board should know that they have been doing this because the building is really our purview so we should know when the building's being inspected for whatever reason. But I would if if there's a a committee you said inspecting all town properties. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And all the needs and it what needs to be fixed and it sort of

interesting. Yeah. It it sort of maybe runs along the line of capital planning improvement uh capital improvement planning committee CIPC which I'm not sure if that's still around but um yeah just it's a longterm they're taking a longterm look at at the needs of of the town. And so um so they're looking at all facilities and buildings and and such. I'm not sure if it includes parks and wreck and things like that, but they're going to come up with some final report at some point.

I wonder if there's some synergy here too between the board and this committee because generally, you know, we're we're doing the walkabouts, you know, doing the best we can. We're working with vendors to keep the library, you know, running smoothly. Um, it's HVAC, all this. So, I wonder what they're going to come up with that may help or may Do do we know who from the town was kind of overseeing that effort? I don't know. It could be something too sharing the punch list like we have a we have a long list. I I don't know about that, Dave, but I know Ray Me's on that committee. He's he's with I think it was Ray me. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean he has an he has an expertise in in matters of construction and buildings and things like that. So it makes sense that he was, you know, taking a lead on that. Maybe we can put on our agenda when we meet with the town administrators. I think they'd probably have a good sense of like who's running that and like who the report outs coming from. That's a good idea. Yeah, it's a good idea. It could be related to insurance also for town buildings. That's true. Yeah. I would say now that um we have the gene and the interim director um that all should go through you and then you can reach out to me as if you get any requests. Yes. Um so make sure the staff knows that if someone comes in that they need to make sure that you're aware of it. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. That's did not was not aware of that. Okay. Any other questions on that? Great. Um, other business, uh, any updates on the capital campaign, Carrie?

So, um, as we discussed, um, the capital campaign did fund, um, the replacement flooring in the team gaming room. So, we're thrilled that that's, um, completed. Um, and then the capital campaign did also, um, pay for the replacement table for the friends corner. Um, Kim, I wasn't sure about like I know I'm going to pick up the table, but I I hadn't seen, you know, um, one that's available yet. So when it is, you know, I will because it was a pretty hefty delivery fee that we wanted to avoid. And I have reached out to them and asked that they let me know when it is available and I will reach it back out to you. All right. Sure. Thank you so much for coordinating that. Really appreciate it.

So in capital campaign, Mr. Yeah. As far as um you know your earlier comment in the meeting about um putting together all um you know funds and trusts and things like that which actually belong to the library. this is a separate nonprofit, but do we know like pulling all these sort of potential funds and resources together are things coming into the capital campaign or was that mostly reserved for like is that well dried up as far as inflows or was that mostly back before the the building was open and now we're just spending it down unlike the friends where there's inflows and outflows in trust there's inflows and outflows. Yeah. So, I don't know if you want to comment or I Well, you're the treasure, so

I happen to be the treasure. So, there are occasional inflows. We have some um smaller donations from individuals. We have a multi-year commitment from um Homefield Credit Union. So, once a year they're paying their their piece because they um they um spread it out. Right. Right. They spread out the naming rights from the children's room. Um but relatively small. So they're really at the point where where the capital campaign is accepting requests and you know paying out, right? Yeah. I mean it's a 501c3 charitable organization. So I would say um let it ride for as long as

Yeah. We would never give that up. No, no, I'm not saying give it up, but knowing about like when we talk about state aid figures or trusts or things sort of having in the back of our heads depending on the need and the nature of the item requested, you know, okay, is this too large a request or is this an appropriate request for the capital campaign, you know? Yep. kind of having in the back of our minds the same amount of like what are the balances of the trust accounts and things like that, you know, and you know, state aid or leads accounts and and to kind of know, you know, to not to be focused on and spending down

something too too quickly or requesting the the nonprofit to be, you know, we don't want it to be all of a sudden, oh yeah, we'll just spend it down and becomes insolvent. you know, most of it has been spent already. There's not, you know, there's quite a bit that was raised and was spent already. So, there isn't a huge remaining balance, but there is some money left. Okay. But, I mean, I mentioned it to Jean um and the staff, right? if there's requests from the staff for uh you know there was like the chest things the tables that went out on the patios like if there's any kind of pseudo permanent requests um those are certainly open for the capital campaign. Can I

And then the tr the the grants, I'm sorry, the um the trusts, you know, there's like I don't know, five or six trusts. They have specific um restrictions on what they can be spent on, but some of them are like books, some of them are um building pieces. So, I mean, those are all all available to the board. Okay. I have just some input here just as something that I noticed and I there's no sign in front of the building. There should be a really nice sign that says Grafton Public Library. There is in the back, but when you're looking at it from the front, you don't know that it's the library unless you live and work here. Well, it's on the building itself, right? But you can't see that from the road or

Yeah. So, the front of the building is actually where the parking lot is. So, that's where that sign is, right? Because that's the main front entrance. Okay. But just mentioning that there's no sign to say that it's the build. I mean, it would Yeah, I can't remember what's in front of the on the common side. On the common side, it's it's actually like in the actual building, right? It's a little laminated piece, but there isn't anything on the front lawn. I mean, yeah. I mean, I don't think it's a bad idea to have a sign in the front. Yeah. There are sign makers who make beautiful custommade signs for and that might be more expensive than you want to pay. But yes, there there may be some historical district commission historical

is that right? Crafting common grafting common historic district commission. There are some restrictions because it is part of the historic district. But um you know if if this group if someone wants to spearhead an effort to find some historic sign I mean we certainly could consider that. So, we used to have I think um in the front it used to have the hours in the front, didn't it? So, then when then when the entrance moved that's not there. So, you and that probably said grafted. It was like green like there was I remember some kind of Yeah. So, I don't but I know it was part of the construction project. It was intentional that the main sign is at that entrance to the driveway because that's where people should be coming in off of the 140 entrance, Upton Street entrance.

Okay. Okay. Um, library statistics, Kim.

Yes. Uh, for the month of July, the adult circulation is up 752 from last month at 5,212. Children's is up 1,264 from prior month. It is 9,361. The young adult up 418 from prime month at 1,593. Total circulation 16,584. That is up 2,444 from the prior month. New patrons 120 up 13 from last month. Total books and audio 3,491 that is up 276 from the prior month. And total Hoopla 454 up 60 from Brian.

Is new patrons new card holders or just people that never like checked out a book before? You read my mind. New card holders. Okay. That's awesome. Yep. Um you know, one of the things we could the board could ask of Jean is to put together. So yeah, two directors ago, we had like this nice infographic that was like a one-page thing and it kind of highlighted, you know, with green arrows going up if it was something that was going up and red arrows to go down if something decreased. But it was kind of a really nice, I thought, a nice graphic that just captured what you just said, but in a nice little graphic. Okay, that might be something that you could put on your list to do.

Um, it really helps. I mean, it's great to hear month-to-month numbers, but it's also good to see trends as well, right? Like year-over-year or Yeah. Yeah. So, I think that was done through Canva in the past or maybe some sort of solution like that. But I bet you could run it through AI real quick and it would spit out a graphic. That's true, too. Yeah. You know, as long as you give it accurate data. It is it is important for the board and the community right to see what our numbers are doing going up going down changing they typically will change and to recognize that they're saying patterns so also these numbers represent you know

summer which children's stats are going to be up and you know so it's number is good can put in context so that's yeah I think that's great um any other questions on the stats Um, next up, and I know we're getting 8:30, so um, Kim has, I think, a couple requests for events. I do also want to mention, um, just share with the board that Mark Burgerer will be performing a concert on the common. Um, the library is sponsoring that. It is Saturday, September 20th, and it is from 12 to 1. Okay.

You said Saturday. It's the 30th. It says wait the 30th. Wait, hold on. I'm looking at your website. 12 to 1. Okay. 12. What date? September 20th. Okay. September. That's a Saturday. Yeah.

Um, the other thing I wanted to share is the Small Stones Festival of the Arts. Carolyn had stopped in um she I don't know if she's the president of that but she's involved with the Small Stones Art Festival and as you recall last year they had the high school students exhibit their work in the historical reading room and she would like to propose doing that again. However, she asked if the library would sponsor that in conjunction with Smallstone Festival of the Arts and the Grafton High School so that we could promote it and you know advertise it in the building and on the website. So, and that's not until um April of 2026, but just wanted to put that out there.

Yep. Do you So, this Oh, that the whole event is in April. Okay. Yes. Okay. Yeah, I I I attended the um the um presentation of the artwork and it was really fantastic. But I I know that there was um I don't want to call it a rift or an issue, but essentially what they could and couldn't do in terms of promoting their event at the library. And they were told they couldn't promote it at all. No signage, nothing. Right. So, I think this is a request to perhaps partner with the library so that they can promote it because it really is a wonderful event. It was really nice in the historic reading room and it stayed up for quite a while.

Um and uh and it was really well attended by the community. I I thought didn't I thought it like I thought we were trying to spread the word about that. So, I'm surprised to hear that somebody was It wasn't Dana, but probably this person who you're mentioning, I think, um, she was told by someone who worked at the library, maybe it was, you know, Tom at the time, that no, you can't promote this for whatever. So, you we could host it but not promote it. That sounds kind of odd. Sure. Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, it's it's we've got a long time running up to it, but I think we should I don't know what the part of that what the promotion piece is, but certainly like

Yeah. I mean like having flyers I mean like when we have like when we have friends events we put flyers up in the in the library you know in like the little thing. Is this a one day thing or is it three weeks? Three weeks. All right. So it would be running off of the small stones as a sort of offshoot of that. So it is an offshoot. So the the small stones is still I believe be at the community barn but this is for the teens. Yeah.

I I I think that um at some point soon we would need to really uh discuss the parameters of that because we did have this discussion about in the past about whe the small stones festival itself was too big for the that reading room and what um that historic reading room and what uh impact or adverse impact that may have with people shuffling through during operational hours and so what is the scope and and of and the size of this because at a certain point it would become too much. I mean it was small. I think I think the thing to do would be just to get some feedback from the staff that was there last year to see what the pros and cons were.

Yeah. Okay. And then work with the organization to figure out what they mean by sponsorship, right? Yeah. Y I know Carolyn, she just was hoping to have it promoted by us. You know, signage and the In other words, what happened? People were coming in specifically for this event. Oh, and there was no show where it was in the library. Exactly. Oh, I see. So, it's more like a like one of those like stand signs that's has like an arrow like this way to the Right. And then also to feature it on our website would be really nice. I mean, I would think if if the library is going to host it, we should be willing to sponsor it or promote it. I mean, right, put it in the newsletter.

Yeah. The other thing I might suggest, too, is you can um you know, provide this feedback. We do have um an art display policy, right? And we have these really great rails, you know, where um you know, work for the from the community can be reviewed. You you know this because you've been on the policy committee with me. So yeah, I think that would be great to see if that could be an alternative too, maybe to supplement this. I'm not saying no, but I'm saying this could also be an option as well and they may respond well to that. Yeah, I like that. Thank you, Erin. I think this is the type of event we want to partner with like this is fantastic and and then for them to approach us and we're, you know, just providing like the space and especially since it's highlighting the Grafton school. Yeah.

Teens, it's hard to teen population. Bring bring them in. Bring them in. Yeah. And lastly, I remember before uh we did the library construction, we did have a lot of like display cases and all things, you know, showcasing different things from the public or it wasn't really the collection, but it was like, you know, it was artwork or fossils or something. I haven't seen that at the library in a while since we did the renovation. I mean, there was a really nice project that um that Allison had done. Um it was a community event where you did the squares and those are still in the on display. Um but some like a followup to that would be wonderful too. Okay.

And we had the we had the um I don't know if it's still there. The clock the Willard clock that was set up in the historic reading room. There is that display case that's in front of the community room. Yeah. They that rotates around as well. Yeah. Okay. One question just asks it. I haven't heard it explicit but I'm assuming this is not financial sponsorship. I I don't believe it's okay that's what that's what I understood just was asking okay promoting you know advertising and that sort of thing and then did you want to bring up the other request that we had from the staff member for the community room?

Yes. Um, a staff member would like to had inquired about using the community room for a couple of hours after hours. And this is separate from the one we talked about last month. Yes. Um, I do not recall the date. Um, I know she spoke to you September I think it was September 20th. Oh, yes. The same day as the concert, right? Yeah, September 20th. And I think it was from three Library closes at 2 and it was from 3:00 to 5:00, I think. Yeah. Is this a library um employee? Yes. Yes. Okay.

I don't know if that's something that the trustees want to approve um or defer to the director.

I I guess I have a couple questions on it. Right. And Jean, there's been like some history here where we've had trouble staffing off hours and so Yeah. And then there's also like security issues. And so there's a lot of stuff we'd like to walk through. I guess it really comes down I I think to your point, Doug, like like how Jean feels about as the interim director because if something happens like it still comes down to you. I guess the other thing I'd like to throw out is I just want to make sure we don't get stuck in a pattern where only library staff are able to use it after hours because they're willing to volunteer their time for their events. And so I would even say like if someone's using the space like we still need an onduty library staff person there because they're technically on not on duty. They're not getting paid. Like I don't know if there's union.

Well, they're specifically they would not be there as staff because it's not in anyone's job description, right? So we would still need staff there probably would be my guess. So, I just want to make sure like we're really clear that they're either there working or they're there enjoying and if we need staff there like are we still getting right a staff member there to be right on duty. So, I just think there's a there's a lot there. So, it's not as simple as just like approving it on

the staff member came to me and and asked me if I had and I I knew that there was sort of an ongoing discussion about this um since she's a staff member and she knows how to open and close and everything. um that I was okay with it. I asked her to text me when she's finished so I know it's closed up and everything went okay and I would be aware of it and if they needed me for anything they could text me. But you have to be careful about setting a precedent. And if it's another like I I I'm the only one who really could well wouldn't impact the budget if I went and I wouldn't mind but setting a precedent and a permanent director might not want to do that and I wouldn't want to do it all the time anyways. So, I do think that there's kind of some layers to it

and we don't want it to be only staff members either if we want to outreach to Yeah. I mean, what we talked about last month was coming up with a procedure a a training program and a procedure. So, a training program to train someone to to to do all those functions and they don't have they wouldn't have to be a staff. They could be they could be one of us or somebody else that's been trained. Um, and then having that person would get trained and would have the responsibility of the building for there. The fact that they're a staff just means that they would have to be trained, which they already know most of that stuff already. Well, I think the other piece to the budget part is there's actually a fee for it and I believe the fee should cover someone's hours. Correct. And if we're not in that spot, then

yeah, the facility rental policy has been pulled down, right? So that's where that's coming from. Is it But it was pulled I mean I did have a conversation with Tom about that. He pulled it down because of the security pieces weren't outlined. And so I didn't mean to interrupt. Yeah, I didn't mean to interrupt you. I go for it. But my thought was that so yes, we're missing the procedure for opening, you know, turning off the alarm and then closing the building. And that's something that we need to figure out from a internal procedure. And this would just be an opportunity to walk walk through that procedure. Yeah. And and I think if it were board members and people took a turn doing it, I I wouldn't certainly have a problem with that.

But I do agree having either the having Gene there as the interim director or the the permanent director if that's the case or maybe one of us or somebody o overseeing it would be a good idea.

Well, and I guess I and then Carrie, you're next because I've seen you try to jump in three times. I guess my I want to make sure whatever we set up like sta we can use staff right like I I don't like as board members I don't feel it's our position to be there supporting community events right that's very different than our roles and responsibility and I don't want to put on the the interim or or full-time director either right whatever we develop has to be sustainable for the library to support community events right yep all all the time. So, and then Carrie Yeah.

So, I I think the the relevant experience that we just had this past weekend, and this has been an ongoing event, is the Friends book sale. Um, as I as I described, um, the sale happens on Saturday and Sunday. So, on Saturday, the library was open. Um, so you the um, so library staff were there during the sale. Um friends were allowed to enter the building in advance of the opening but library staff were there you know so they were already there but on Sunday um there were no library staff at at the building. I was there volunteering um but it was a you know member of the friends you know who um you know you was given you know access to you know to enter the building. So um so so I met with so myself and the and the president of the friends met um with Heidi who gave us a tutorial on the you know the alarm system but um but but that is the most you know that's the most common event that we have. Um there are also times um like um when we're um doing events to prepare for the um the spring egg hunt too that the friends you know you might have access to the building on an off time as well. But

um so certainly there's nobody was paid you to be there. It was you know a community event benefiting the library. Absolutely. Um so that's that's what so we do you know we did have that the training on how to access the building and you making sure that the alarm was set. Um there was um they also did adjust the doors. Um so the doors are supposed to be open from 11 to 2 on Sunday. That didn't work exactly as we planned. So we had to work around that, but Okay. So So maybe we just defer to Jean to to see if she's comfortable with this next event similar to what the friends did.

Um but the well the staff member you're talking about the staff member who's going it's her event, right? And so I'm comfortable with that. I know the staff member knows, you know, procedures and so forth. And we can um she has access to me if she needs me. And I said, but I do I do agree with Rachel that we need to this shouldn't have to be a staff member. It should be someone that's been trained to do that kind of like what you said with the friends. So coming up with that procedure on training that person and the actual procedure on entering and exiting.

Well, and I I guess like I don't like I would question how comfortable we feel with just allowing different people to be trained up, right? I I do think there's some value like the reason people pay the fee is so that we have an approved employee who's been vetted and signed contracts and and all of that going through it. So if you're talking about someone on salary today we would train up. Yes. I I just want to make sure we're I I know what we've done with the friends has probably been like the best we could do at that time, right? But I think we're truly trying to let the community use the space.

Like I just worry about the legal implications. Like I don't even know if like what our insurance would cover if there's someone there who's not getting paid and they're attending their own event. And so it I just want to make sure we do it in the right way where we're not opening ourselves to risk. Um, I mean, security issues and you know, we can't really block off the whole library and so or if there's a medical emergency, obviously they call somebody, but he's still in the library building and so I think the town would potentially be maybe we should bring that up then with the town administrator. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Sorry to be like such an

I think it's good to talk about it right if we establish a policy so in the future we'd know well in advance like what is the acceptable protocol because this has been the protocol since two directors ago you know so okay thank you all right um thank you um can I just ask one question so the concert so is the concert at the library on the 20th or is it at a different location it is at the on the common on the common if it is nice weather if it is raining it will be in the community. Okay. And is that at 700 p.m. or what? 12 to one site. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Next, we have proposed meeting dates.

I just Doug, I want to mention that I noticed on the the closure schedule that I sent out for January, it should be 2027. So, not 26. Oh, yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Um I just reviewed the dates. I think they kind of align with what we're doing this year. So, um I'm I'm okay with these current dates and I'm ready to make a a motion. Are we talking about the meetings for us or the closure of the last meetings for us? Yep. So, yeah, I mean they're basically all the third Wednesday, right? Yes. Or fourth Wednesday, I mean, except for the um move movement of uh November December,

right? The week before. So, um, I'd like to make a motion to approve the, uh, board of library trustees meeting dates for the calendar year, uh, 2026. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? I have a quick discussion item. Um, the April meeting is the fourth one, but it also files on April break, and I That's what I was going to say as well. This year, we had some questions like people had conflict, so I don't know if we want to move it to the third. Yeah, I mean it's it is school vacation break so I don't know if that

I think we met we ended up meeting successfully and um but you're right I mean it might be difficult to have a quorum but um we generally I mean we have seven people a few of us have kids in school I think but um yeah I'm typically I'm typically gone yeah you are usually gone even though I don't have a kid in school but I have a teacher wife in school wife and teacher whatever I I can say that I'll I'll be planning on being away as well. Yeah. I if we could adjust it, I would prefer that because um you know, my daughter only has two years left in high school. So, Sure. Do we want to just push it to the April 29th? Yeah, that would be great. Yeah, if we could do that.

How many? Wait, 22nd. Is that the third? April 29th. 8th. Would that be the fifth? So, do we want to meet the third Wednesday? Everyone works either before or after. I don't want to meet on tax day. But so the 15th or the 29th. I'm okay with the 29th. Okay. Yeah. Um All right. So motion made and amended to change April 22nd 29th.

I had one other question for discussion. Uh the May 27th date. I remember when I started that there was concern about the the meeting date being too close to the actual date of like the election and I'm assuming that this is late enough but I couldn't instantly find the 2026. It definitely is later because May elections are the beginning of the month. They're usually the first or second week because I was the 23rd is when I actually got sworn in. Sworn in and I think the results were on the 22nd or something. So, it was it was it was on the Anyway, I I assume this is late enough, but it might just be something we want to check. I I would be okay approving this and then we can make an adjustment as needed. Okay. Any other discussion? All right. Um by roll call.

I Rachel I. Roger. I Doug I. Carrie I. Aaron I. Chris I. I declare the motion carried. Uh library draft closure schedule. Um I didn't check the making sure that the days and the dates matched, but they looked like it's just mimics last year's. Yeah. And the 16th um that professional development day is the week before the April school vacation week, so that's okay.

Okay. Um Kim, do you have some context on on how this was kind of put together? Is it kind of like Doug said, uh we looked at what was done previously, so Exactly. Right. No big changes. with the exception of that last one should be 27. Yeah, she's gonna work. So, so I think sometimes there's, you know, questions about, well, it's a long weekend. We should close the library on Saturday, you know, um for for the staff.

Um and sometimes they they like that and they've requested that of the library board where um they would close the library without pay to have the long weekend. Um, that hasn't come up in a while, but I do remember it came up quite often. I don't know if anybody else recalls. No, we we have I know that I I would guess that was around Thanksgiving or Christmas. The Labor Day one is unpaid. Yeah. So, I can't um I can't comment to what those were, but but the the staff have seen this. Yes, I had a couple people look at it and I pretty much put the unpaid where it was for the previous year. Okay, great. And the union was good with it, too.

I don't know if the union has to look at that. Union's fine. Okay. Just have to check the contract that it's not a conflict of anything, but Okay. I can take a look at it. Who was in the meeting? All right. Do I have a motion? I will make a motion to accept the uh Grafton Public Library 2026 closing dates with the um amending of the date for Friday, January 1st should be 2027 for New Year's Day. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any other discussion? Hearing none by roll call. I. Rachel I. Roger I. Doug I.

Carrie I. Aaron I.

Chris I. I declare the motion carried. Um, thank you. We have like a minute for nine o'clock. Um, public input. We do have public. Any welcome. Thank you for coming and joining our two hours of fun. Um, any Do you have any comments or questions or no? Great. Um, we have next meetings. I think we already mentioned the friends. Um, are we going to do are you going to do the policy subcommittee on September 3rd? Um, I I'll reach out to Kim um to try to and probably to try to figure out a date because my schedule is very packed tight in September. Okay.

Um, in addition, I won't be at the next trustee meeting because I'm taking a class. Um, and I have to meet at 7 o'clock every Wednesday for the next um, I don't know, eight weeks or so. Okay. Um, so I don't know if that means we'll have to pause some of the policy um discussions, but if and even put some of the policies on the agenda. Um, I don't know. I'll have to work that out maybe with with you, Doug. Yeah, we'll have to talk about what we want on the agenda if I'm not going to be here. Or maybe I can get a pass for my class for that night. Yeah. Or probably Yeah, that would be great if somebody else could or Rachel, one of us can do it.

Yeah. because any any policies that I'm putting in front of the committee anyways, I've already I'm gonna approve them right now. So, you got my vote if I'm not even if I'm not here. So, okay. Yeah. Great. Um I guess I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move. Second. Motion made and seconded by roll call. Rachel I. Roger I. Doug I. Carrie I. Aaron I. Chris I. I declare the motion carried. Um, and we are adjourned as of 9:01 p.m. Exactly 2 hours. Yes. I I know we didn't get