Leach Library Trustees - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening. I would like to call this meeting to order. This is a regular meeting of the Leach Library Board of Trustees being held on Thursday, June 4th at 7 o'clock in the Moose Hill Council Chambers at the Londonderry Town Hall, 268B Mammoth Road, Londonderry, New Hampshire. And the meeting will be recorded for later viewing on Londonderry NH Government Access YouTube channel. Let's start with the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Sorry, Beth.

I'm encroaching you over there. As is holding with our recent traditions, we're going to read the mission statement, and the Leach Library's mission is to provide materials, information, and services for the community residents of all ages to meet their personal, educational, and recreational needs. We do have a consent agenda this evening. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the minutes, and are there any changes to the minutes that anyone would like to make? None. Okay. Then we would like to move on to some meetings we'd like you to know about. We will have a meeting, a special meeting on Thursday, June 25th in the Moose Hill Chambers right here in the Londonderry Town Hall. We will have a regular meeting on Thursday, July 9th right here in the Moose Hill Council Chambers, Londonderry. We will have a special meeting on Wednesday, July 22nd, Moose Hill Council Chambers, Londonderry. We will have a regular meeting on Thursday, August 6th, Moose Hill Chambers here in Londonderry. Could I please have a motion for the consent agenda? I move to accept the consent agenda. That was a motion by Erica, second by... Second. Second by Vice Chair Beth. All those in favor, is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Abstentions? Opposed?

I abstain from the minutes, but the rest of it I vote no.

Okay. And I'm a nay. You're a nay. Okay. So we have one abstention, one nay, and five ayes. Is that right? Very good. Thank you. Okay. Public comment. We'll move on to public comment. Is there anybody here from the public that would like to make a comment this evening? seeing none we will move on to staff reports and we will start with you miss donna anything from your side of the world yes i'm going to skip over stuff related to the building update because um that will come later on yep

But I do have some other items. So building update, I'm going to focus on the building projects. So the building items that are not related to that are the couple of maintenance issues that I had emailed the board about. So one of them involved a radiator leak. on also the north side of the building in the other window alcove that's closest to the study room. The leak was found by REARC. It was repaired by E&E the same day. ServPro also responded to dry out the area. And we also filed a new insurance claim. Thankfully, the drywall does look like it was salvageable, so it dried out, so we don't have to replace that. And the painting hadn't happened yet, so that was good. The damage is mainly limited to some furniture, so it's going to be a smaller claim than the first freeze. But E&E does believe that it was caused by a freeze that happened over the winter but didn't burst the pipe. And then when the weather got nicer, the pipe kind of contracted from the melting of that and started leaking. So the insurance adjuster did come out last week. and met with Megan and is interested in moving things right along for us. So it looks like it's limited to a floor table and some of the like the end cap wooden pieces of the shelves that were being stored in that area. The bottoms of them ended up sitting in water and were damaged. So that's what we're looking at for replacements.

I just have a question. So was this the first time that that section of piping was actually pressurized with water? Because I know they turned that off, that section off.

They had turned it off to repair from the freeze initially, but they had restored water to it, so it was not the first time it had water in it. All right.

Any other questions or comments by the board?

I have some more, too. Sorry. So that's that. Then there was also a water leak discovered under the kitchen sink downstairs in the break room. That does look like it was caused just from the fixtures being old and needing to be replaced. So I did call with Chair Hendricks' permission. I did consider that an urgent issue. need because it was affecting the staff having drinking water at the cooler in the kitchen. And it was hot at the time too. So the plumbing company came out, the local plumbing company came out right away, figured out what the issue was. The next day they came back to replace. So that is all taken care of. And I will say today we ended up with no water in the cooler again, so I did call the plumbing company to come back, so that is forthcoming. I'm not sure if it's related to what happened or something totally different, but we'll see.

Did he have a perspective on that, he or she?

No, not when I called, no. I think they're going to come take a look at it.

Was it E&E who repairs that?

No, this was mainline. And I will note, too, that they gave us a 15% discount, which we obviously appreciate.

Thank them graciously from the board for that. Yes. We'll take help wherever we can get it.

Exactly. FROM THE LAST MEETING WHEN YOU APPROVED THE EXPENSE FOR THE REPLACEMENT OF THE BATTERIES FOR EMERGENCY LIGHTS, JOHNSON CONTROLS DID COME TO DO THAT WORK. THEY DO NEED TO COME BACK WITH AN ELECTRICIAN TO FINISH SO THEY WERE HERE ONCE BUT NEED TO COME BACK. I will work on scheduling with them for that. The library staff were in here towards the end of May at the town benefits fair to staff a table during that event so we could share with town employees that they're able to get their library card for free and share all the ways they can benefit from having one. So that was great. We love being part of that. and ServPro has since come back to remove their equipment, confirmed everything was dry. They did end up drying the kitchen area for us too after that leak in the kitchen. The only, I think, damage down there is going to be the, they pulled the, vinyl trim when they were trying to determine if things had been water damaged. And RE-ARC actually very kindly said that they could replace it while they're doing the rest of the reading room. So we don't have to worry about that, which is great. I also wanted to share, and this is really exciting for us, that the Friends agreed to sponsor another limited time pass. This one is to Sensory Seekers. Sensory Seekers has locations in both Hudson and Concord, and they consider their space kind of like a gym for families to go and play, essentially, indoors. And I presented this to the friends with the recommendation that we really could use it right now because families are really missing the children's room space for play. So they were very gracious to sponsor this. It does cover the admission for two children, and reservations are actually available now on our system, but the first date available is June 15th. And we also will be doing kind of like a promotional program with them, and we're going to host a program there in July, so we're excited for that. Very cool. Yeah. So thank you, thank you to the friends for that opportunity.

Anybody watching at home, get on the reservation list. That place is awesome.

Yeah, it is. I've only ever been to the Concord one, but it's so clean, and they're so professional there, and it's...

Thank you very much for that.

Thank you friends.

I also wanted to share under technical services department. There are several collection maintenance projects that we're getting done while we're able to in the building. That involves really intense shelf reading in the children's room after the children's room collection was professionally cleaned. So we're making sure everything was put back the way it should have been put back. So they're working on that. We've been repackaging our adult DVD series that were originally on the shelf in single discs. And we've repackaged them into multi-disc cases so that takes up less shelf space. But it also aligns more with what most of Gmilk's does in terms of processing their DVDs. So that's exciting that we have some more shelf space in the DVD section. And we've also been working on weeding and shifting in nonfiction. And that's to prepare for those two shelves to be moved that will increase our line of sight to the back of the the main reading room. So all of that is going on at the moment. And also a reminder that we have summer hours and summer reading coming up starting on June 15th. I did want to highlight from each of the age levels an upcoming program for you. For adults, we have the Aquaba Ensemble performance. coming up on the Town Common on Saturday, June 27th at 11 a.m. We are not requiring registration for this. This is partially grant funded, partially supported by the Friends, and partially supported by the Friends of Music. So we're really excited for them to come. It's supposed to be an amazing performance. For the children's, we have We're kicking off summer reading with a visit from the Lorax. And that is from, there's going to be three sessions during the week we start summer reading on the 15th. And then for teens, actually this Friday, Megan is teaming up with the Londonderry Police Association and hosting a movie night on the Town Common. The weather is looking very nice. um we're showing national treasure to kind of go along with the 250th anniversary of the us and um lpd is planning to have a small touch a truck event there and there's we've also invited kona ice to join us so um very excited for that as well very cool yes and i believe that is it for me for that portion at least well before you move on any comments or questions by anyone on the board jian

My comment is or question I guess it is so it sounds like a lot more staff time is being spent in the building Way back when originally we talked there was talk about trying to have some way to be able to get into part of the building is that just Not doable we should have to wait till everything's ready to be able to get into the building for for programs or for actual use and

Yeah, that's correct. So I'll get to it in my building update too. But the positive news is the mold has been remediated. That part of the project is done. But now that we're moving into like the carpet replacement and the painting, there's really not a safe way to have members of the public in the building while that is also going on. So yeah, our original thoughts with like...

But you're not as concerned about the staff?

With safety?

Yeah, I mean, you know, staff being in and out of the building. So I've cleared

I checked with Nick Hodner, who, after the mold was remediated, made our masks optional. And also that RE-ARC, I've been checking in with them the whole way and making sure that there's no time frame when they want staff out of the building. There was a short time frame they did want staff out of the building while the children's room was being remediated specifically. Now that that's been remediated, that area is back open for staff, and we are coming up on a time when we won't have any access to the main reading room while the carpeting project's being done. Great. Thank you.

Yep.

Any other questions or comments before we move on?

all right you're still up all right i do i did have one other note um and i i can return to this later if you want it to be an other item um but since my i think my meeting today was listed on my meetings um i met with uh town manager yesterday with megan and jen to review our capital improvement plan submissions. He did have some great feedback for us, like we should prepare some photos to go along with our presentation. We will have We don't have it yet, but we will have a time in the fall when we actually present our projects to the CIP committee But in our talking There was a potential third project brought up by staff that I asked if we could tack on to one of the to the children's room specifically the CIP submission and he actually suggested it be a separate project altogether so I want to ask the board if you again if you want staff to kind of invest time in making a third submission so that project is to add on a children's program room to the children's room and IT'S A BIG PROJECT UM I KNOW EVEN FOR ME BRINGING IT UP IT SOUNDS OVERWHELMING CONSIDERING WHERE WE'RE AT AT THE MOMENT UM BUT TO TO THE TOWN MANAGER'S POINT IF THERE WERE EVER AN OPPORTUNITY IN THE FUTURE WHERE THERE WAS SUDDENLY FUNDING AVAILABLE GRANT WISE FOR EXAMPLE AND WE ALREADY HAD YOU KNOW THIS PROJECT SITTING ON THE BACK BURNER TO POINT TO UM that would be a great opportunity to take advantage of. Whereas if we kind of let it pass us by, we might lose out on something like that. So bringing it to you for your thoughts.

So do we have any preliminary numbers that we can ever even wrap our head around to talk about this, no?

Not yet. If you were interested in me putting this together, I would ask RE-ARC while we're working with them if they'd be willing to help us put together some numbers. But they would be, obviously, a very rough estimate. Of course. So yeah, I really have nothing to point to.

Do you have any idea of how much time it's going to cost you?

To put it together? Yes. say four or five hours would be my guess and it wouldn't be all me um I think I need I would need Megan and Jen to chip in on it too what's the pleasure of the board I think it's it's worth investigating um one note is um I hope that uh

Looking at a structural change in the children's room will also look at putting another exit in for both that room but also for that children's area because the children's area doesn't really have that second exit for the children.

It does it actually has an emergency exit right next to the restroom. You have to take stairs when you exit that door, but there is an emergency exit. But I still agree that it would be worth potentially adding another one.

A visible entrance and exit something.

Yep.

Thank you.

It seems to me like now while we've got all these very active relationships with contractors and construction companies and things like that, you're already in dialogue with people. It seems like an easy opportunity to get some quick numbers and to evaluate the scope of a project like this for CIP.

Yeah, I agree. I think it would be even more time consuming if we didn't currently have that relationship with RE-ARC. Yeah. Absolutely.

I would agree. You know, you don't ask, you don't get. And if there's an opportunity and we're caught flat-footed and we're not prepared, we could miss out on a golden opportunity. So it sounds to me like you have consensus of the board to move forward with that. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, thank you. All right. Are we ready to move on, Donna? I am ready. You ready? And we have treasurer's report tonight?

Yes. So take it away. I'm calling for this. So for the trustee account, it's $51,767.01. And then for the book account, we have $24,735.78.

Okay. Anything else? Would you repeat that number again? Sure. The book one.

The book one is $24,735.78. Thank you very much. Sorry. Did I say that? For the viewers at home. Okay.

One more time? Sure. A little louder.

Would you do the trustee account? $24,735.78. For the book account. And the trustee account was what? The trustee account was $51,767.01. Okay. Very good.

And Madam Chair, may I just clarify that those numbers were as of the end of April.

End of April, okay. So this is not what we currently have on hand.

We did not have the May statement to provide yet.

Okay, reconciled to bring to this meeting. So as of April, these were the numbers. Correct. Very good.

And for the clarification, some of those dollars that are living in the trustee account are, you know, part of donations that are earmarked already for a purpose. So it's not just an amount. Some of that amount is the trustee account, and then some of it is just like a holding spot.

Okay. Very good. Questions or comments by the board? Seeing none, let's move on to committee reports. So the bylaws committee did meet. We already reported that to you. And our next meeting is going to be June 10th, which is a Wednesday?

Yes, that is next Wednesday.

Wednesday, June 10th.

That's 6 p.m., I believe.

6 o'clock p.m., correct. Location to be determined. So if you could find a room for us and we could post that meeting, that would be great.

and the ad hoc committee financial ad hoc committee met earlier this week who's delivering that report so that meeting we had to um cancel oh okay personal matters we will be rescheduling that hopefully we're actually ahead of the curve um we on 5 13 talked about maintenance and utilities um i have been keeping nicole our liaison up to date about what we're talking about i did reach out to Justin finance to ask we had a question about are there rates for utilities to the does the town have any contracts with any of the utility companies just to get a sense of what we might be going into for 2028 he has been really slammed he emailed me to let me know he's still on it and he'll email me soon and then for 527 we talked about supplies supply and management which includes programming but supplies including toilet paper, which the library pays for individually. Every town's different, but I was surprised that the town doesn't pay for all the toilet paper. We pay for our own toilet. I don't know. These are just things that are interesting to me, because toilet paper adds up. But we will be, coming up next, we will be doing the book budget, so looking through the book lines, which I think will be a lot more fun than toilet paper. But we will be doing that. And as for the town's timeline, Donna, did you get any updates? You did send an email from Justin just kind of giving us a heads up about an upcoming process where he's going to reach out to you as department head, so if you want to speak to that.

Sure. So what I know as of right now is that our original thought with having to have the budget done by the end of July is not the case anymore. There has been a delay because of town council delaying some decisions. So I know it's not the end of July. I do not know what the new time frame is. I mean, I would guess at the very least by July, first thing in september but i don't know if they're just delaying until sometime in august instead yeah um so we i don't know that we'll know that until we have an updated um budget season calendar yeah yeah and then to speak on the trustee account with donations we have been trying to find different examples um

Charitable Trust had an Excel sheet example for us, but included more than we do. There are some libraries that did send their trustee Excel sheets. Again, not quite what we're looking for. I know, Erica, you'll probably speak more to the NHTLA meeting, but she did mention that there is a software called Little Green Light that we're looking into, which is library-specific, because we kind of, We need help with tracking because we're still even just trying to find the right software, try to find the right Excel sheet to start doing the work because there are donations that there's no, it hasn't been marked as used. and so we're trying to go back we also still have the situation where at some point we're going to have to talk to citizens to try to figure out how we can resolve the missing deposit slips from previous boards they really can't go back and recreate that so none of the current signatures are associated with citizens and so this is something that maybe you and i will need to talk to the town about to then talk to citizens because when we're audited to be able to say we did our due diligence with these deposit slips I mean all of this could have been avoided if we had just brought the deposit slips back to the library but now we're gonna be doing the hard work to get that done

Can I ask a couple questions? So is our bank procedure tightening up? Are you getting deposit slips in a timely manner?

Yeah. When we worked through the sheet of what the treasurer does and what the staff does, we were able to make that once again more clear and less muddy.

Okay. So we're improving. Yes. Okay. Very good. Any questions for the financial ad hoc committee by the board? Seeing none, thank you very much for that report. Thank you for that work. And again, thank you, Colleen. Thank you, Donna. All right, moving on to presentations and discussions. Building update. You're up again.

Up again. I want to apologize because the computer is not cooperating with me. I had everything ready to go, and now it's decided it's done with me.

I'm not saying you're having technical issues.

That was a nice day.

I don't know. So for anyone who wants to look at it at home or for anyone in the audience, everything's linked on the agenda from the website, just so that you're aware, since I'm not able to bring them up in front of us. So updates for the building. The first part is related to current phase one and the insurance scope. um i did mention there was an insurance claim submitted for our most recent radiator leak in may um and let you know what was damaged and um that the what we were considering the emergency repair for the kitchen um downstairs um was taken care of with a 15 discount the total was one thousand seven dollars and 22 cents um from The plumbing company, and like I said, RE-ARC agreed to replace the vinyl trim for us. Remediation work is complete. Most of the drywall repair is done with the exception of the work on the ceiling and the entryway because they still are trying to determine the cause of all of that leaking. The painting just started. Actually, Megan was over at the library today and sent me a picture of our new blue wall in the teen area. They painted that first, and it looks really, really good. I'm so excited, and she is very excited. The carpet is expected to be delivered in about two to three weeks, and they're currently working on a plan for phasing that work, and we are helping with a more specific moving plan for how things are going to be put back. They're still working on timing related to getting the building retested for mold. I'm not sure if it's going to happen right before the carpet's replaced or if it's going to happen after the carpet's replaced yet. We're getting feedback from Indoor Doctor on what they would recommend. And we're going to go from there. And then they're also working on scheduling carpet cleaning. Same thing there. That could be before or after. the piece that's being replaced. So everything that isn't being replaced is what's being cleaned. RE-ARC is also working to schedule another water test on the roof with the envelope consultant. This one will actually involve a scan of the roof afterwards so that they can see if any of the building material under the roof got wet after the test, which would show that there was a leak. So that is very weather dependent, so that's why it's taking a little bit of time to make sure they have the right window when it comes to the weather. But that is still going to be happening and then for phase two I'll be presenting again to Town Council on Monday June 15th I'm currently working on preparing documentation for that It's looking like I might give Town Council a essentially two different looks at options for funding. Not so much options for funding, but timing of when certain scope items can happen so that we can maybe break it up between fiscal years, but it will ultimately be council's decision there. But that is forthcoming. I do have a question for the board related to... the electric work. So before the building reopens, I'd really like to have the electrician come in and make sure we've replaced all the bulbs that are out and do that kind of work. There's some, like, some of our globe lights that are hanging definitely need clean-outs because they have, like, bugs in them. And we definitely want that looking nice for our grand reopening. So RE-ARC told me that timing-wise, it would be ideal if we can schedule them in the next two weeks. However, because of our budget situation, I wanted to pose it to you if you'd rather wait and get this done in the next fiscal year, which would mean that I have to schedule it sometime right before grand reopening. So just posing that. TO YOU ALL. JUST TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF WHAT THAT COST, WE LAST HAD THEM HERE IN OCTOBER. I ESTIMATE THAT THIS TIME AROUND WITH HOW LONG IT'S BEEN, WE'D SPEND IN THE RANGE OF 2500.

DOES THIS INCLUDE THE MOVING THE LIGHTS AND STUFF IN THE CHILDREN'S ROOM WANTED TO BE DONE OR HAS THAT ALREADY BEEN DONE?

NO, ACTUALLY THAT WAS REVOKED, THAT DECISION WAS REVOKED BY THE BOARD AFTER RECOMMENDATION FROM THE TOWN MANAGER.

Any other questions? I'm assuming you'd like a little discussion about this, yes? Yeah. Okay. That's an estimate that you have of $2,500?

I would even call it a guesstimate for me based on the calling was very kind to look up for me the last, I think, four visits that we've had from them. And there's really been a range in cost. It depended a lot on whether they'd been at the library more than once that year. And so they have been. here in the same fiscal year. So because of that, I didn't think it'd be the highest amount. So I estimated somewhere between. So the highest was in the range of like 43, 4,400 if we had them once a year. And then when we had them multiple times a year, we were looking at in the range of like 12 to 1,500 a visit. So I think that we're probably looking at a little higher than that just because they don't always do the cleaning of the globe lights for us. So I'm just guesstimating a little higher.

Okay, so what is your absolute last date that you can contact them?

If we want it done in the next two weeks, I would probably need to do it as soon as possible. They are great about scheduling usually within two weeks, but... I wouldn't push my luck too much, more than after tomorrow.

The two-week time frame is because it's the easiest for them? I know you sort of mentioned it, but what's the advantage for two weeks?

Yes, the two-week time frame is coming from RE-ARC because otherwise they will be in the way of the carpet replacement.

Okay, thank you. I was going to say, I know you mentioned it.

I think they've got to have things that go up and down, right? Yes. Scaffolding or whatever. Yeah. So it looks like there are some places in our budget that are significantly below where they necessarily would have to be, like the office supplies supplies is only at 44%. that that would be an area and that's got a couple of thousand dollars in it so we could actually fund it through that without going over our budget numbers

May I chime in on that? So I did have a meeting with finance today related to funding phase two. And they are looking very closely at our budget to see whatever will be remaining to go towards the work of the building. So just want to make you aware of that. I mean, I think you already are aware of that. So will they be encumbering the funds then? Yes, the funds for the existing projects are going to be added. There is a purchase order already created. It just isn't encumbered in that budget that you're looking at in front of you. But it will be.

But they're going to encumber also the phase two or whatever the next part.

So phase two funding is going to depend a lot on what's remaining in the operating budget as a whole for the town. And that's what town council is going to be reviewing when I present on the 15th. I do think it's going to end up being a combination of potentially operating budget funds and emergency maintenance trust funds. So for sure the library budget will not have anything. We won't have anything left after this phase.

It'll be all gone. Yeah. A white glove. Yeah, exactly. Exactly right.

I estimated for him that I think looking at the budget now, I think there's about 80 to 100,000 to put towards the work that's happening right now. But obviously that depends a lot on June expenses. So, yeah.

Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion that we fund the electrical work to be done in the next two weeks so that it can be done before the carpeting comes in.

That's a motion to move for funding by Jan. Is there a second?

Second.

Second by Erica. So just for discussion, we don't need to affix a dollar figure to this?

It's hard to. Because I feel like we're giving you carte blanche.

And we do up to $5,000.

Can we? Yes, we can. You don't think it's going to be that?

I don't. What's hard is that when they're, I mean, I can tell them there's a budget. I just, I have no control over them when it comes to them actually invoicing us.

Oh, no, I understand. But in the interest of, you know, being mindful, I don't think that that's a bad idea. And if it looks like it's going to be grossly more than that, I would think that you would come to us. Yep. OK. Do you want to amend? Yes.

So I make a motion that we do the electrical work in the amount of up to $5,000 to be done in the next two weeks. Good.

Is there? Let's see. That's an amendment. Second on? Second. OK. Second by Erica. Any more discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? That motion passes. OK. Very good. Thank you for that, Donna.

Was that 7-0?

Yes. 7-0, was it not? Yes, it was. OK. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. That's all I have for building update.

All right. Very good. Thank you for that. Takeaways from the NHLTA conference. Who would like to lead that?

So I went to, Jan and I were both at the NHLTA conference. There were a whole bunch of sessions that were available. I got to go to one that was presented by our own Hannah DeVoe, or co-presented by our own Hannah DeVoe Contract employees versus like working with Employees who are not considered. Well, I don't have the notes my notes with me. So my brain is not remembering the exact terms but it was a really interesting session on employee rights and Employer rights and navigating a lot of those dynamics when you're working in a library and working in a small town and working in on a board of trustees the I don't remember off the top of my head, the second session I went to and the third session I went to, and Jan was in there as well, or no, the second session was on raising huge amounts of capital in a small town for a big project. It was a case study on the Mount Vernon Library, which... It was like a 40-year project, but in the last 10 years went from being, you know, tiny things to huge. Nothing too substantial. Which is where I learned about, like, the little green light.

Little green light, yeah.

Yeah, that was where that came up, and that sounded like a really cool tool. So looking into that has been fascinating just from a convenience and what it could offer us standpoint and the amount of staff time it could save. clarity could provide and then the third session I was really sad I had to leave early because their their information said that it was that the conference ended at 2 30 and it actually ended at like 3 15 and I had to leave to get my kids off the bus but it was it was a an update on all the legislation out of Concord and what's happening and not happening with libraries and some of the delightful processes that have been happening there. So I had to leave after about five minutes. I didn't get to hear nearly as much as I wanted to, but yeah, it was a, it was a good day and,

I spent instead of going to the 3rd one I spent time talking additional time talking to the Mount Vernon people about how they got started more detailed than just you know kind of getting the ball rolling kind of things what were the you know the takeaways that they began with and you know the I was talking to I can't remember her name sandy i think but i'm not the person who actually was the consultant that helped them and um who lives in montvernon so um but uh she um you know gave me gave me some ideas about well you know the first thing or calling and getting your group together and that kind of thing and talking about you know cluing in your other groups and things like that so it was very good i thought i found it was um kind of filled in some of the pieces that you didn't quite get when they were trying to present the whole thing quickly. So one of the things I thought was particularly good was they did a naming thing. So you could name the desk or name the microphone. So the staff went through and figured out what the naming would cost, and then people could name that and then there would be a thing over here that would say these things are named by but that gave people a buy in that they now were part of it and they had like 20 or 30 things that people could name and that was just one of the things and I thought well gee that would be kind of fun you know they could name the chairs in the children's room and they could name Oscar's little cage and you know there could be different things that organizations or families could name so I thought that was some good ideas to begin with. That is a good idea.

It did seem like their project benefited tremendously from having a professional consultant on it.

Yes, it definitely did.

Yeah, and so that was because it sounded like a lot of the fundraising ideas and options that they had were the kinds of things that people think of and can engage with, but that having a consultant to say, you know, we need to focus on branding here. We're going to bring in the software to identify the really – High-rolling donors who can give you know tens of thousands of dollars at the drop of a hat You know that and like to coach them on how to approach those donors and things like that. So if we're looking at significant You know significant projects like that in the future.

I think that would probably be something we would need to consider well and and actually with if you're talking about the possibility of adding a program room and to the children's room, I mean, that's going to be substantial money, but you're already going to go through some of the fund, looking at what it might cost down the road. So if something like that was then a, well, maybe we could do something along that line. The other thing was they talked about, and I think this was in the discussions afterwards, sometimes there's people that have not been asked to donate, that they're waiting to be asked. And that's something to think about is some people just need to be asked. And sometimes they need to be asked several times. But sometimes they feel like they've never been asked. So they found like several hundred thousand dollars was donated because this person or that person felt like they hadn't been asked. And when they finally asked them, they were like, oh, I was waiting for this.

gee so thank you for that any other comments no if not we're going to move on to purchasing policy draft and who is presenting that do you want to again if you like i'm i was gonna say i've got it linked right here i can open the link i cannot project the link what uh sorry

wants to project it sorry i don't think we can i that's what i'm saying i don't think i can project it do you want do you want to discuss it or do you want me to or um sorry my brain is a little bit fried i'm happy to do it do you want to do that yeah i don't mind doing it all right so um as part of meeting the financial ad hoc committee was um developing a purchasing policy that has um we've started based on, we looked at what does the town have, what do other libraries have, what do libraries in big cities have, what do libraries in small places have, and how does that look? And so what we wound up doing was basing ours off of My brain does not remember. After the Brookline Public Library's purchasing policy, so something that was appropriately sized and sort of scaled for what our library would like to do, and we modified it to sort of address it to fit what we have been doing and what seems to be reasonable to continue with in the future. So making purchases, we put the purchasing cap without the approval of the Board of Trustees for the library director at 1500 because that's sort of the the way the informally the way it's been Going that that's how communication has sort of worked with with the board and the director in the past We sort of spelled out like what would need written quotes or a sealed bid like what we're looking at in terms of dollar amounts for that We started exploring what would be exempt from from those dollar limits like for example the emergency purchase emergency expenditure for the plumbing for example and also clarifying, we wanted to include language clarifying, like emergency procurements and also ethics in how purchasing is made, so looking at, you know, the personal relationship between a staff member or a trustee and the potential agent or contractors or entities from whom we're making purchases. We sort of outlined what we would like to have happen in the event of the discovery of a potential conflict of interest. And then the final thing we wanted to do was spell out the disposal of property or disposition of property that the library no longer needs for one reason or another, that it's something that's obsolete or that is no longer useful or safe to use, even though it may look like it's completely fine, but for reasons based on the fact that... substantial numbers of public figures and people sit on And your brain's right. I'm not sure mine's any better. Spelling out, spelling out, um, and making it very clear for the board, for the, for the staff, and also for the public to understand that the library staff know what they're doing. And there are times when it is appropriate to get rid of materials at the library and that we have endowed them with the, um, the authority to do, or, you know, that we trust them to do that. We were endowing them with that to spelling that out more clearly too.

So, Madam Chair, in talking, as they're talking about the disposal of property, I had discussions a long time back with the town manager, and he talked about the fact that there should be some kind of a form that just documents, you know, here's the... This table has only three legs, and we need to get rid of it. Here's the approximate value of what the table is, and we got rid of it on this date, and this person did it, and it's signed off on so that as you get rid of stuff, there's a tracking of what has been gotten rid of. So if someone says, what happened to that blue table? You can say, right here, we got rid of it because of this. Just a thought.

in our meeting we discussed um that that things that were discarded would go through the director so that there would be somebody to answer for the occasion where something might need to be disposed of um and you know certainly if it's an expensive item then I would imagine the director would take note of that um they note everything that they do and all the meetings that they have um but yeah we wanted to make sure that um we're creating like a mechanism where where people could safely get rid of things without fear of retribution later. So I'm just kind of authorizing the director to recognize when something needs to be... Well, what I wasn't saying was for retribution.

What I'm saying is just for record keeping that, you know, it's kind of like an internal control thing so that you've got a paper trail or an electronic trail of what was disposed of when, just so that you know... that the following things got tossed. And that that's, I think it's an important piece that we say to the members of the community that we also, besides respecting the staff for them deciding what needs to get rid of, that we also appreciate the fact that town funds have gone in to purchase this. So we're just keeping a record so that if anybody asks, There'll be a record either electronically or in paper form that tracks it.

I think in discussion when we had that meeting, so few things are discarded that it's really not an issue. Very few things are ever discarded. They use every valued resource until it's last.

Well, I think there'll be things discarded. based on the most recent leak and we've replaced some of the furniture and stuff.

Anything affected by a leak was documented and taken care of with insurance. We would never throw something away if we could, in fact, recuperate money from it to replace an item. That would just not be good management.

So I'm going to ask a question. So historically, how has the library handled that?

The library director has had the authority to handle anything discarded.

So when we're audited, do we have to account for that anywhere?

Not to my knowledge, no. um i can add a little bit on the town i can add some more information from the town and town manager mulholland is putting in place a form as jan mentioned for department heads to use to document the things that are discarded and i can if that's something the board is interested in us also adopting i can bring the town's example TO BOARD MEETING FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. I DON'T KNOW FOR CERTAIN IF IT'S IN ITS FINAL STAGES AND IS CURRENTLY IN USE OR IF IT WAS STILL LIKE DRAFT FORM. I DON'T REMEMBER OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD, BUT I CAN GET MORE INFORMATION ON THAT.

SO THIS IS MY PERSPECTIVE. I think more information is better than less. So let's get some information and we'll send it to the purchasing committee. Perhaps they can come up with some language and then the board can vote on it. And it's either yes or no. We'll vote it up or down. It'll be yes or no.

Okay.

And I just want to note, too, it does say it in here as well, but this would not apply to the collection materials because that already has its own policy. And we do track what's discarded just in terms of numbers.

Yeah, clarification for the public that collection materials are not included in this purchasing policy. Anything that is brought in, anything that is being taken out of the collection for some Governed by a completely separate policy that the library staff manage and documented through the staff and by collection We're talking about the books DVDs library of things all of that anything that circulates essentially.

Thank you Okay, very good any other questions or comments? And my question is did you all set a meeting date for the next time you're going to gather or not?

Yes our next meeting we were I have it on my phone. Yeah, it's in the next couple of weeks. We scheduled the next two, in fact.

Oh, good.

Sorry, I'll take a second. I can dig up my phone. The 24th.

So June 24th.

And July 8th.

And July 8th.

And then we scheduled further out July 15th. Yep. I think that's as far as we got. Yeah.

For the purchasing. Okay.

All right. So, Madam Chair, just to be clear, this is going back to committee for considering that town form?

Yes. Okay. Well, and they're not done with their work yet either, so. All right, very good. Well, we knew it was going to be a big job, and thank you for digging into that. Any other questions or comments before we move on to the budget? Seeing none, Donna, you're up again. All right.

So again, I apologize I can't bring this up on the screen. But do you need this? Nope, I have just what was attached to the agenda. So fiscal year 27 budget. We will begin using the budget as of July 1. And there are a couple of things for the board to revisit in terms of making some decisions. So I had written two memos to kind of give context to that. and some background information on what previously had been discussed. I do have some new information to give you regarding the new budget lines and potentially moving funds into them. I did, while meeting with Finance Today, I did speak to them about a process for that. Really would suggest it would be easiest not to do that for fiscal year 27, mainly because they really weren't totally familiar with the process because it's done so infrequently in Londonderry, but they believe it would involve going to council to request it and having a public hearing. Really? Yeah.

To move the money within the lines? Yes. Even though we're a bottom line budget?

Yes. Okay. Supposedly that's why we ended up having to put them on the budget, on the sheet for 26, was so that we could implement it in 27.

Right. And that was my understanding as well. That's why I brought it up to them. And I figured that was also your kind of expectation that we'd be able to do that. There is, if you're interested, there is still a path forward to do that. It's just, like I said, it's going to involve more work than I think any of us were intending for it to. So what we could do instead is for FY27, those lines would remain unused, essentially. We would continue using what we had been last fiscal year, for example. And then as we're building for FY28, we can actually put funds in those lines. during the budget process which the ad hoc committee is already seeing us like considering funds to put in those lines that might be the best way forward unless you really want to move forward with involving the council and potentially doing a public hearing

Well, you know, I don't know that a public hearing has to happen, but we could perhaps investigate that. But I think it's really important that we decided we were going to have this division so it would be clear to the public how we were spending the money. And then we didn't do it for 2026 because they weren't quite ready to do that. But here, a year later, to not do it then, I feel like, you know. Yeah, go ahead.

I think the part that I'm sticking on is less about whether we keep that money, those lines at zero or not, because I think what I, my understanding, and granted, I was sitting on the public side when the 27 budget was being developed and voted on. My understanding was that the creation of those lines at zero was to illustrate, it was to be able to break down those lines more clearly when it became possible. that we understand that from my understanding and it seems like everybody's understanding that was that we would just be able to do that in you know as at will because it's bottom line but it seems like that's not the case in which case i don't see it as being misleading or um you know in any way being less clear to the public to leave them at zero when we're when we're trying to be What we're trying to develop is a budget that very clearly develops or illustrates how those items are being used So if what we're saying is hey, we've got these lines and then in the next budget You'll see how we're putting that money into those lines. I don't think that undermines the purpose at all. I think it's just Irritating that what seems like a very straightforward We can show right away with our budget is turning into it's a multi-year process to show what we're trying to show right now

And my concern also is that, you know, do we get to the end of 27 and we're making the 28 budget and suddenly, you know, we can't do it then either. But for this year, for this year we actually had the numbers separated out and then we put them back in, so at least we had documentation of here's how much money came out of those lines. And I would like, I would hope that at least we could do that part so that we're clear that here's the program numbers and here's the G-milks number so that if somebody comes up and says, so how much did you spend on G-milks? Instead of us having to say, it's over here somewhere, we could say, this is the number.

That's what the part of what we're doing is at the financial ad hoc committee is we are We're you know each of these line items we're taking down and we're taking you know, we've got Oh the book line is not going to be these five lines Okay, we're breaking it out this way So the total so it's so that what we're going to be presenting as the draft Fiscal year 28 budget for all of us to look at and then to you know move forward with the town and all that will have all those items broken out and everything so Really, the gap between what we're using right now and what we're presenting to the public as what we're going to be using is very small time-wise. Already, that's the conversation that's being recorded and being had is what are these numbers and what are these expectances?

So if it means one more meeting with the town council or whatever, I mean, it's another meeting with the town council, even if it means a public hearing. It's a public hearing, and how many people are going to come to discuss it? But I think that it's really important to do it.

I think that's my concern, is that it's short notice, it's approaching summertime, a public hearing for who? You know, like six people? I don't know that we're really... gathering the public and getting public feedback if we have such a small attendance.

It's true, but at least if that's what's required, I'm not even sure a public hearing is required. But it was suggested. We did what we did based on the budget committee's recommendation for this year.

Everything's really transparent on, you know, the numbers and what we're doing. I think it's just less transparent if we're talking to a room of six people. It's summertime. I just don't think we're going to get people paying attention at this hour.

MAY I ADD SOMETHING ELSE? SO ANOTHER OPTION I ASKED FINANCE ABOUT WAS, OKAY, WHAT IF WE LEAVE THE FUNDS WHERE THEY ARE IN THE FY27 BUDGET, BUT WE ACTUALLY SPEND MONEY OUT OF THOSE ZEROED OUTLINES SO THAT THE PUBLIC CAN STILL SEE, OKAY, THAT AMOUNT WAS SPENT FOR ADULT PROGRAMMING, FOR EXAMPLE. THAT IS A POSSIBILITY, HOWEVER, A POTENTIAL RISK THERE IS JUST, I GUESS, BEING ABLE TO SPEAK TO IT LATER BECAUSE YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A BUDGET LINE THAT LOOKS LIKE YOU BARELY TOUCHED IT, MANAGEMENT SERVICES, AND THEN YOU HAVE THESE OTHER BUDGET LINES THAT WEREN'T FUNDED THAT YOU OVER EXPENDED. Yeah, so it is an option if you decide that's the way forward, but there is a con. My personal suggestion is if you don't want to move forward, and I can investigate further on getting a final answer as to what it would actually take for you to move the funds. I can get some clarification where it was... FOR AN EARLY CONVERSATION JUST TODAY ABOUT WHAT IT PROBABLY WOULD TAKE, BUT THEY WEREN'T CERTAIN. BUT IF WE STICK WITH USING MANAGEMENT SERVICES WITH THE FUNDS THAT ARE IN THERE RIGHT NOW, MY SUGGESTION WOULD BE FOR THE BOARD TO VOTE TO SET A BUDGET FOR EACH ADULT PROGRAMS, TEEN PROGRAMS. WITH THE AMOUNTS THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY DISCUSSED SO THAT WHAT THAT CHANGES IS INSTEAD OF ME BRINGING YOU A FUNDING REQUEST FOR EVERY PROGRAM CYCLE, THEY ALREADY HAVE A BUDGET TO WORK WITH AND THEN I WOULD ONLY BE COMING TO YOU IF WE HAD AN EXPENSE OUTSIDE OF THAT ESSENTIALLY. which I think is also what would happen once we break the lines down. So I think that could still make it clear to the public where you have a documented vote on the budget for each of them, but it would still live in management services for fiscal year 27. And then 28, we'd actually be able to break it out. That actually sounds more sensible to me.

Yeah, that sounds really good.

So that applies to management services. There are two other scenarios where we had the line for consortiums that was just the gmilks dues, and then we had the line for electronic books and databases. You could still do the same thing there. The challenge is that I don't know for certain yet what the gmilks dues are. So if they are higher than the amount we're giving, then I have to come back to you for another vote. um which is fine if you do want to do that and then for ebooks as well this is an estimate we'd have to do the same thing i'd come back to you if we spend more than that amount well this is just information that we're gathering we don't have to vote on this tonight so what's the board's pleasure move forward the way we are yeah i i would rather not have to go to town council and pursue that process when it seems like we have in-house options that are appropriate Do you want me to get a final answer that that would be the case? Sure.

I would think getting the final, you know, this is exactly, and who's saying it? Because it seems like it shifts depending upon who you talk to. At least I noticed that before.

Okay. Then I vote for getting more information. Yep. And we'll bring it back. our next meeting under presentations and discussions so that we can you know have a full picture of what we're dealing with and then we will put it on a future agenda for a vote does that sound fair that sounds fair to me very good do you have any other news for us or info from us under I have the second memo but before that I just want to know I would just appreciate that that

being resolved by your first meeting in July so that we have a clear how we're spending. Yes, ma'am. We're on it. Perfect. Thank you. And second memo I need to look at.

Wait a minute, Donna. Will we be able to? Where's my agenda? We have one more. We have one more? Full board meeting. Okay. So we can put it back under presentations and discussions and we'll vote on it for the first meeting in July. Okay. Yes. Be prepared to vote. Be prepared to vote. That's right. Okay. Okay.

OK. Yes, ma'am. So the other one, sorry, I have to look it on my tablet, was related to the amount, the $51,000 that was removed from the budget for FY27. There wasn't really a final decision from the board on what services would be impacted by that cut. So just to revisit where we last were, Erin had proposed the cut back in December effect, specifically removing the budgeted administration time. That would be from the regular salaries line. THAT WE WOULD REMOVE SOME MONEY FROM CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING, ANTICIPATING THAT WE WOULD NOT HIRE A PART-TIME CHILDREN'S LIBRARIAN. WE WOULD NOT DO A LIMITED TIME MUSEUM PASS FOR 2027 OR WE WOULD ASK THE FRIENDS IF THEY WOULD LIKE TO DO THAT INSTEAD. WE WOULD ELIMINATE THE HOOPLA SERVICE AS OF FEBRUARY 2027. WE WOULD NOT ADD A DATABASE THAT WE HAD INCLUDED IN THE ORIGINAL BUDGET ASK CALLED COMICS PLUS, AND WE WOULD NOT HIRE A PART-TIME CHILDREN'S LIBRARIAN. I DID INCLUDE WHERE THE MONEY CAME FROM IN THE BUDGET, SO IT WAS REMOVED FROM THE REGULAR SALARIES LINE, THE FICA BENEFITS, THE MEDICARE BENEFITS, THE RETIREMENT BENEFITS, AND THE MAJORITY OF IT WAS PULLED FROM THE BOOKS AND PERIODICALS. So, This is just under discussion for tonight, but kind of similar thing here where I would need to know your decision moving into the next fiscal year so that we can plan ahead.

And I believe Justin had suggested that we, I think Justin and the town manager, I think, I don't think I invented this conversation, had suggested that we move forward with hiring the part-time children's librarian because the voters had added that, you know, they voted for it. So rather than delaying it, because I think there was a concern that we were going to run into a problem by pushing it off any further. So they had suggested that we make a hire soon.

And you're not inventing that conversation, because I have the same conversation with Justin, and I might have shared that with you. Yeah, I think, yeah.

Yeah, well and one assumes that at some point we're gonna also have to hire a Director a director. So those I would assume those things could go out Simultaneously.

Yeah the requests in which case we'll have to figure out where $51,000 disappears

Fifty-one thousand dollars is a lot of money to come out of this budget. And you're not, this is just discussion tonight. So I'm going to suggest that all of us go back and look at this. And can you make some recommendations at our next meeting?

So this recommendation, I prepared with Erin back in December.

Yeah.

If you're saying that you need a new one considering you're going to hire the children's librarian, then it's going to be a tough dig, I will tell you. But I can prepare a recommendation.

I feel like Kate had input around it too. at one of the meetings do you want me i can always touch base with nicole and just get her yeah and and loop kate into that because i felt like during one of the public comment sections i feel like she had some suggestions yeah um yeah and because this was all still loose like we still didn't have to make a firm commitment at the time and i feel like she had some recommendations

I know that one of the discussions that came up when we were talking about the budget at the NHLTA conference was the fact that it's nice to say we're trying to play nice with the budget. But the reality is that, I mean, even just the town saying we've got a freeze, the town really can't do that. We can agree to go along with the freeze, but we as the board control with our staff, control the library budget. It's a separate entity. So if we decide that we really need to have that person We say this is why and there actually is enough money in the currently in the you know the financial line there for staff, but. So you know, I think that we that. We need to be we need to be clear that it really is the library board of trustees that sets the budget, not the town.

They then hand it to the town. No, I just want to make the point that I think the board is clear on that. And the town manager made a request because of budget constraints and how much money. The town is accommodating us for the rebuild of our library. And so we were making an in-good-faith effort.

And I say, you know, we've agreed to go along with that. And I don't have any problem with that. I'm just saying that the reality is we have to make decisions based on what the staff and the board think is the important piece.

100%. 100%.

May I ask? Yes. So something off the top of my head that I would probably consider bringing you as a recommendation would be to set a hiring range for the director position.

Okay.

That would not, it would be a smaller range than the whole like position range. Okay. So that you could tighten that up potentially and save some money. And then my other suggestion, if you were open to it, would probably be to delay hiring Hiring the part-time children's librarian for I don't know a look The fall sometime in the fall so that we could save You know the salary for the first few months of the year, etc.

I Would like to have that conversation with with Justin because you know We voted for that in March of 2024, right and And for a variety of reasons that we're not going to retry tonight, that whole hiring process for the children's librarian was sidelined. and derailed and we owe it to the voters to hire a children's librarian as soon as possible so um azar if if i mean and if it means that that you and i go talk with the town manager and justin or whatever and figure out how we make that happen then we will but i'm not at all trying to be argumentative with you um but i just think that we owe it to the voters to get that taken care of as quickly as possible i agree Okay.

So in terms of me bringing your recommendation, you're open to a director hiring range?

I am. Is the board not ahead? Is there a consensus on the board not ahead? Yes.

Are you nodding your head, Moira? I don't know that we can make that determination yet because we haven't even discussed salaries for the budget.

Well, we know that, but we're saying we can affix a range to it. Okay.

One assumes we're not going to go from the lowest point to the highest point. 100%. So we can say, oh, we're going to only go up to 50%. The range stops at this point.

So I think I'm hearing that you have consensus to bring back a hiring range. And Azra and I will be in touch with Justin, even if it's a virtual meeting. But we've got to get to the bottom of that. Because I think we owe it to the voters to do that sooner rather than later.

And there was a justification that he attached to it. So I'm just curious. I can't remember now at the time. I thought it was going to stick. But it was just like said in passing. So I just whatever that reason is, it would be good if we can nail it down. We will.

I will reach out to him and we'll get some dates. Is there a specific day you're off?

No.

Is there a specific day that's better for you?

um summer is going to be all over the place because of summer reading from my library but go ahead and just throw out some dates that work for you i'll get on them i did just want to say that right ahead uh nicole uh was our budget liaison said that if we ever need any support or if we need her to come to a meeting um that she's open to it so if just as a reminder to the board if we need her here we can ask for it

And Kate is now the chair, so she's a really terrific source, too. Yes. She's very familiar with our budget. So the two of them, we might invite the two of them at some point, if need be. Okay. All right. Anything else, Donna?

Not on the FY27 budget.

Okay. Well, that's good to know. Any other questions or comments on the budget before we move on? Okay. Very good. Moving funds to new budget lines. We sort of just talked about that. We talked about the $51,000. OK. We're moving on to deliberations and votes. There you go, Donna. You're up again. Independence Day 2026 closure.

Okay. So I bring this up because this year, July 4th, has us in a unique situation between us not being in the building and it also falling on a Saturday. So the holiday hours that the staff already get for July 4th will be for that Saturday. The library will be closed for the Saturday on the 4th. The challenge is that Town Hall, which does not operate on Saturdays, is observing the holiday on the 3rd, the Friday. And we are occupying town space at the moment. They have assured us that we do have access to the spaces we need for that day if we were to remain open. My suggestion on this is that we uh we um stay open for a half day so it'd be nine to one um the reason for that is that i think there's going to be a lot of people that assume we're closed because the town's going to be advertising that they're closed um but i also think that there's going to be patrons who know that we're open and are going to want to pick things up prior to going on holiday vacation yes So that's where my suggestion lies. I also just want to clarify that that would not mean that staff get more holiday time. They'd get the same amount of holiday time paid to them. Instead, if they were to be scheduled for the second half of the Friday, they would either work those hours another day that week or they would use their own earned time for the difference. So just to clarify on that.

Can I just ask a clarifying question? So if 4th of July is on a Saturday, not all staff work on a saturday so correct i i don't know i maybe this is a discussion for another year but at least for my library we're close the third i'm not working that saturday but we're still

closed and i know there's differences in like the money and the hours and all of that but i don't know i just so i think i might be able to help answer that so even if someone was not scheduled to work saturday they are still earning the holiday hours on saturday so so we have to pull those hours from the rest somewhere in the rest of their week um so that also creates a challenge for us to staff fridays because everyone's getting holiday hours on a day they wouldn't necessarily be working.

That's so strange to me.

That's how we do it.

Yeah. Maybe when we talk about holiday closures and things like that for next year to talk about that, I think it would be important.

It'll be union related. Oh, true. That is true. That is true.

But that may clear up some of the things, too.

Yeah. It seems like a half day Friday. I mean, it meets your staff needs and scheduling appropriately, it seems like. Yes?

I think we can make it work with half day.

Do you think that's the best fit for you and the staff as well?

I think a lot of the staff would probably ask for the whole day. I'm going to throw that out there, but I am thinking about. I have to work all day Friday. Yeah. In thinking about what I think the public would be looking for from us that day, I do think that they would be looking for at least the half day of services. So that's where my recommendation's from.

Any other questions or comments from the board?

And I think that that week following the 4th of July or including the 4th of July is a prime time that families take off. Absolutely. So as much as we can to, you know, advertise that we remember you only have, you know, a half day on Friday, so you can't come at 2 o'clock on the way out the door. Exactly.

all right sounds like we have agreement could i have a motion please i would make a motion that um we uh have the library close or run a half day on july 3rd um in order to accommodate the fourth of july holiday nine to one please nine to from nine a that'd be open from nine a.m to one p.m on friday july 3rd very good thank you that's a motion by erica who would second that i second oh i got miriam oh you got her first okay second by miriam

Any other discussion? All those in favor please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Any abstentions? Motion passes 7-0. Okay, very good. Do you want to talk about staff salary ranges? You do, okay.

Yep. So I'm bringing this to you. This is the updated salary ranges that the only change is that we are including the 3% cost of living adjustment that is in the personnel policy right now. And that would just apply to all positions that are on our chart. That's all I can really... say i did um this was actually initially created by aaron during the budget process and i went through and doubled i double checked it at that point i double checked it again so all of these figures are accurate yes okay okay very good so this is just cola just cola okay all right any discussion by the board just cola not merit or the merits in here too Merit is not reflective of the ranges because it's by individual staff member.

But merit affects the range.

Right. So the way the merit works is that a staff member say they get exceeds expectations for their annual review. They would get a 2.5% increase to either their hourly rate or if they're already at the top of their pay range, that's when they would get a lump sum payment. So that's the way the personnel policy is currently. So their salary range does not increase if they've you know, hit the max at their, for their merit pay.

Understood.

And it's those lump sum payments that was the question and concerns raised by folks.

Yep. And I believe that that will be a discussion during negotiations. Is there any other discussion, questions? If not, could I please have a motion?

I make a motion to accept the FY 2027 staff salary ranges.

Very good. That's a motion by Vice Chair Beth Morocco. Who would second that? I did. And it would be a second by Erica Lowey. Any other discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Very good. That motion passes 7-0. Okay. Moving right along to funding request. Summer reading program. T-shirts.

Yes, so this request is actually an idea of a staff member, and I think very valid suggestion that because of us doing so much outdoor programming over the summer, they would really appreciate having a second staff T-shirt so that one could be washed while the next one needs to be worn type of thing. And this one, the request specifically was that it be black instead of red. um so that is what i am bringing to you and hold on just a second you have a cost on that i do is black a great idea for if you're having an outdoor program yeah that was gonna get hot it is um what kind of material too i'm looking just cotton it's cotton haynes authentic t-shirt um yep so the the staff request was for black The total, this is the quote we just got from 4imprint. This is a total of $322.83. We did also get a quote from a more local screen printing company in Manchester, and their cost was about between $40 and $50 over this. So I brought you the less expensive, but if you would rather support the local company, then...

when we were talking about the purchasing policy we talked about um trying to buy local whenever possible when it was reasonable um I don't know if I feel like that's within our yeah yeah I agree it's local and in the that uh estimates there's a special fees of an extra 120 some is that just the setup

Yeah, the extra charge is usually for the screen print setup. We pay that for pretty much any customized product that we buy from someone.

Sorry, I was trying to look at the design. Would it just say 2026 or just like another?

No, it would be very similar to the red ones we have. So it would just have the Leach Library logo on the front and staff on the back. So it wouldn't have the year so that it's good for any time.

Colleen, do you like it?

Okay, and I'm assuming you want this to come out of the trustees account?

That would be my ask considering the budget freeze scenario, but you have the option to do town if you want.

I think that's fair. Is there any other discussion or questions? If not, could I have a motion please?

Oh, I'm sorry. Go right ahead. Donna, do you have the paperwork from the other place?

I don't. Megan was the one that got it. I don't have the exact number, but I believe it was in like 360 range. So if you're going to go with the local, I would suggest maybe saying up to 380 to be safe.

I'd like to make a motion to accept the proposal to spend up to $380 for staff t-shirts.

That is a motion by Vice Chair Beth Morocco. Who will second that?

I second.

Seconded by Treasurer Asba. Any other discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? I'm opposed because I'd rather see the paperwork before voting. Very good. That would be a 6-1 vote.

And to be clear you And from the trustee camp Got it and the local one was B's T's who I think has a storefront who is it B's T's T's, okay in Derry Manchester, they used to be in Derry. I think oh, yeah, they might I think they also have a keen. I don't know. They're all over Well, we've we've used them before they're great. Oh

Okay, very good. Moving on to acceptance of unanticipated funds under RSA202-A, colon, 4C.

All right, so I have three, well, really six, three, five tonight, five items tonight. The first three are from the Friends. I did list these because after we got clarification from the Charitable Trust Unit, it did, from my understanding of it, it seemed like museum passes should be something the board accepts as a gift. If you disagree with that, we can look at that further. But that's why that's here. So the Friends most recently have donated limited time passes to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. That was valued at $225. The Sensory Seekers Museum Pass, which I mentioned earlier in my report, that was a $675 value. and the Wright Museum of World War II, which is located in Wolfboro, and that was a value of $150. Then the other two items, one was from the New Hampshire Philharmonic Orchestra. We do have a, they've given us very generously like a discount code for our patrons that we consider a museum pass and they did donate two tickets to a concert last weekend we did because of the short notice we did have to do something with those right away so we raffled them off through Facebook and there was a very happy family that went and they actually bought more tickets after the free ones to go. So happy for that. That was a $70 value. And then Janie's donated a $25 gift card for the adult summer reading program.

And again, thank you to all of these businesses who so generously support our library, even when we're in the midst of trying times. So refresh my memory. We can vote on all of these together, correct? Correct. Could I have a motion, please?

I make a motion to accept these unanticipated funds under RSA 202-A, colon 4, hyphen C. Very good.

That is a motion by Eric Kalawi, who will second that. I will. That will be second by Vice Chair Morocco. Any other discussion?

All those in favor? Just have a discussion. On these, it would be good to have these numbers, the specific numbers, ahead of time.

They're on the agenda, which gets released before. You're just going to click the blue link. They're also just laid out here.

Very good. Any other discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Aye. Any abstentions? That motion passes 7-0. Okay, that concludes our regular business and brings us to public comment. Is there anybody lurking in the hallway?

Janitor.

The janitor. Again, a raucous crowd this evening. Very good.

Madam Chair, may I bring up one other question? Actually, no, a heads up that I'll be bringing it to a next meeting. I do anticipate that we will have tuition reimbursement requests for FY27. And I would like to discuss with the board a clear process for how you'd like that to work. And I do anticipate bringing an example like request form to the next meeting.

Tuition reimbursement. Okay. So noted. Thank you. All right. Very good. Before we move into non-public, I will reiterate that we are committed to reopening our library to meet the needs of our community, and we are committed to reestablishing the trust of our staff. Is there any other business that needs to come before this board this evening before we move into non-public? No? Moira has her hand up. Moira, yes.

This one. Dawn, are we tracking who uses the passes?

Our system tracks who uses the passes, yes.

And when are you going to be releasing those numbers?

So Megan can prepare them at any point. We usually prepare them in either the fiscal year or the calendar year. So if you're interested, I'm happy to have her add that to her report when she has them for this fiscal year.

Yeah, that'd be good. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Any other business that needs to come before this board tonight? Seeing none, could I please have a motion to move into non-public requested?

I make a motion to enter non-public session under RSA 91A, colon 3, section 2A.

That is a motion by Erica, second by Vice Chair Morocco. This is a roll call vote. Jan?

Jan McLaughlin, aye.

Moira? Moira Ryan, aye. Mary Malik, aye. Beth Radcliffe, aye. Nancy Hendricks, yes.

Erica Lowy, aye. Azra Palo, yes.

Very good. Thank you for your time. Thank you. And we'll see you at the next one.

I make a motion that we adjourn at 8.43 p.m. A motion by Erica with a second by Jeanne. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye.

All those opposed? Thank you, ladies.