Leach Library Trustees - Regular Meeting

So we are calling this meeting to order. This is a special meeting of the Leach Library Board of Trustees, which is being held on Thursday, July 9th at 7 o'clock in the Moose Hill Council Chambers at Londonderry Town Hall, 268B Mammoth Road, Londonderry, New Hampshire. And this meeting will be recorded for later viewing on the Londonderry NH Government Access YouTube channel. Let's start with the Pledge of Allegiance, please. As is becoming customary for me, I would like to read the mission for the Leach Library and the mission of the Leach Library's mission is to provide materials, information, and services for community residents of all ages to meet their personal, educational, and recreational needs. We do have a consent agenda, and I'll ask for approval. Has everybody had an opportunity to review the minutes? Okay. So I actually have heard from several of you that you are not available on Thursday, August the 6th. So I wanted to know how we felt about changing the date on that meeting, which of course is always contingent upon dates that are available. So Donna, if you can shed a little light on that.

Yes. So that week, this room is not available another weeknight, the Monday through Thursday. But I do have some availability for either the week before or the week after. Do you want me to go through the lists?

Yes, but I can't speak for the entire board, but I don't think I'm very excited about having three meetings in the month of July. So let's move into— Maybe August. Am I right? We'll move into August. I'm seeing the nod of the heads. Okay.

So there are two options for the week following in August, either Monday, August 10th, or Thursday, August 13th.

Thursdays are hard for Asra because she works.

Mm-hmm. I am unavailable August 13th. I am available August 10th.

What's the board's pleasure? August 10th?

I can do either.

10th would be fine.

Could I just ask a question? Yes. Would it be possible to make that the one meeting in August instead of having two? Instead of assuming we're going to have two?

It depends on, I mean, we have a lot of work to do, Jan. As you know, we're behind on a lot of things. We're just now getting into the hiring of the director. I would say let's schedule it based on time available, and if need be, we can always cancel it. That's what I think.

Okay. Moira, are you available in the tent? The 10th works for me as well.

Okay. Miriam, you said yes? Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. Sounds like August the 10th? 7 p.m.? Yes, please. Okay. Okay. And then what are the next dates available?

You need another one?

For August?

Oh, the one you have now is August 20th.

Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Oh, I beg your pardon. Thursday, August the 20th. You're right. It's already on the calendar. All right. So I'm going to make that adjustment on the consent agenda that August the 10th. is going to be our next meeting regular meeting okay with that said may i please have a motion for the consent agenda i make a motion to accept the consent agenda with the change of the meeting from uh yes i'm sorry sorry with the change of the meeting from um august 10th to or sorry from august 6th to monday august 10th yeah very good that's a motion by erica is there a second second second by beth although is there any discussion All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Okay. I'm opposed. I heard you. I got your hand. Very good. One opposition. Thank you. Okay. That brings us to public comment. Is there anybody here for public comment? Well, that's disappointing. OK. Let's go right into staff reports. We'll start with you, Donna. All right.

I apologize. I did not end up getting you my written report. But I do have it in front of me, and I will get it to you after the meeting. I'll also add it to the agenda so it's publicly available. As I mentioned, July is our craziest month, even on a normal basis. But with all the building stuff, it's been even more so, at least from my perspective. So I appreciate all of your patience with me in particular, but I'll say for the staff in general, too, because a lot is happening all at the same time. For announcements, and I will go into some of these a little bit again with the building update, Wanted to share that main line plumbing did have to come back because we had a leak under the, we had another leak under the kitchen sink after it was fixed. Turns out it was just a matter of a part that should have been installed as a plastic part was installed as a metal part. They made the change, no cost to us since it was their mistake. So that is officially handled. While they were there, I did ask them to look at the restroom that's kind of across from the reference desk in the main reading room because it's been some time that we've been noticing that the toilet is just flushing very slowly. We constantly have issues with that one in terms of it being blocked and we have to plunge it and so I asked them to look at it they did and highly recommended that we replace it mainly do they can tell that it's age-wise needs to be replaced but I think with so many fixes over time too they were like none of the part like some of the parts that are in it don't really belong in it and it's just a whole thing and They also recommended, because they were also looking at the children's room toilet handle, and they recommended replacing that one as well. However, the quote I'm presenting tonight is only for the one in the main reading room. My suggestion when we get there is going to be to consider there's six toilets total in the library. My suggestion is going to be to replace three of them now, the three public ones upstairs that get the most use. because we've learned especially with the toilets for some reason once one thing starts going then there's the next one because they all about the same age so that's going to be my recommendation when we get there just so you're aware the electricians were there were on site due to the vote you had to give us a budget for changing all bulbs and for cleaning the light fixtures that have collected bugs and stuff over time. So they took care of that. It was significantly under budget. You gave us $5,000. It was $2,000 something and change. That's good news. Yes, that was great. RE-ARC has been hard at work with all the vendors kind of scheduling them overlapping at once. But towards the beginning of June, they did finish installing the rental units that supplement the cooling in the building and are helping with the humidity. And the staff are definitely noticing a difference compared to what we usually experience this time of year with the humidity. So, I think they're working pretty well. There are five, no, one, two, five, I think five units.

There's four upstairs.

Four upstairs. Two demand fires downstairs. Thank you, Megan. So, they're all doing their jobs and they'll be there through the summer. They were part of the funding that we requested most recently from council for phase 2A. So, that funding will cover this summer's rental and next summer's rental. Johnson Controls was also on site. They replaced the remaining emergency light batteries that you'd previously approved expense for. While they were there, they also recommended, we have four emergency lights that are glass. that they recommend replacing with plastic, mainly because not only are they outdated because they were installed when the addition was built, but he said that going forward it's going to take two people to replace batteries in them because they're so heavy um they did bring the second person at their expense this time um but going forward they would be charging us labor for two people um so it makes more sense cost wise to replace them um i don't have a quote yet i do expect to have one possibly for the next meeting he's putting it together I also at the end of June submitted some additional paperwork for our CIP projects. That was mainly, it's like a priority worksheet to give the committee some more information about where our projects should fall with everyone in terms of priority. I also submitted all of the paperwork for our third project, which I brought up to you regarding the children's room addition for a program space. So that has also been submitted. And as I emailed you, our presentation to the CIP committee has been postponed until August 18th. Their meeting starts at 6 p.m. I'm not sure where we would fall on the agenda that night, but we will be presenting that night. If anyone would like to be there.

What was the date again? Sorry.

August 18th. I believe that's a Tuesday.

Yeah, it is.

It's the 18th, right, Donna?

Yep. I left out some of the moving and the carpet stuff that's happening. I will give you an update in the building update. But I did want to share that Over the, we had the most recent rain event. Our entryway leak did start leaking again. But honestly, it was kind of a good thing because it's been frustrating that we've had rain and it hasn't leaked and we're trying to get RE-ARC to investigate why it's happening. So it finally happened when they could be there and they brought the roofers out right away and investigated it. They traced it back to rooftop unit one, which is the big unit. It seems like Eni was on site today to actually open it up and look at it further. It does look like it's condensate drain in line related but and I didn't get a full report from him yet, but He did mention that there's more concerns than just that I just don't know the details yet, so that's coming I

So the units that we're renting for the HVAC, we are not using them for the winter?

No, we will. Am I wrong about that? I don't think they were intended to supplement heating. It was more an issue of the humidity because we knew that the rooftop units weren't doing anything for humidity.

OK. So for the winter, I don't think that they'll be needed? Well, my concern was we talked about the fact that the feeling was that the units were all in pretty bad shape. And now, again, we're having another leak from one of the really in bad shape units. I wonder why we're not just continuing to use those and going with the more energy efficient ones and using those and not have and discontinuing the use of what we currently have arrayed on the building.

So the rental units will not replace, like if we were to just turn off the rooftop units, they will not replace the work of the rooftop unit. They're only there to supplement and try to help with how they're not functioning very well. So they definitely, like for example, for the winter, they would not be enough. It would be a... bigger costs to get more units to handle a heat situation.

So I guess as a follow-up, my concern is our current vendor has not seen like they were keeping up with where we were with the units that were in poor shape. Now we're going another year with the units being in poor shape. you know, what are we going to do to prevent, what additional maintenance should we be putting into the maintenance line for additional expected repairs for our old not functioning well units going forward, assuming that we continue to have problems with them.

So we are going to talk a little bit about that under the budget. Because the committee did, we reviewed the maintenance line and considered some of that. But there's also the most recent funding. The most recent funding that went to council is for the engineering, mostly the engineering costs and our supplemental needs to make it through until we can get what will likely be a warrant article on the ballot for funding to replace the units. So I'm going to say that again under the budget. But we do know that not even just considering the HVAC situation, that we've had the same maintenance budget for I can't even tell you how many years. I'd have to look back quite a ways. SO THE RECOMMENDATION FROM THE AD HOC COMMITTEE IS GOING TO BE TO ASK FOR AN INCREASE IN THE MAINTENANCE LINE, JUST KNOWING THAT THIS IF ANYTHING IS A REALLY GOOD JUSTIFICATION FOR NEEDING TO GET TO A PLACE WHERE WE'RE MORE PROPERLY FUNDED WHEN IT COMES TO MAINTENANCE.

So if in if I may so it additionally Jan if you talk to people I know I'm sure you've talked to people as well that are familiar with the library, they will tell you that those units that we have on the top of that building now have long outlived their purpose and all of them need to be replaced. I understand that so but what I'm getting to is I mean, how are we gonna live between now and then so we're going to have to somehow some way take care of them and you know to me it will be pitiful if we invest all of this money in the library and we don't we place those units and we have trouble with them again and we're in the same boat in a year with leaks and water all over the place so in additional to in addition to Increasing the maintenance line this year. I also think that we need to start thinking about a maintenance trust fund to take care of our building because as you all know buildings cost money and this one sadly seemingly has been Neglected for quite some time and we are paying the price. So anyway, go ahead Donna. I

And there was another portion of Jan's question I did not answer regarding our current vendor. So the board currently has a contract that was voted on by the board for the current year. But I believe you would be looking at that again sometime in the fall. So if it is a request from the board for when we get to that point to look for other options, then... We can certainly do that, whether it's me or a new director or what have you.

Okay, very good. Anything else under staff reports?

Yes, go ahead. Still staying with the HVAC. So have we fixed the problem with the non-working one in the historical room?

No, there's no fixing it. It has to be replaced. It's not functional anymore.

Okay, so there's, so is there, what would be the cost to fix that, to replace that, just that?

It's on the, I'd have to look for it. CIP, would we put that in? Second one, no, first one.

No, the second, both of the second one are children, so I think I paid for the first one.

Let me I want to hold us up so I was just going to say well, I'm going to run and you can search for that how's that yeah.

I will note that it hasn't been operational thing since 2012. I know, but there's the problem is degradation of the material to things like that just to hear it and I was just making the point that it hasn't been operational, but it was put into the CIP in the place in the others at the same time.

Okay, anything else under staff reports.

Yep, there's more to mine an update from the friends The they have four members who volunteered to serve on our grand reopening committee along with some staff and Graciously also Nancy offered on behalf of the board so I'm glad we have a Group that will be focusing on planning something to celebrate our reopening. We don't have a solid date yet, but plans will be happening. I've also, just so you know, specifically asked to not be involved in that. So that I can focus on actually getting us reopened. So they can do the fun part. The friends will also be sharing a booth with us at Old Home Day. I did apply for a booth for us. And I did want to share that they do not have a meeting in July. They're meeting next in August. And then let me see what else. If I hit anything else important. I wanted to note just that ordering is currently paused due to us transitioning to a new fiscal year, as is per usual for us. The only exception for that is any books that still have to come through that fall under the insurance claim from 2024. We didn't want to pause those so that they keep coming in since we're under a deadline to get those in and paid for. I just had some adult programming numbers to share as well. This is for May. We had 75 people attend programs in total. I will say May is generally a really tough month for us programming-wise, I think, because kind of the end of school year is approaching and there's just a lot and everyone's Plates for planning for summer as well. But even still, we had people interested in showing up for programs. And Becca asked me to highlight an upcoming program at the Senior Center next week on the 15th at 6.30. It's Introduction to Beekeeping. Introduction to what? Beekeeping. Oh, beekeeping.

You said that was 7.15 at 6.30?

Correct, at the Senior Center. And I also just wanted to note that she had a really great turnout at her Aquaba performance and really grateful for everyone that came and of course to everyone who sponsored in our grant funding that made it possible. That was that was amazing Also for children's we have the concert on the common for kids coming on Saturday this Saturday the 11th. That's at 1 30 featuring Matt Heaton and the outside toys, which we are co-sponsored with the Arts Council. The Friends are also paying for our half, so they are sponsoring as well. Hope to have a good turnout. The weather looks pretty good so far. Hoping it stays that way. And I feel like I'm missing something else. Oh, I wanted to note, too, on this past Monday, we had a story time program at Sensory Seekers in Hudson, our new museum pass that the Friends sponsored. They actually sponsored us doing this event as well, and that went really well. We had a combination of families who had been there before, but also families that hadn't and didn't know about our pass yet. So it was a really great opportunity to promote that pass, too, and actually have a play space to offer, which was amazing. Anything you wanted to mention for Team Megan?

So one of the fun upcoming programs that we're having is going to be Moose Hill Movie Night. We're going to do that as a summer series, but our next one is Hamilton. So all our Hamilton fans, it'll be in here on the three screens, and it gives it like a surround sound effect. So it's going to be really fun. We have some other fun things going on too, but that's the really exciting one that we're doing next.

I just had two reminders as well. Summer hours are in effect until Saturday, September 12th, and the library will be closed for Old Home Day on Saturday, August 15th, but we'll be on the Common, so come see us there.

That's it for reports. Very good. All right. Any comments or questions for Donna?

Okay, yeah, thank you.

Okay, ASRA is not here, but by chance is there a treasurer's report?

I don't have one.

Okay, that's right.

I do have balances if you would like them. Sure. On behalf of the treasurer. Yep. So we did get the bank statements. So these balances are as of June 30th. So the book count balance was $2,168.73. Mm-hmm. And the trustee account balance is $48,788.09. Very good. OK. Thank you. You're welcome.

All right. Since we don't have a treasurer's report, we will move on to committee reports. And Beth, I understand your committee has been hard at work.

My committee?

Budget.

I was not at this meeting. Oh, that's right. Do you want to give us? Okay, perfect.

Sure. I can pull up those minutes. So the ad hoc financial committee met last night to go over the remaining line items for the proposed budget for fiscal year 28. Azra, Donna, and I met. right over in the Sunnycrest room. So we prepared the remaining proposals, discussed what information would go in there. We'll discuss this in more detail when we go over the proposed budget in a little bit, but we took care of that. We also discussed, and some of those line items are tricky, like legal is a tricky line item, but we'll get to that. We discussed an update on Citizens Bank because getting the missing deposit slips with signatories having transitioned out is a hassle. Azra did send me a message to let you know that They are apparently now able to provide a bunch of the missing slips, so we're overcoming that hurdle. But she also was preparing to pick up an official letter detailing the situation to be able to bring to the board so that we have documentation of what the current gaps are in our record keeping and what we are doing to remedy the situation. um and then i uh don also noted that colleen is finishing reconciling all the records so is likely going to be able to give us a list of items that are missing and what can be accounted for things like that so thank you very much colleen for the work you're doing on helping us get that straight We affirmed some of the plans for being organized trustee donations in our record keeping. The NHLTA membership issue needs to be just a note that the bundle person for this is usually the chair or the director. ASRA has information on how to resolve the membership for this year and then for being able to address that in the future after a director has been hired. We traditionally have a board member be the bundle person for the membership, but it may make more sense having the director fill that role in the future. So that's a thing that will be discussed in the future. And then the only other item that we went over was the discussion about possibly proposing the initiation of the process to consider hiring another member of the staff for the library. position we would want that to be and why we would want to do that now in the midst of all of these expenditures. The consensus from the ad hoc committee was that while the timing is not amazing because we are spending so much money, right now it is also highlighting just how very stretched thin the staff is. and in particular a couple of roles the the role that we sort of settled on as being the highest priority for this position would be an executive assistant or particularly someone who serves as an administrative and communications specialist I'm someone whose job it would be to do things like to who would have had the job of building a website for discuss it for providing the public with information about the building project providing updates on timelines and things like that so that it's not falling just to Donna and it's not falling just to these meetings. Somebody who can take on a bunch of the admin work that sucks away so much of the time that our staff has to be able to actually fill their responsibilities. So what we discussed is that something like this would be amazing to be able to better support our staff and the community. It would allow the staff who already do amazing work to do Even more phenomenal work it would potentially not be an overly expensive position because this would not necessarily need to be an MLS person but it would also the Advantage of starting to starting that process now is that even if we look later on and say this is you know in a couple of months And say wow this really is not feasible financially for our town right now It allows us the opportunity to say this is something we are going to want to do we would like to start laying the groundwork to be able to pursue this in the future when the timing is a little more appropriate. So that's the committee update. Do you wanna add anything, Donna?

Um, I have some more to add. I don't know if you want me to wait until I had it under the budget as well. Yeah.

Let's wait until budget. Yep. Okay. And then does your, does your committee have anything to report tonight? No, that's the committee I'm on. I thought you were, are you on personal too?

We are.

Oh yeah.

We haven't done it, but we haven't done it because of the negotiating.

No worries. Okay. Sorry. So the only thing that you and I have to report about bylaws is that we still have our meeting scheduled. for July the 22nd at 6 o'clock. Do we have a room yet, Donna?

I believe I booked you a room, yes. I will have to make sure, though. Let's see if it's available.

Oh, and the ad hoc, sorry, real quick, on the ad hoc financial committee, our next meeting is next Wednesday, 7-15, I believe that is, at 7 p.m. in the Santa Crest meeting room. And that is open to the public.

YES, THE BYLAWS COMMITTEE HAS SUNNY CREST AT 6 P.M. THAT IS DIRECTLY BEFORE THE REGULAR MEETING, JUST SO YOU'RE AWARE.

YES, THAT'S CORRECT. VERY GOOD. WE'RE SO GOOD AT THAT. VERY GOOD. OKAY. PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSIONS. MORE BUILDING UPDATE.

BUILDING UPDATE. Okay, I'm going to go to my notes. So the positive news is that the movers have already been to the library and the phase one moving of everything off of the carpet is complete. So everything is looking very empty and strange right now. But you'll see, actually you can even see from outside the building, like everything's stacked up to the windows and there's stuff crammed everywhere. But they made it work so that we didn't need To expend any money for storage off-site, which is great.

Oh, that's even better.

It is that yeah We I did learn this week from rearch that they did They're still experiencing a delay with the carpet manufacturing However, the hope and I didn't hear any confirmation today Unfortunately, the hope is that it was going to be on the truck today or tomorrow with a worst arrival date, latest arrival date of the 17th. RE-ARC did say that they believe they can still stick to the tentative schedule that I shared with you all, even despite that further delay. Bob was also on that call and really encouraged them to put some pressure on them to speed up that process a little bit and so I hope that that will work.

You're talking about Bob Slater?

Bob Slater, yes.

He can be persuasive. Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Slater. Yeah, we appreciate it. He knows how important it is. The main reading room collection, I think I shared an email with you, is currently unavailable until the whole carpet project is complete. So it is, so those items in terms of like the public seeing them in our catalog, they just won't show up in our catalog. However, we are relying heavily on GMilk's library holdings to send items here for patrons to pick up hold wise. I know that is tough kind of timing because the summer everyone wants their beach reads and vacation reads and the most popular ones right now and our really popular ones aren't necessarily on the shelf but um what is good is that where we've been at lpd for a little while um all the browsing over there is our newest stuff so that remains available um our the friends also were very generous and offered i haven't brought it to you to accept yet because they haven't actually paid anything yet but they um gave another $1,000 over the summer for us to buy the hottest titles that will just be available to our patrons at LPD. And so they have their own cart of stuff, which is great. It also kind of promotes the Friends a little more in how they're helping. So I think that's all around a good thing.

You do the Friends. Yes. Yes. Very much.

The children's room collection is available, and it actually was even available sooner than I thought it would be, and it's going to be available longer than I thought it would be. RE-ARC really doesn't expect there will be much time that staff has to stay out of the building. We've been able to work in the children's room. There's still the computers and everything that we need work-wise. We also temporarily moved the photocopiers. We have copying and printing ability. Wow. which is great, and also thanks to Jen because it's currently in her office and taking up her space. But we're making it work. So the children's room will really, the only time it will be unavailable to us again is during carpet cleaning, which should take place after the carpet replacement is done. Um, painters are expected to return on Monday to finish up painting. Um, I did learn that they've expanded the painting scope a little bit and this is a covered expense, um, to include the tech services office. Um, when they went in to get everything out of there for the carpet replacement, they removed some of the built in furniture and, um, kind of destroyed the wall a little bit so they patched that's all patched up but they said we should really just paint the whole room so they are going to take care of that nice lovely good um also on monday they are scheduled to come back to do the additional roof testing um so the the the water test followed by an actual like x-ray scan of the roof this does heavily depend on the weather so so far it's looking like it will work but um we'll see on monday monday okay There's also a question. I don't know if the board wants to weigh in with an opinion. You're welcome to. The question from RE-ARC to me at the moment is in terms of installing access panels in the lobby area. So the high ceiling in the lobby area is going to stay drywalled, mainly due to the cost of adding tiles there. But in exchange for keeping it drywalled, they are going to put access panels in so that we can actually get up there when there's a situation like a leak or what have you, instead of having to cut holes all the time. Well, I think that would be a good idea. Yeah. So they're recommending somewhere between three and four. The question is more of, do we want it to be wood and have a wood framing around it? It'll be more apparent that it's there. Or there's a metal option which will blend in a lot more, won't be as visible. But, I mean, staff will know it's there. I also want to pose the exact location to Ricky at DPW because he's honestly the first one that usually shows up to go looking at something for us. So I feel like he'd be the best person to tell us, yep, we need one here and here and here. And so I don't know if he has a preference at the moment, but if you have a preference in terms of the aesthetic...

i don't i don't know if the board does go ahead um the one that actually shows up might not be a bad thing from the standpoint that people know that we have we're working on it and we're trying to solve we've solved it so we're um providing access i mean that might not be a bad thing either but i otherwise right from my view and

I mean, unless the board feels differently, I think whatever you and you and your colleagues come back with, whether it's wood or metal or whatever, just whatever, I agree. So as long as people know that it's where it needs to go.

Let's do them in different colors. You're the ones that have to look.

Highlighter yellow or something. So you and your colleagues decide, don't you all agree? And then we'll, okay.

Can we get one that changes color if it gets wet? Yeah, that would be great. I would love that.

It will, it will turn black.

Now, we want it to instantly, as soon as the first drop gets on it.

Yeah.

Like the UV stuff. That's actually not a bad idea. No, it's not a bad idea. It would be great.

I also just wanted to make you aware that some kind of to-dos on my plate before we reopen that are not under RE-ARC that would be like direct for us expenses, but also work that needs to get done. We need to get the elevator back in service. So that's on my list. And I will be scheduling that soon because I know that they tend to have to schedule out a little bit farther. I also will be bringing you a quote from our cleaning company I would like them to do more of what I would consider a deep clean So getting the nooks and crannies that they don't normally under our just our contracted service because I know especially with the carpet being pulled up there's going to be dust and all sorts of stuff and I'm also going to have them quote out a price for waxing the meeting room floor downstairs. It's been a little bit since that's happened, and I think it would look really nice when we reopen. The mold retesting is not falling under the RE-ART contract. That will be an expense for us. However, I have to look back, but I do believe it was factored into one of the figures we brought to council. If I remember right, I'll have to look back. I did get a quote already for that. It is not anywhere near the first 19,000. It's like two or three thousand. So I was happy about that.

So you are bringing us a little good news tonight.

And then the other thing is that this time of year we usually attend to a gutter cleaning, so that I will try to get done before reopening too. So it's fine if it happens afterwards, but it's on my to-do list. And I think that is it for building right now, unless you had anything that I'm forgetting, Megan? I know you've been over there.

So yeah, we ordered the furniture for the children, the teen section. That's scheduled to be delivered after the week of August 17th.

Okay, very good. Questions or comments from the board? No? Very good.

So I just have a question. So now that they've got the hot top down for the additional parking for the school district, is that affected any, or do you think that that will affect anything about your access to the, you know, the side, or that back entrance, or do we have enough parking, et cetera, et cetera?

so they have put the additional walkway paving in that goes to the upper parking lot and it attaches right right to the edge of where the emergency room the emergency exit was so it doesn't block anything for us from what I understand talking to Kevin was that it's not going to be accessible to the public right now um but what they did is they moved the dumpster that's for the library onto that upper area okay so that it gives us back parking space so for us we should be fine um but while they're doing the school department um they've taken over the right side for their office and trailer for re-arc um and I think they're Using it like for the lay down area for that supply. So it's not going to be really in use right now by public I know the baseball folks were trying to figure out how to Navigate where they park to get their kids over to the baseball now So yeah, it's basically the same as it was before it just you see the blacktop No, but you can walk through it, but you just it's not going to be open for public parking. So

Thank you. Very good. Anything else? That's it for building update. Anything else from the board? All right. Very good. We're going to move on to the budget. All right. You're up, Donna.

OK. Yep. This is the one. So I did, after the ad hoc meeting last night, I sent out today the updated draft department budget. And I did make sure for the public that that is now attached to the agenda online so they can get to it as well. I first wanted to bring up warrant articles. Just talk briefly about those. So. I'm expecting or anticipating that we will probably have a warrant article related to the building and specifically mostly for replacing the rooftop units. Then it's potential that we will have a warrant article related to the union contract. when that time comes and Erica brought up that we talked about a potential ask for a new staff member. The town does have a like, I'm going to call it just a paperwork process to go through to request a new position. So my ask tonight is just if the board is okay with me working on drafting all of that to bring to you for the July 22nd meeting so that you could actually vote at that point if you want to move forward with it or not. My standing, very similar to what... Erica already presented is that I agree that maybe now is not the best time to ask, but I also would hate to wait another year without at least documenting the need and communicating the need to the town because it will make it easier Following year when we want to ask for it again, and we have this history of having noted that we needed it So that's kind of where I'm coming from with that we did talk about a Couple other potential options. This is really the one we landed on that was highest priority I will add that I have, for a little while, been holding on to an idea for generating some more revenue. And the reason why I haven't really brought it forward is because we just do not have the staff bandwidth for it. I really think that this position could help us either directly manage that opportunity themselves or free up management staff to focus more on that opportunity. make you aware of that. Yeah, I think that's pretty much all I wanted to know. So I'm pretty much just asking, do you want me to move forward with drafting the paperwork?

So, I mean, this is something we can do by consensus. I think that information is always helpful. And we may or may not move forward with that particular position for the ballot in March of 2027, but it's always good to have information. From my view, obviously we need to get our director hired That's priority number one. The next priority, actually, they're probably in the same line, is hiring our children's librarian since the voters passed that two years ago. But I would certainly be open to information. Just because we have information doesn't mean we have to say yes or no immediately. So just by not, yep.

The other thing is with the program increases, I encourage a look at program coverage and library coverage while programs are happening. I think if you look at the number of staff members we have and the number that are required for programs when they're happening that there may be a need for more coverage from that standpoint. So just I would encourage a look at that because I did some just on this past year some looking at that as those numbers and it looks like On paper, there's not enough people to cover the regular library and the program stuff. It's definitely has its challenging days. So if that's the case, then maybe the administrative person is not the most priority. So if you really intend to increase programs, um and you already don't have the staff to cover everything um or you're really close to not having the right people to enough people to cover everything then um you know maybe that's another thing to look at so maybe doing some numbers along those lines um might give and then you can give us an idea about some information you know if not this then this or whatever

And we I did bring up as part of the committee discussion Potentially we've we've asked for a full-time library technician previously that failed by warrant article This was before the children's librarian And that position would be able to offer the program coverage would be able to offer the program facilitation even So certainly that's another option and I think the more information we have, the better.

OK. So that's just my perspective.

Should I take that to mean I should draft the information for both?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

We'll look at it 100%.

If you have the capacity, yes please.

OK. Before I move on to operating budget, anything else you wanted to add about the warrant article situation?

No, not right now. We're a little premature.

I think the discussion about maintenance trust or something along those lines, plus the HVAC. Go ahead.

Moira.

How many CIP projects are you submitting and how many do you anticipate will go to warrant article?

So there are three. We've submitted three projects. I think the only one that will go to warrant is the one I've brought up already regarding the replacing of the rooftop units. I don't know if it will be the full project or if we would end up breaking up breaking it up over a couple fiscal years, for example. Because in that project, there is more than just the rooftop units. But there are three projects total. The other two are both directly related to the children's room. I don't think that we're going to see them go to warrant right away.

Anything else, Moira? And what's the total on that, roughly, estimate?

On the three projects? Yeah. I would have to add them together.

You can give me the individuals if you have those two.

Okay. That calculates.

OK children's room renovation project. Total costs estimate is 306,009 84. For. The phase two, which really now is like everything except 2A, we have a cost of $1,377,539. And the last one is, where's the last one? Edition, edition. Children's room addition, which is the program room, $1,604,399. $399? Yep. OK. Thank you. You're welcome. Anything else, Myra? Nope. OK. Great.

On to operating. Yes, ma'am. OK. Would you like to just go line by line from the?

Well. Not going to be here all night, but give us the highlights. Yeah, I can give you some highlights. So I will say off the bat, there are one, two, three, four, four figures that are currently highlighted, mainly because I wanted to draw attention to the fact that I don't think they're the final numbers.

Okay.

I know for sure that the benefit-related ones, the short-term, long-term disability and workers' comp, those are numbers that are provided later in the fall. So those will absolutely be adjusted later. So for right now, I just plugged in the same number as the fiscal year 27. for no change there. And then the full-time salary line is really stumping me. So I'm working with finance on a whole big spreadsheet of how we estimate salaries. And It keeps coming back at a 1% increase, which does not make any sense to me, because it should be closer to the 6 and 1 half when you include merit and COLA. However, the numbers I'm plugging in are based on my recommendation that I'm bringing you tonight for setting a salary cap on the hiring of the director. So I know that there was a little bit of a decrease, but it shouldn't be that much. So I haven't quite figured out what's going on with that spreadsheet. I did ask finance for some more help on that. So that's why that number I don't think is the final one. And then custodial services, I am estimating a 3% increase, but I do want to get feedback directly from our vendor. So I'm working on that. So right now, overall, what we've come up with through the committee, we're looking at a 4.4% increase overall compared to FY27. Some of the things I wanted to note, you'll see I used the gray background color for some of the lines too. highlight the new lines so this is so you can see the difference in you know the total if the line were kept the same like with management services but also what it would look like if we do break out those lines And for programming in particular, I did speak with Megan for teen, Jen for children's, Becca for adult, to see what they might need funding-wise. Jen did note that with a part-time children's librarian coming on board, it would be great to have some more funding to focus on kids programming to work with. So that's where that increase is coming from. The adult programs, we kept the same. However, Becca is anticipating that once we start the winter reading program, that she may want some. This would represent the second year we do it. So she's anticipating that she'd want to make it slightly bigger than the first year. So that's why there's some more funding under other, because that would be in all ages. program, incentive program. And teen, Megan, you can speak to if you want, but we put in 10% increase there.

Yeah, so we are seeing the teens coming back from COVID finally to being more sociable. And this would just help offer more programs that we traditionally haven't been able to have. Like this summer, we're having Leaping Lizards, an animal program, but really geared for that upper elementary teen group age. Uh age group rather um and so just the opportunity to bring in more presenter and programs that might cost a little bit more, but we just didn't have it in our budget to offer that. Um so that was kind of where the 10% came um to to see if we can try to offer more, including the nonprofit things that I can have come in, or the library-planned programs. But this would just be able to offer more presentation-style programs like the children's and adult do.

Perfect.

Thank you. I ALSO WANTED TO KNOW THAT IN THE ACTUAL MANAGEMENT SERVICES LINE, THERE IS A LARGER INCREASE THAN NORMAL THERE BECAUSE THE MEMO I BROUGHT TO YOU WHEN WE WERE FIRST THINKING ON CIP PROJECTS, THERE WAS A COLUMN OF ITEMS THAT WERE THINGS THAT I RECOMMENDED WE CONSIDER PLANNING FOR IN A FUTURE BUDGET YEAR. SO I ACTUALLY PULLED SOME OF THOSE OUT. to try to get into fiscal year 28. One of those was to expand our subscription to Acibet, which is our online system that manages things like museum passes, to add the module for room booking. So that would give the public more flexibility when it comes to actually booking a room in advance, like a study room, or even asking for the meeting room space online, which has been an ask for a long time. So that would be great if that could happen. And the other thing that was considered on here, I think, is more so under machinery and equipment, we would like to consider adding TVs to the study rooms so that people can easily connect their devices to it like in here. There's definitely more of an expectation for us to be able to provide that. So that's why you see I tried to add some of the more lower cost items. Sorry, I'm getting.

Well, since you've done most of the talking so far tonight. Well, I do have to say TVs have really dramatically reduced in cost over the years. They have. It's really shocking how much you can get a TV for.

as going to other libraries and after in their meeting spaces. That is something that is you, you do commonly see in their meeting and study areas are TVs that you could log in the switch, right and have like a little mini program in there or have the meeting do zoom calls, things like that. So it is something that you are seeing more.

It would be good that we looked at that also for the big meeting room so that we're not just having one screen down one end, that we had some way of putting something in the middle so that there's better visibility.

Yeah, particularly if we have someone remote in.

Yeah, or turning the camera in such a way that we're sideways instead of, you know, if we had more monitors or whatever, it would give us more flexibility.

A COUPLE OTHER NOTES, UTILITY-WISE, WE WERE ORIGINALLY CONSIDERING A DECREASE FOR WATER. HOWEVER, I JUST RECEIVED A NOTICE FROM PENNACHUCK THAT THEY'RE APPLYING FOR AN INCREASE IN RATES. SO WE RETURNED THAT TO JUST NO CHANGE INSTEAD OF A DECREASE. AND THEN YOU'LL SEE THAT WE TALKED OVER A 10% INCREASE FOR MAINTENANCE MAINLY DUE TO ALL THAT'S HAPPENED THIS YEAR. I'm trying to think what else we need to go over. Books and periodicals. I have the breakdown for if we move funds into splitting it out to e-books too. But the reason why the ask is bigger, so if you remember this budget season, our ask was actually hundred and forty one thousand I believe and a majority of the cut that we experienced came from that line so it brought us down to 101 199 while I don't necessarily want to ask for as much especially if we're going to be cutting hoopla I do think we still the spending wise it's always like it's always really tight like even this year we were extremely conservative And we still ended up being a little bit over budget. So I do really think it's needed. So that's why that number... there and then I'm trying to think what else I don't know if Erica if you remember any other lines that I think the one thing that I think is good to start clarifying for the public and for the board and that's that are now is the printer because the printer printer yeah so we have two photocopiers that we have leases for one is a staff copier one is public and The staff one is paid for under the printing line. The public one is paid for under the maintenance line, because that's where the money was to spend at the time, where we didn't have enough money in the printing line to cover both. So I'd really like to make the printing line actually be for both, which is, let's see where we land on the, So the number that's on here right now is the 44% increase is to reflect it covering both photocopiers. I do know we were talking it over and thinking about how I think JUST THE PERCENTAGES TEND TO BE THE RED FLAG DURING THE BUDGET CONVERSATION AND CERTAINLY WE CAN EXPLAIN THIS. BUT IF THE BOARD MORE SO WANTED TO MAKE IT A GRADUAL INCREASE LIKE $1,000 AT A TIME OR SOMETHING, WE CAN DO THAT. But it is the more realistic ask with that one.

I think Jan had her hand up.

So a couple of things. So the maintenance budget, the increase, would that include the deep cleaning that you're talking about? Or is that going to be an additional fund in addition? So in other words, we're having a deep cleaning now. One assumes that there's going to be a need for deep cleaning a year from now because we're going to have other stuff being done as we, you know, I believe we have done that before.

I've done a deep cleaning before. I'm not 100% positive on which line it came from, if it was custodial or maintenance.

Okay.

But it would be a similar thing where the quote would come to the board, and really the board gets to decide what line it comes from.

Okay. The other thing would be there was discussion when we cleaned the vents that we might need to clean the vents again. Yep. So perhaps we need to figure some cost of Random amount of vent cleaning each year or something if there's some way to Like maybe one for each of the HVAC systems or something so that we can yeah be budgeting in some money for that and be doing it on an incremental basis and rotate it versus waiting till We're getting black things on tiles.

I agree. It needs to be more part of the preventative maintenance schedule Think the idea for 28 with the maintenance like the ask of the 10% It's it's not it's still not quite. I think what we need but It gets us closer and it's still an increase over the many years. We've had of no increase But certainly if the board would rather see a larger increase there We can ask for it.

Well, we have to take care of it. We will I

My concern is just that one of the issues that we've had with some of the issues with the building was that we haven't had real maintenance Right. Real maintenance has been taken out of a lot of the, you know, like the vent cleaning and things like that. So we maybe need to be putting more of our budget toward doing some of that because we need to do that.

Buildings cost money.

They do. It does cost money.

Buildings cost money.

And if you move the printer to the other line... I think that makes a whole lot of sense. It seems silly to have them in two separate lines. So the increase is not that big of an increase. It's really shifting the printer to the correct line.

Yes, however, where we're still asking for an increase in maintenance, it's not like you're deducting it for maintenance and adding it to printing. It's really you're just straight adding it to printing.

Okay.

Thank you. Let's see what else we should notes and furniture was another one that we asked for a bigger increase, you'll see there's, well, I know that furniture's been a point of contention previously. However, we do still have that 2,500 that's been allocated the last two years, which is great. However, you can see even in 26, we overspent that with very little furniture to show for it, sadly, because that money really doesn't go very far when it comes to furniture.

So I really like $500 will barely buy you a table.

Yeah, I don't think it would buy us a table. But yeah, maybe a small one.

It depends on the type of table you're asking the tables that we have. No.

Yeah, right with the like the monitors would like we put we're putting monitors in the the meeting rooms, or televisions, whatever you want to call them. If we were putting those in, wouldn't that be also under furniture?

No, that comes out of machinery and equipment.

Okay.

So you'll see there is an increase there as well because I'm accounting for planning on those TVs. Whereas, I mean, you can even see over the past few years that even the years we had no budget there, we were spending in it.

Yeah, the reality is we need to have the machinery to be able to do all the other stuff.

yes um we've for the past couple years we've mainly been using it to focus on getting new scanners and printer receipts um for when we joined gmilks because we did have to upgrade those um and those were not cheap so that's where you're seeing the expenses for those um but knowing that we're hoping to get tvs on top of whatever equipment we already probably will have to get um that's why that we doubled that amount And furniture is just to help us stretch that money a little further to get us We know I mean we've I made this case already that the furniture that needs replacing is at this point 30 years old and And it'd be best if we can gradually swap it out with new. But honestly, I really think this money will just barely cover replacing the stuff that will probably break that year. That's kind of the reality. So I guess the positive thing out of this whole situation is that we did get some new furniture with the insurance claim. So happy for that. Any other questions I can answer? This is obviously just discussion, so if you're looking at it and have something you do have a question about or want more information about, before the 22nd, I'm happy to.

I'd like to see us increase the machinery and equipment budget. I hate to see increases, but the reality is I don't think we have enough in that line for the needs a year and a half from now.

What would you recommend for an amount?

Maybe $5,000.

I can plug that in if that is the consensus of the board.

Yep, that's fine. Okay. And always take it out if we need to.

But I don't disagree. I agree with what I'm saying. And then perhaps we have not increased enough in the maintenance area because I think the reality is we're now working on getting the stuff taken care of. We need to keep it in good shape and we may need to paint something more or to change something out quicker or something and if we don't have a maintenance budget to do that, that's going to be a problem. So perhaps increasing that by a couple thousand dollars more so that we can do something about the increased needs of keeping the building at good, you know, maybe we'll need to clean the rugs a second time or, you know, something we may find as a result of having new stuff again. What other things do we have to do?

Okay. Do you think 29.5 or you want to make it an even 30?

Let's make it an even 30. I mean, you know, everything's subject to change and whatever, but I think the reality is that was an area we weren't putting enough money into.

we shift that are well things I mean we have pretty clear that we shifted everything is that it was the bare minimum was only got done and so that like we have to fix think we would probably all agree we've been a little Pennywise pound foolish correct, you know this building is 20 something years old and hasn't really been taken care of right so shame on us, but you know good for us that we're moving forward with being better stewards of caring for this building so I would agree with that and We may even want to talk about more in that line item. And I strongly think that we need to start looking at a maintenance trust fund.

So as a warrant article, yes, yes, because you have to propose it one year and fund it for a dollar and then that you don't have it put any in until the following year or something. It's just a I know, you know, it's one of the weird things about setting up something new.

Is that something you want staff to look at or is the maintenance trust fund? Yeah, yes. Okay.

um maybe something around similar to what um that's a program thing similar to the other thing is perhaps having a program um uh trust fund or whatever similar to what the recreation department has done with their programs um although we don't really charge money for the program so i guess we couldn't do it that way yeah let's let's start with maintenance okay

AND I ACTUALLY THINK THAT, YOU KNOW, A REALLY GOOD MODEL OF THAT IS THE SCHOOL BOARD. YOU KNOW, THEY'VE DONE A GREAT JOB WITH THEIR MAINTENANCE TRUST FUNDS. SO IF NEED BE, YOU KNOW, MAYBE WE COULD CONSULT WITH MR. SLATER. I'M SURE HE, I'M SPEAKING FOR HIM, BUT I'M SURE HE'D BE GLAD TO COME IN AND GIVE US SOME GUIDANCE ON THAT SINCE WE'VE NEVER, HAVE WE EVER HAD ONE, EVER? SO, YEAH. NOT TO MY COLLEGE. ANYWAY, RIGHT, MINE EITHER. SO, OKAY. Any other adjustments any of the trustee you'd like to see for the next draft right now at least I think this is a good place to start okay Thank you for that very detailed and good report Donna and Megan. Thank you. All right moving on tuition reimbursement So I am bringing forward a draft

REQUEST FORM. WE HAVE NOT, I MEAN, I THINK SOME OF THE QUESTIONS THAT CAME UP REGARDING TUITION REIMBURSEMENT WERE RELATED TO US NOT REALLY HAVING A PAPER TRAIL OR A VERY CLEAR request process necessarily. I think each director that I've seen oversee it has done it a little bit differently, which the personnel policy does leave room for. So technically, as of right now, I mean, this isn't really a requirement, but I do think it would help streamline things and answer some questions. It makes it clearer for staff to to know exactly what information they need to give the director And I did actually base this draft off of an existing Municipal draft I think in a town in Massachusetts Just the first one I found a good example of online So I I'm not presenting it to a vote tonight, but just more so for you to be able to review it, think about it if you want to see any changes before we bring it back for a vote. However, I do, at the same time, since I'm in an acting director role at the moment, I am looking for... SOME MORE GUIDANCE FROM THE BOARD IN TERMS OF DO YOU HAVE A SPECIFIC EXPECTATION WHILE I'M IN THE ACTING ROLE IN TERMS OF HANDLING TUITION REIMBURSEMENT. WE DO HAVE TWO STAFF MEMBERS WHO ARE GOING TO BE REQUESTING IT THIS YEAR. I ACTUALLY HAVE ALREADY REQUESTED IT.

have that all the information is just a matter of if you want us to use this form they'll just need to add it to the form I'm okay with this yeah go ahead so my concern is and it's a it's a more of a policy on this side is right now it's upfront before the classes start that it's all done. And school districts and other places I've worked that have had a reimbursement, it was, in fact, a reimbursement after the course is completed and after the grades come in. There's no money exchanges until that happens. So the person who's pursuing the degree, or wants to take a course, they have to pay for that course out of their money until... Such time that they submit it and get their grades and whatever and I would like to see us go to that kind of a model and also some. a way to encourage if we have more than one person, which I assume we will, if you have 17 employees or whatever, you may have people taking courses to further their master's degrees. But some way of saying, well, you know, We can't go over the amount of money that's been proposed, so how are you going to make it fair to, is it the first person who gets their paperwork in, or is it, you know, as far as how that's done? Yeah.

so thus far under the personnel policy the board has left it up to the director to decide that and um i mean megan and i can speak to the fact that we've seen two different directors do it differently um one that um so to be clear too that the staff member does pay out of pocket initially in either and no matter what they do It's just a matter of when the reimbursement happens. So we've seen a director reimbursed right away after payment and before the class is over. And then we've also had a director who reimbursed after the class is over and they've turned their grade in to them for proof that they've passed. So that's not true? No. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm mistaken.

So when I was getting my degree, it was paid based on the invoice from the school.

Oh, it paid directly to the school.

It paid directly to the school. Okay. And it was done differently when another staff member was doing it. So it's been done different ways depending on the director.

So I had the exact procedure wrong, but it has been done differently based on the director. It's different ways. Yes. So certainly if the board would rather have a clearer procedure in the personnel policy, You could do that.

I think Erica has some comments. Which I think would be, if we wanted clarification, I don't think that's a bad thing. But I think we need to be careful because part of the reason that we haven't been meeting about the personal policy on the subcommittee is because we are in status quo. And until the union contract has been finalized and approved, We cannot make changes to the personnel policy because that would put us in violation of the rules for status quo negotiations. So I think this is valuable food for thought, but we will not be able to act on it until March 2027 at the earliest.

Well, we're talking about the budget year 2028, right?

No, but the policy that would govern how we do tuition reimbursement would be under the personnel policy and or the union contract. So we can't make any changes to that until...

Does our policy say when it gets paid?

No, that's what Donna's explaining, is that that's been left up to the director. Since there's nothing formal in the personnel policy...

So we're not changing that part?

No. But it also means we can't then put something into the personnel policy saying that we want it to be done a specific way because that is not in the status quo.

Okay.

However, because I'm in an acting director role, I am asking for the board's guidance in the procedure. Unless you're still wanting to say to me, handle it how you see fit, I am open to having guidance of the preference of the board for the procedure, if that makes sense. My intention with this form is to make it a lot more clear, period, to everyone what information we need, when we actually received it, that it's approved, it goes in personnel file. I'm fine with still handling the pre-approval process, assuming that the budget money is there, right? I can't do anything if the budget money is not there. And I'm sure we actually will probably run into this this year. If it's an ask of overexpending, that would be coming back to the board. So I can tell you I would spend within the budget that we have. But if you would prefer, for instance,

scenario where the pre approvals that I've done aren't actually reimbursed until I have a grade I can do that I can continue the way we've been kind of doing it recently I think that's a procedural thing that does require a vote but and so I don't think that's I don't think we want to vote on well we're not gonna vote on that tonight because it's not under deliberations and and voting But if you would like to come back or bring that back at our next meeting and put that under deliberations, and we'll talk to it again and speak to it very specifically and vote on it.

But we do have the... TUITION REIMBURSEMENT IS ON THE BUDGET.

CORRECT. BUT SHE'S ASKING FOR SPECIFICS IN TERMS OF HOW IF YOU'RE IN TERMS OF GUIDING YOU ON HOW TO PROCEED MOVING FORWARD, CORRECT? MM-HMM. YES. OKAY. WHICH WOULD REQUIRE A VOTE.

RIGHT. BUT IF YOU'RE SAYING THAT YOU WANT ME TO COME BACK WITH A WRITTEN PROCEDURE, I NEED SOME KIND OF GUIDANCE DISCUSSION WISE ON WHAT TO PREPARE FOR THAT. FOR THE 22ND.

I'M THINKING IT'S MORE OF A WE'RE VOTING ON HOW WE ARE INTERESTED IN SEEING HER THINK ABOUT HER PROCEDURE OR SOMETHING. WE'RE NOT VOTING ON THIS IS GOING TO BE THE WAY IT'S GOING TO BE. WE'RE VOTING ON, YOU KNOW.

JUST IN THIS CASE, DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING IN MIND, DONNA?

I would probably go the route, if it was just left up to me to decide, I would probably go the route of the reimbursement will happen after the grade. I think it's a cleaner way of doing it because if you have someone who doesn't have a passing grade, then you have to get them to pay back. And I think that adds a lot of hassle.

And paperwork.

And paperwork. So that's just the way I would prefer to make it cleaner and easier for everybody.

If that's your preference at this juncture in time, I'm okay with that. And so do you want to bring that back for a vote? I'm not sure we really need to.

I don't think we need to. It's on here. If it's a consensus, I'm okay with proceeding that way.

We could do that by way of consensus. It's not under deliberations for a vote.

I more so will wait until next meeting if you want to actually adopt the form before we move forward with me pre-approving requests. What's the pleasure of the board?

I'm happy to consent to this, provide consensus for this process, and then we can do something more formal alongside the form if we feel like we need to.

Consensus. Consensus. Yes. Consensus.

So you're saying, just to be clear, that you want to have consensus on the process or the suggested process? That's correct. And you want to vote on the form the next meeting? Correct. Okay, that's fine.

Okay, and what does that mean for the request I currently have? Do you want me to move them forward, and if we do use the form, I'll have them fill it out after the fact? Fine.

Yeah.

Okay.

Great. Thank you. Thank you.

Hello, Azra. Hello. Okay, very good. Library director posting.

I'm going to close this tab.

I'm so proud of you. That's personal growth.

Would you like me to present? Yes, ma'am. OK. So Madam Chair, you asked me to put together a draft post for the potential director posting. So what I did is I actually took a lot of the language from the last time the board posted the director position. But I added some more detailed information, such as made it more explicit about it being an exempt position 40 hours a week. I also copied some of the qualification information directly from the job description that the board last updated. I believe it was in October. So most of that is directly from the job description most of you have seen already. It is attached here as well. And the language that I in particular added was because of discussions that were happening about QUALIFICATIONS THAT I THINK THE BOARD REALLY WANTED AT ONE POINT. SO I DID ADD THE LINE PARTICULARLY THAT SAYS PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE WITH EMPLOYEE UNIONS, STRATEGIC PLANNING AND CAPITAL PROJECTS IS HIGHLY DESIRABLE BECAUSE THAT, I MEAN, WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF THAT. SO IT WOULD BE GREAT TO HAVE SOMEONE WHO HAS THAT EXPERIENCE. And one of the big questions I had for you and actually a suggestion for me is that right now I have it on there that applications will go directly to the full board's email. I would recommend that the board actually ask the HR department to manage this for you, which would mean that those applications would go to the HR department email. and they have some specific instructions of things that they want the subject to say this. Usually when you look at town postings, I would recommend that so that you have someone else making sure everyone's gotten all of the applications and can really organize them well for you. That would be my big suggestion. But really, if any of this you want to change, it can be changed. I also wanted to note that after last meeting when you said you were in an agreeance on setting a hiring range for the salary. So I set it at $105,000. The actual was up to $112,000. For 27 is up to 115. So it does leave still a lot more room for them to grow. But it does allow for us, when we're looking at where those service impacts are happening with the budget cut, that was one of the things I factored into that $51,000. So just so you're aware of that.

Great. Thank you.

Madam Chair?

Yes. I would like us to still look at having some organization, even if it's ALA or whatever, some other organization to be the first point of contact because I think that it makes all the things happen the same way. It provides a level playing field so people who are in-house that would like to apply go through that person, people who go through that organization, and they do the preliminary things about discussing, checking, they check references and things like that. So they do all that preliminary stuff before those things come down to the next level. So I would like to see us do something like that and I think it has more potential for having more visibility by having another organization than just us.

Asra. So the ALA would not do something like that. We would have to hire a company to do that.

The ALA does have a charged fee.

We do not have, in my opinion, we don't have that kind of money. That's a lot of money. And for a library in New Hampshire, I think that there are certain procedures that we can take that would not cost money like that. My recommendation would be to have a personnel hiring committee. I think it makes sense that whether what respect HR wants to be involved, whether it's the final interviews, but I think

The problem is the chair doesn't have a doesn't have a If it's anything comes in via mail the chair doesn't have a separate mailing address So I can add to that I I purposefully took out the option to mail I mean you can certainly put it back in but right now it the way it's worded is just email and

Digital makes more sense. I think most people apply for positions digitally now.

I think Donna made the recommendation that we direct it to HR for the sake of having that, you know, the accountability. So everything's time stamped, like everything's like channeled through one, you know.

If HR will do it.

I think we can ask them.

If HR will deal with that.

They provide our HR services, so I can't imagine that they wouldn't. Why wouldn't they?

because they may say that they've got too many things going on otherwise. I mean, our MOA says something about limited HR services or, you know, we don't get the full thing. And I seem to remember when we asked about it before that it was, no, no, you have to do your own.

OK, so what I'm hearing is somebody, perhaps myself, should follow up with HR and see exactly what the support will be like and report back to you all.

I think that's a good idea.

OK, no problem.

OK.

I'll put that on my list. Does anybody else think, can we have a discussion about whether we just do it ourselves versus getting another organization involved?

I agree with Azra. I think given our current financial situation and all of the things we need to spend money on and the cuts, the huge cuts we're going to have to be making to accommodate the fiscal year 27 budget, it feels almost bread and circuses to hire an outside agency to do something that we have the capacity to do ourselves.

Do you have any idea how much it costs, Jan?

It depends on the agency. I don't know what the ALA costs. The folks that I talked to six or eight months ago, they were talking one organization, it was 10% of the Salary one of them it was like a month of the first salary, which is kind of standard for hiring things And then there were other ones that was no negotiable It was that you know we they only you pay this much if they do this and you pay that much if they do that So there's very specific things so you could just have the preliminary stuff being there With what they did with the town and the and the uh... the fire chief uh... hiring the new chief uh... that was all done off-site uh... to hire the chief uh... and the reason for doing that was to make to level the playing field for uh... people both in-house and uh... out of LONDON DAIRY TO BE ABLE TO BE HIRED OR TO BE ABLE TO BE LOOKED AT. THEY WERE LOOKED AT UNDER THE SAME PROCEDURE AND THEN THERE WAS SOME KIND OF A BASIC SKILLS TEST THAT WAS DONE. AGAIN, IT WAS DONE OUT THERE. SO EVERYBODY HAD THE SAME BASIC SKILLS AND TO GO TO THE NEXT LEVEL. SO I THINK THAT DOING SOMETHING LIKE THAT, I THINK THAT OUR ability to get the best person that's available at the time would be helped by having another organization that specializes in doing hiring. We don't usually hire people that often. So some organization that specializes in hiring and hiring library director people be involved with hiring In the hiring process.

Thank you. Yes Respectfully we have yet to fill the the part-time children's position that we were tasked to hire two years ago because of budget issues and we have $51,000 that we have yet to cut from our next You know year of spending we have no budget and you know Windham just hired a fabulous director. They did not have to, you know, contract out another agency. We are not Boston. We are not Minneapolis. We have to work with the budget we have, and we do not have the funds. We can't even hire the people that we've already been tasked to hire. We've been paid by the town to hire them. Like, we need to do those things first. That's the priority. Well, but we could use it for both positions.

So if we're thinking 10% of the person's salary, that's $10,000. I don't think that looks good in front of the public.

I don't either.

We're right now, especially right now, budget season. For us to say we're taking this money to hire a consultant, which is what it would be, that $10,000 could have been used towards Hoopla. That $10,000 could have been used towards programming or collection. It doesn't look good in front of the voters.

So, I mean...

As a librarian, and I worked in Quincy, and the way they hired it, even though it's like a Quincy and they can spend a lot of money, the way they hired it, it's basically trustees interviewing the library director, and after that, the town manager of the city, whatever town measure is like meeting the library director so this is like the basic procedure personally if I would be a library director I would like to meet my trustees because that's like that's like the main contact, like meeting with them, talking to them about libraries and the buildings and everything?

And we would still do that in the interview process. So this would be the preliminary stuff of gathering the information, making sure that everybody's application is done, whatever the preliminary stuff, and then forwarding us people that meet the requirements and that have whatever. I think that by taking it off our plate for everything, it says we're trying to be open-ended and we're trying to be open and above board in the process. It's not going to come in and we don't know how many applications have come in or whatever, that we never see that kind of information. And the thing about the skills testing, before was hired. There was some kind of a skills testing that was done on a previous hiring of, I don't know, with a director or assistance director or something.

Who was hired? Erica? Who?

Not Erica, I mean Erin. Before Erin was hired, there was some skills testing, and I think that based on the requirements that we're asking for, especially about the use of communications, but the use of, you know, different software programs, the ability to do presentations, et cetera. All of that could be done with some kind of an evaluation, and we don't have that evaluation presently, so we couldn't just say, everybody take this test. So I think that that, again, levels the playing field. What they found with the fire department was our two internal candidates couldn't pass the test. AND SO THAT'S WHY THEY DIDN'T GO FORWARD.

SO I HAVE THIS TO SAY. SO FIRST OF ALL, WE FOUGHT FOR TWO YEARS AND WE COULD NOT AGREE TO SPEND $32,000 TO HIRE A CHILDREN'S LIBRARIAN. THAT'S KIND OF A PROBLEM. THAT THE VOTERS APPROVED. TWO YEARS. SO I'M KIND OF THINKING THAT IF WE MOVE FORWARD WITH SPENDING $10,000 TO HIRE SOMEONE, THE PUBLIC IS GOING TO COME AND HANG US. That's item number one. Item number two, the town is being so generous to us. I think that if we called them up and said we're going to spend $10,000 to hire a new director, I think our town council would have a meltdown. So I'm having a little heartburn with this, Jan.

I think it's time to make a motion. So I think it warrants further discussion because you don't know if HR will do what they're asking. I'm happy to call them. And we don't know how much it truly costs or what the scope is. So why don't we table this and bring it up at the next meeting and have that discussion at that point.

And I'll try and get some actual quotes for the different levels.

And if need be, I'm sure I can speak with HR and they can come and talk with us and tell us exactly what they would be willing to do for us. Because I don't believe that they're not going to be thorough in this endeavor.

And I'd like to re-establish that the plan is to vote at the next meeting. Yes, it will be. To launch this posting. Correct. We don't need to drag this out. No, we need to get it posted. Okay, very good.

Yep, deliberations and vote. So, transferring funds to new budget lines.

Yes. So I did, after our last meeting, I did follow up with Justin and town manager Mulholland regarding the process for this. The town manager did confirm that the board can put to a vote to transfer between lines within the library budget. And so you're able to do that this evening. If you would like to move forward, I did update the memo so that you have more up-to-date numbers to work from when voting. I did ask finance regarding like what language needs to be in the motion. And we also agreed that it would be easiest if you just went like a motion for every transfer. If you want to move forward And the information in the motion needs to have the exact amount that you're transferring the account It's coming from and moving to but not just the account name It does need to have those last four digits of the account number included And I also would recommend including in the motion that it is the fiscal year 27

All righty, we got a bunch of motions coming forward. Who wants to take this one on?

Bring it on. All right, I make a motion that we transfer seven, so sorry, just to clarify, Donna. So for item number one, it would be transferring 17,000, et cetera. Does that motion need to, each of these items under that first number one needs to be a separate motion?

So the bold text is just the total. I wouldn't do a motion for that. Just the bullet pointed items.

Then I would make a motion that we transfer $7,052 from the management services number 4330 line to the line adult programs 4821.

That is a motion by Erica. Is there a second? Second. Second by Jan. Is there any discussion?

Can I just be, Erica, would you mind just adding that it's for fiscal year 27?

For fiscal year 27. Thank you. Motion by Erica, second by Jan. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Was that 7-0? Yeah. We're all here. Good. Yes. Very good. Next one.

Next one. I make a motion to transfer $2,684 for management services line 4330 to teen programs line 4825 for fiscal year 27. That's a motion by Erica.

Is there a second?

I second.

Second by Azra. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? That would be a 7-0 vote.

Moving on. I make a motion to transfer $8,063.30 from management services line 4330 to youth programs line 4822 for fiscal year 27.

That is a motion by Erica. Is there a second? Second. Second by Miriam. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? That's a 7-0 vote.

Excellent.

Next one.

Hang on, I gotta copy all this. It's okay, there we go. I make a motion to transfer $48,234 from dues and subscription services line 4560-0000 to library consortiums line 4560-0001 for fiscal year 27. That's a motion by Erica. Is there a second? Second.

Second by Beth. Is there any discussion?

Yes, ma'am. Just a quick discussion. I know we haven't had it underneath there because I think we've kept it in with the books, but the cost of the book service through the state, that's currently... Like Libby? LIBBY. SO WE CURRENTLY HAVE ALREADY PAID THAT FOR THIS CURRENT YEAR. WE PAID THAT EARLY BECAUSE WE HAD A DISCUSSION ABOUT THE PAYMENT THAT WENT IN.

YEAH, BUT NOT FOR FISCAL YEAR 27. THAT USUALLY IS SOMETIME IN THE FALL THAT WE GET THAT NUMBER. OR ARE YOU REFERRING TO CLOUD LIBRARY, THE CONSORTIUM ONE OR THE STATE ONE?

NO, IT WASN'T THE CONSORTIUM. IT WAS THE STATE ONE. AND WE PAID IT NINE MONTHS EARLY. YES. We typically do, yes. So if we paid it nine months early, then we've paid it for this year.

It was for fiscal year 26. So we it would have been due by the end of fiscal year 26 we paid it closer to the beginning of fiscal year 26.

Well at any rate whatever that is that was a consortium subscription service something and so the question is do what should we have that in along with this and just not have this just be G milks instead of

so I do think it's clear to the public since that is a digital collection service that it be included with the digital books and databases however you are correct that we call it a consortium just the way that it's paid so we pay dues to support that service as do 100 plus other libraries they discuss it too in their blurb that Yeah, they refer to it as the New Hampshire Downloadable Books Consortium. So, yes, consortium is in the name because it is a group of libraries that is splitting the cost, essentially. And they do have, I think, one or two policies, technically, under them. It's not as... Like they don't, it's not the same level of service that Gmilk's is offering us where it's multifaceted. It's more than just the one thing we're getting out of it. And I, from my perspective, I feel like the goal in transferring for these line items is to make it clearer to the public. And I think that would only confuse the public more personally because so many of our users They don't know New Hampshire downloadable books consortium, they know Libby, and Libby is a downloadable book service.

Any other discussion?

Is Libby in the electronic portion? Yes. Thank you.

Yeah, no worries. So that was a motion by Erica and a second by me. Okay. So any other discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? That's a 7-0 vote.

I would like to make a motion to transfer $37,500 from books and periodicals supplies line 4670-0000. I'm going to stop you. There are only three zeros there.

Oh, you're right. Sorry. Sorry. We restate.

To transfer $37,500 from books and periodicals supplies line 4670-0000. to electronic books and databases line 4670-001 for fiscal year 27.

Thank you very much. That was a motion by Erica. Is there a second? Second. Second by Beth. Is there any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? That's a 7-0 vote.

Thank you very much.

let's move on to service impacts of the $51,000 budget cut

Yep. Can't wait to hear that.

So I, at your ask, revised my first memo to allow for us to still hire the part-time children's librarian. Yep. which is an area where the majority of the $51,000 was planned to come from by not hiring this year. So what I did in the memo is I also wanted to bring this to your attention that And this doesn't have to be a decision tonight either, but my plan is when we bring forth the posting for the part-time children's librarian is to ask you for that position to be 28 hours per week. That is more consistent with our part-time positions. WHEN WE ORIGINALLY TRIED TO HIRE, IT WAS FOR 22 AND A HALF HOURS PER WEEK. AND WE ARE NO LONGER, BECAUSE WE'VE PASSED THE YEAR WHERE THE WARRANT ARTICLE WAS APPROVED, WE ARE NO LONGER BOUND BY A SPECIFIC BUDGET NUMBER OR CAP. when hiring that. So my understanding is that we are not. Certainly, if you wanted to get a legal opinion on that, you could. But when we get to that, I will be asking for 28 hours. So I did bold that, and I kept that in mind while looking at the budget. so that there was actually funding for it. I did a quick reminder of where the funds actually came from when you're looking at the budget on paper. They were a combination of the full-time salaries, FICA benefits, Medicare benefits, retirement benefits, and the majority of it was cut from the books and periodicals line. THE RECOMMENDATIONS THAT I'VE MADE, THEY REFLECT KIND OF THIS LIST OF CHANGES. SO FIRST, WHICH I BROUGHT UP LAST MEETING IS SETTING A SALARY CAP FOR HIRING THE DIRECTOR. SO THE RANGE FOR HIRING THAT I'M RECOMMENDING IS $95,035.20, WHICH IS THE MINIMUM SALARY RANGE RIGHT NOW ON FY27 THAT THE BOARD HAS APPROVED AND FOR THE MAXIMUM TO BE LIMITED TO 105,000. EXCUSE ME.

YEAH. AND THAT KEEPS US COMPETITIVE.

I believe it does. I don't have any market studies to justify that. But from seeing a lot of postings recently in our area, I do believe that that keeps us competitive. Especially knowing that there's still room for them to grow there after they're hired. It's not like they're going to be stuck at that. There is no budget allocated for admin time. That was just something that was taken out of the full-time or regular salaries. Typically, 120 hours are usually budgeted, 60 for the director, 60 for the assistant director. BY PERSONNEL POLICY, YOU WOULD STILL HAVE TO PAY THAT OUT IF THERE WERE THOSE HOURS TO PAY OUT AT THE END OF THE FISCAL YEAR. BUT THERE'S NO BUDGET FOR IT, SO THAT YOU'RE AWARE. I REMOVED THE BUDGET FROM THE ALL AGES OR OTHER PROGRAMS LINE, SO THAT'S WHY ON THE OTHER MEMO YOU DIDN'T TRANSFER ANY MONEY INTO THAT LINE. And the things that that will impact are our events like library after dark, which we do get a lot of requests for. But yeah, It's one of those things that I felt like if something has to go, it's got to go. And there won't be any set budget for the first year of winter reading, which I've talked to Becca about. We would basically be relying on asking for donations like we do for summer, but there won't be the additional supplemental funding like there is for summer. So she has a heads up about that. We would end our agreement with Hoopla as of February 27. Did attach some spending information so you could actually see what the spending looks like It did significantly change after we added a budget cap to our service Which you can see in those numbers This one is going to Be hard for patrons and It's a well-loved service But at the same time I will say this is not going to be a unique thing for the library because I don't know if you you've seen recently in the news But conquered also recently had to give up their hopeless service for the same exact reason actually I think if they had a smaller budget cut and And same thing there. Their patrons love Hoopla, and they've actually had a year where they tried to cut that service, and there was such an uproar that they brought it back. So I'm expecting a lot, a lot of outreach to us from our patrons.

And we may find the same thing. And we may you know, we're here to serve the needs of the community. This is this is hard This is difficult, of course, but you know if we get a lot of backlash on this or blowback I Think we're gonna have to talk about it

Madam Chair? Yes, ma'am. Just a discussion from along those lines. There were some problems a patron who I happen to know was having and didn't understand that maybe it was when we cut the amount. they couldn't get something and then she came in and had a one-on-one discussion with one of the librarians about the cloud library and discovered that there was more things available in the cloud library that she knew and was very excited to go home because she knew that she now had all these other resources that she didn't realize she had so part of it may be us making sure that we Encourage people to come in and find you know and or or we Add additional information about the other services and stuff where they can get those other services that the hoopla may Impact can I just ask what would be the salary range for the part-time?

Even if moved to the 28 hours the children's librarian so under 27 salary numbers Do you want the number just if we were to hire at the minimum pay?

Yeah.

For example?

Well, you said you're going to ask for 28. I say let's hear the 28. Yeah.

No, but you're talking about the minimum.

Right, but the hourly rate would be the minimum hourly rate? Start at the minimum, yeah. Yeah. OK. So annual salary is $40,331.20.

And then you have all the... How early? all the benefits in addition.

So it's part-time, so you don't have the health insurance benefits?

No, but you have vacation, you have vacation and sick time and holiday pay. So those things, there is a line that has, there is an amount that has to be put aside for that. So if you go up to 28 hours, you're gonna be doing it based on the 28 hours, that's all.

Right that is based on the 20 hours, but there isn't an additional cost for paid time off because it's already factored in. Because that this is assuming you work every day you possibly could. So if they take some time off, it's just.

I'm on the time off pay is included in that number sick time.

Sick time also yet you just don't show up and still get this is not like there's a different budget line to cover sick time.

So if it's $40,000 at the minimum, I don't know if my math is correct, that would be $27? $27.70.

Okay.

So based on my knowledge, even at the minimum, that would be competitive.

Okay. Thank you, Azra.

They would the part I didn't factor into that is if they and I hope that they will have a Master's degree they would get the educational incentive. So it's another five hundred dollars. So forty thousand eight thirty one

just for a community standpoint I would like you know whatever it is that we vote on for the cuts I'd like to like make some really well done graphic organizers not graphic but infographics to Communicate to the public where the cut came from and they will feel it and I think that is important That's that's going to get the community to decide, you know when we're doing budget discussions like do we really want to keep pushing for cuts cuts cuts because you will feel the cuts when it when it impacts something that we all love and and You know, desire. So we have to make the cuts and there's only so many places you can cut it from. And it is important for the community to understand that so that they can give pushback and say, this is actually something we want to invest in in the next year.

There is more to this list, but yeah, just regarding hoopla specifically, I just want to note that I do appreciate that. I guess the timing of it allows us. Some significant time to get the word out that the service is going away and that they still have a chance Up until February to make use of it So I think that's in our favor whereas Like with what conquered just did it was like end of the month you're cut off So I do I do think they're That's a good service. As much as it stinks to cut it, it's a good way, customer service-wise, to give them warning it's happening. So I just want to note that. Continuing on the list, we plan to not renew our database subscriptions to A to Z databases and value line. Value lines actually on the agenda tonight as a contract that's up for renewal and Assuming you want to move forward with this that would have to be Declined voted down to renew I do want to note that the real challenge here is that really what we're cutting the most of is our reference resources. We're really turning to spending them. And, I mean, it's clear even in the usage that that is the way the patrons are going. We really are limiting ourselves in terms of the resources we have to answer people's factual questions, which is hard because that is what we're supposed to be here for. So it's really tough for me, being a reference librarian at heart, to even offer this as a suggestion, but when you look at usage, it's just not there when we have to cut something. So that's kind of where we're at. I will hope that future we may be able to bring something back because the reference staff is going to be relying a lot on just free resources. It's going to take more time in terms of figuring out, is this resource legitimate? I want to make sure I'm providing accurate information before I'm just handing it over. Whereas when we have a database like this, it's already vetted information that we know we can hand over without question. So that's going to be tough. But I do feel like that's where the money has to come from.

So do we have numbers of use?

I do, I don't have them in front of me. I can provide them if you are interested.

And there was some database that we added in for this year.

We did not actually add it. So we budgeted to add Comics Plus, and that is part of the cut because we haven't even added it because we didn't have the money to add it. So it's not in this list, but in the spreadsheet below, I think I listed that as being cut. So we didn't even get to add it. We're just not adding it. That was part of the budget season request. That's next. We also, so Megan did a lot of work on periodicals, newspapers and magazines and print to find 28 titles that we will not renew. And we provided the full title list of those. There are two on there that actually Megan made a good note for. that she realized that we were a year ahead in paying for them based on our subscription dates. So we can skip this year, and for 28, we will have them again. But the rest of them are going to go. I also want to note that some of the more expensive ones are also reference related. The guides that we get to help patrons value their cars when trying to sell them, those are what those car guides are and we will be cutting those

This is rough because some of these magazines, I believe you can get through Libby Overdrive, but there's nothing like having a physical magazine in your hands, especially if you're doing recipes or birds in bloom and gardening. USA Today, that's a big deal. Patrons, not necessarily checking out the newspapers, but if you've ever been in the library, you'll see the guys or ladies who'll sit there for over an hour browsing it.

they're not gonna be happy yeah this is this is rough there's no question about it I appreciate your you know time and attention to this but you know our community will guide us I know they will and if there's a lot of backlash on this I think again we're gonna have to revisit it yes ma'am

So when you're seeing the list of numbers from that second list, I mean, that would be an area we could say, well, if people wanted to keep the gardening and you're a person that uses that gardening magazine or whatever, here's how much it costs to save that. So somebody might be able to donate. that much money to save that. You know, it costs 200 and whatever dollars for USA Today. If somebody wanted to save that, they could donate that. So it's a hard cut, and I agree that those are hard cuts, but it also is an advantage that perhaps this will be an ask that people haven't been asked for Up till now is well, you know take an active role in providing some of these things.

Mm-hmm That's definitely a possibility. I will say that these prices are specific to our contracted service. And that contract's actually also on the agenda tonight. So if that moves forward with these titles removed and someone wants to donate, we'd probably be looking at a different cost if we were to subscribe directly. So for the public, I want them to know that that cost isn't necessarily what we would have to pay in a direct way.

Subscription and the contract with the vendor that we use for the contract They don't wouldn't allow you to add it in if somebody donated the money I think we might It's just that it would like the subscription period is going to be significantly off compared to some of our other like if I remember right Yeah, so I mean it would go into if somebody

did it it would be just like a different like an individual invoice so then it would be put into the renewal for the following year okay um so the renewal would be off yeah potentially Periodicals are their own special beast. So they all have different renewal dates, which is why you actually see if you get missed issues, they often credit you. If a magazine goes out of print because they're going digital only, if you still have issues left that you've on your contract, they'll maybe put it onto another magazine, which is why we're actually a year ahead on those two, because that's what happened over time. So it is a little bit more complicated, but it can happen.

Either way, the message to the public, yes, we would appreciate a donation if you'd really like to see one of those magazines saved. This is a good price to base your donation off of.

And it would be better to donate the money to the library rather than sending us the magazine.

Correct. Yes.

That would be easier for us.

Well, it also means you can get it at the lower price, potentially.

Well, it would be a cost savings, but we don't always know what we get for those magazines.

They would have to donate the funds so that you could order the magazine.

Right. If there's an issue with the magazine, if it's a donated magazine, we have a harder time rectifying those.

So Erica has some comments.

I think it's also important to remember that while I think it's always valuable to accept community donations and support, you know, individual sponsorships of subscriptions and things like that. At the end of the day, it is our job as the board to advocate for and defend a budget that is actually functional for what our community wants from the library. And there is something particularly devastating and gutting about having to make such intensive cuts to the budget that are going to hurt a lot of people's resources and access to the things they want from the library from a public resource that we all know and love and have brutally missed having the full functionality of since january and And I think this should also serve as a reminder that it is our job, we were elected to defend this library and to advocate for its budget and to advocate for the town to fund it fully. And as wonderful as it would be to have private citizens stepping up to help fill in some of the gaps, we have to step it up this budget season to make sure that this does not happen again because we cannot continue to sustain this. and this was based on the request from the town manager I have been following this too Jen I am just outraged that we are at this point and we did not do more to prevent it when we had the opportunity last year and this could have been avoided if not for the passports actions which the public remembers and we remember

I don't know that this $51,000 would have made a difference.

We're not going to relitigate sins of the past. This is hard. Our community is going to be hurt. There's no question about that. This is going to be difficult for everybody. But again, I trust our community. And if there is backlash, we are going to revisit all of these items. so in the interest of time is there any other new discussion or anything else that you want to add

There were just a couple more items that I did not cover yet. Yeah, let's keep going Next being that we will not renew the Boston Children's Museum pass. That's just terrible it's very expensive and when Megan actually did the Use it or what the cost per uses it was around nine dollars a usage, which is very high so based on that that was the one that we chose to cut and I don't know. There's a possibility that the friends could end up wanting to support it. I don't know yet. But that is part of the list. There's also a removal of some funds from office supplies. So we will be restricting spending more in that line. Because of the budget freeze situation with FY26, we were able to successfully keep spending there pretty low compared to how much we had for the budget. So I do feel like while we had to order some things we normally would, I think we can manage with that small amount removed. And lastly, and probably most importantly, part of my list is to ask the board for 10,000 from the board's own account to supplement the books and periodicals budget line so that money would be transferred to the book account. and that would allow us to We would still I think not quite be where we need to be in terms of spending for the collection But we wouldn't be in such a hard Conservative spending place as last year Last year I would say we would definitely were not meeting patron expectations collection wise and If the board chooses not to give that $10,000, we would pretty much be in the same space we were.

Are you asking for that tonight?

That is up to the board. It can be a decision tonight. It can wait a little longer. It would be easiest to know now because I plan to give budgets to each of the selectors. So if you don't decide tonight, I can't factor in that $10,000 into their budgets yet.

But either way. Well, you opened up the meeting telling us that we had balances. So the balance in the trustee's account was around figures $48,000 something. Correct. I have the exact number actually somewhere in my notes.

$48,788.09 in the trustee account.

The note there is I always try to note that the committee has not yet determined what of that amount is still restricted funding versus unrestricted funding. However, I know that there is a lot of unrestricted because of the book sale funds. So I I do think there's 10,000 of unrestricted funds there. Plus there are some restricted funds that were meant for the collection.

So is there precedence for the trustees doing something like this in leaner budget times?

Absolutely. At one point, it was actually a normal thing for a former director to ask the board for $20,000 at a time, for example.

Yeah. So I think if there is, it would be kind of maybe more difficult to explain if this is the first time we're doing it, but since there is history of it i would feel comfortable with this recommendation particularly since the trustees are supposed to be the ones running book sale um i i would be comfortable with the 10 000.

I'd like to jump on that. Looking at the recent history of the trustees and the use of that account, we have not effectively used it. And because we have not effectively used it, donations have been reduced. basically shooting ourselves in the foot by hoarding money because the community is Not motivated to give or to support that fund if we're not actually reinvesting it in our book line So we really need to do that to to bring back the community trust. That's been part of our goal this year is to kind of you know Re-establish ourselves as being you know You know safeguards of our library and you know helping the community to trust us to do that job And so that would be a good way to demonstrate that Okay anything else You scroll down to the actual spreadsheet for a second I

I think the only other thing I haven't mentioned is that, and this was part of the conversation early on, is that we would not be doing a limited time museum pass that year as well. This year.

OK.

I was going to make a motion to accept the changes suggested by Donna to bring our budget down $51,000 to comply with the request.

Painful as it may be, motion by Beth. Is there a second? Second. I heard Miriam. Yep. OK. Any other discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed?

Nay.

That would be a 5-2 vote.

Thank you. Do you want to decide on the 10,000?

I'd like to make a motion that the board designates $10,000 from the trustee account to the book line for FY28. Book account. Book account, sorry. That's OK. 27. 27. Too many numbers, too many years. Too many numbers tonight.

That's a motion by Beth. Is there a second? I second. Second by Azra. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Nay. 5-2. Okay. Very good. Okay. Now that we've all had heart palpitations. Thank you for that. I know how difficult this is. I know how difficult this is. I shouldn't say that. I can only imagine how difficult this is for you. And you're going to be on the front line when our community comes in looking for these items, and you're going to have to share with them that they are no longer available. But again, I trust our community, and if there's enough backlash, again, we will have to talk about it. OK. Moving on to funding request. Replace toilet in main reading room restroom.

So this is what I brought up earlier under my report. So this quote is to cover just the toilet replacement in that one restroom by the reference desk in the main reading room. My suggestion is to consider replacing three At the same time which would triple the cost of this Not very good at mental math, sorry 3750 it would become And the reasoning for that is I do think well I already know that there is another one in the children's room that they are already recommending replacing just not at the same level of priority and But I just know that there's going to be the next one in line. And it makes sense to do the three that are used the most by the public first, in my opinion.

OK. Is there a motion? I'd like to make a motion to go ahead.

Yeah, I just had a question. Why is it so expensive?

I don't know enough about plumbing to to explain I I could ask for more information from mainline because or even seek another. It's a new toilet.

It's a one year warranty its installation.

Yeah, when you replace a toilet, you have to replace the seal, but usually it's like $200 to $400. In what world are you living?

I buy these things every day. This is cheap.

This is cheap.

But there's also a warranty.

So versus us installing it, which I would...

I mean, my understanding is that we're also talking a commercial level versus a residential.

It's not a home toilet. This is a DIY.

It's to last a long time, I think.

What were the issues with the toilets?

So this one that was absolutely recommended was the issue we were noticing is that it was flushing very slowly and we were constantly having to plunge it or it needed maintenance all the time. And then when they looked at it, they confirmed that, yes, that is what's happening. But also it's the age of it and the fixtures within it are... like piecemeal over time. They're all different ages because it's been fixed so many times. And they're just like you gotta.

So that makes sense with the other two if they're already there and the labor is goodness so much of the cost. These have been clogging for 10 years. Yes.

So I just have a question is has the line from that been snaked or whatever as well? The line, I'm sorry. The line from this toilet that we've been having problems with has that been snaked or will that be snaked as part of the installation of the toilet so we can make sure the line for that one toilet is clear and has no obstructions.

I don't know. I don't know what is included in installation. I can ask.

In my building that's all included. I would be shocked if it was not.

Well we've had problems with we thought stuff was included that we found wasn't so that's why I'm asking.

I'm happy to confirm as part of me working with them.

I'd like to make a motion is to approve $3,750 the threat amount. Yes to purchase and install new toilets in 3 of the patron bathrooms where you pull them from.

There's a contract for 12, do you have the page for the contracts? It's the 1250 times three.

Yeah, it's the. Mainline plumbing. The funding request is not. Oh, what line, budget line?

Yeah, what line?

It should be maintenance.

Maintenance. I second the motion. So that's a motion by Beth with a second by Erica. Is there any other discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? That would be a 6-1 vote. Okay, next.

So our contracts. I would say GMILCS doesn't really need to go before the board because it's a contract that's in place until the board chooses to

Okay. All right. So you don't even know the word.

I don't even know the word. Disconnect from Gmail. But I brought it forth because there were some questions about the dues. I think, Jan, you had brought up some questions by email. So I agreed for the sake of discussion with the full board absolutely to bring it forth. I did email that as of the June 11th, board meeting that their budget was set and voted on. So these are our dues for the year. When I received the invoice, there is a due date of August 30th of 26. And as I noted in my email to you, this THE COST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THIS YEAR, EXCUSE ME, IN FY26 IS A 3.8% INCREASE. I WILL SAY, BEING PART OF THE DISCUSSION REGARDING THE GMILKS BUDGET THAT THERE WERE ACTUALLY SOME SERVICES CUT IN ORDER TO KEEP THE INCREASE TO A REASONABLE NUMBER. THEY ARE DEFINITELY FACING SOME increases in the van delivery fuel charges. And so that was factored into next year's budget. And, of course, we all know inflation-wise costs are going up. So the fact that they... are only increasing by 3.8%, and I think is miraculous. And also another driving factor in that is the fact that the Manchester West Branch will remain open. It was funded. Otherwise, it would have driven our cost up more. So that's all the information I have to share with you.

So you do or you don't need to vote on that tonight?

Technically, I don't, but like I said, I brought it for discussion purposes.

I would just like to, what I had proposed was is there some way to not pay it all out at once, you know, so that we're not just paying that right to begin with versus, you know, could we, you know, delay a month or two or whatever since we're having so many outgoes right now?

I don't think that would be wise.

I mean, it's due August 30th, so we have to pay by August 30th. If the board directs me to pay it a certain time, I'll obviously adhere to that. We have a contractual arrangement with these folks, right? We do. And that full amount has to be paid out of the budget. I mean, I would rather see it just accounted for.

There's no benefit to delaying it. Pay now, pay later.

Okay, so again, you do or you don't want to vote tonight? I don't need a vote. Okay, then we'll put that to the next meeting.

And as long as the consensus is that you just pay it now.

The consensus is to just pay it.

What would be the purpose of not?

My feeling was we had a lot of things coming out all at one time, and so I was trying to keep our cash flow not being dramatic. Everything goes out now. It has to be out right now. So if we could delay that or delay part of that, that perhaps it would be – a little bit more palatable going forward because we're going to have a lot more expenses as we get closer to opening up.

I think the consensus to just pay it.

Okay, the next one value line value line. So this was part of the recommendation to not renew. So I would just ask for a formal vote to not renew this.

I make a motion to not renew the value line database contract. Motion by Beth.

Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? That's a 7-0 vote.

Thank you.

OK. WT Cox.

WT Cox is our magazine subscription service that we briefly spoke about. It's many pages. It's many pages because it goes through every single title. This total does reflect the titles that we discussed being removed have been removed from this already. So I know I had to find it too.

Right there. Oh, right there.

So it's a total of $4,096.74. I would like to make a motion to pay the WT Cox magazine subscription in the amount of 4096 dollars and 74 cents. And may I just add, this is from the books and periodicals line.

That was a motion by Beth. Is there a second? Second. Second by Erica. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion is 7-0. Okay, thank you. That is all contracts All righty Acceptance of unanticipated funds and these all have to be separate right a good note.

No, this can be one motion together It's the board so chooses. Yay Would you like me to go through them? I very quickly.

Okay, very quickly. Um, we received a

There are a couple I don't want to go too quickly through, but the Great New Hampshire Restaurants, which is the company that owns like T-Bones, Cactus Tracks, donated a $25 gift card for adult summer reading. Coffee Berries right in town donated three coupons for free medium drinks, I believe, and three $5 gift cards also for adult summer reading prizes. Janie's, this was actually thanks to Beth for entering us into, I think it was a raffle, correct me if I'm wrong. The library won $100 towards a future catering order with them. That's nice. And I would say Beth had a really great idea to actually consider this for the grand reopening celebration.

Ooh.

You're so smart.

I'll try. I will leave that up to the committee to decide if they want to use it for that. The Dairy Medical Center and Charitable Foundation, this is the $1,000 they gave us some notice that they'd be sending. And the board agreed it should be for Play Away Wonder Books. Mm-hmm. So that has been received. This one is a memorial gift given by Carrie Berry in memory of her sister Kathleen Ryan. This actually come I think also was someone who reached out directly to Beth some time ago and Beth connected her with me. Um, and we had, we actually met and had a great conversation about her sister and they were, her family was really looking for a way to honor her sister's memory. Um, and through our conversations, um, she really wanted to do something in the children's room, um, and offered kind of like a reading nook scenario named after her sister. Um, so we actually, Megan, if you could bring up the photo. We did some of our own looking. And we suggested. Hold on. Oh, yeah.

Makes me so excited.

There's a lot of angles.

Oh, it's the wrong one. Hold on.

Okay.

I will get it. It's the same one. It just has a... It has a mat with it.

That one. So we suggested this to her as something that we'd be really interested in adding in the children's room, of course, with Jen's blessing. And she was like, yes, this is exactly what we want. So... And there is a possibility of an additional gift of some books to go with it, but we're starting with just the piece of furniture. So they have given a check in this amount. This amount was what we quoted to be able to get this piece. including shipping. However, I did know, because this is how it's been done historically for a memorial gift, they would really like a plaque for this, and that traditionally is provided by the library. Of course. So I don't have... a quote for that just yet that's all right but that's forthcoming but um with you accepting it for this piece of furniture we would be able to order it and hopefully have it for reopening perfect exciting that would be great what a great way to honor the plaque is something that's the trustee account definitely i was going to say i would i would propose that we um absolutely yes whatever the cost is going to be for the plaque that we just Agree that we're going to do that we would consent not everyone's not in their head you bet well with trustee funds or with yeah Yes, okay I also wanted to add that in our investigating further actually thanks to Megan investigating further We learned that the company that makes this is actually local in Keene. Oh

No way. Yes.

And we would be able to order directly to save some money and possibly even order a second piece of furniture with the same money. Oh, you go, Megan. So thank you, Megan. The only thing is that we have to figure out getting it.

Who has a really big car? I can help. I can help. I can fit my car.

Yeah, so we were looking at a rocking chair is what we had brought up as part of the CIP discussion So we think it would be a great combination I actually had because we weren't 100% positive that I haven't let our donor know yet, but I think she'll be really excited that there's We've stretched the donation as much as we can. So that is really exciting. And then we also had Rockingham Herb Society donated a one-year membership or museum pass to the Bedrock Gardens. That is located in Lee, New Hampshire. And it is great timing because it fits so well with the summer reading theme. So we are happy. And actually, because we got that at least a couple weeks ago, I had staff put it in the system right away because it's only for this season so that patrons could use it right away. It is a $125 value. Nice. And then we also received a donation from Majestic Theater for four tickets to their performance of The Secret Garden this weekend for any of the three dates this weekend. And we are doing a similar raffle on Facebook for those similarly to the last tickets that we received from Philharmonic. Nice.

Perfect. Had a busy couple of weeks. We have. Thank you to all the donors. Thank you very, very much. Thank you to our donors, our very, very supportive community. Yep.

We have to we have to accept somebody needs to make a motion like a motion to accept these unanticipated funds so generously donated under RSA 202 dash a colon for dash see That is motion by Erica with a second by Beth.

Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye aye all those opposed That motion passes 7-0

all right i think that concludes our business do you have anything else for us i have one um and i this has never gone to a vote before i just wanted to make sure everybody more so knew about it that i do have with me this evening a um the like paperwork to request the first half of our book budget um that traditionally assigned by either the chair or the treasurer so that it can go over to the town so

Give it to the treasurer.

Okay Is there anybody here for public comment are we sure I

Darn, okay. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Before you do that, I would just like to say, as we always end, we are committed to reopening our library and meeting the needs of our community, and we are committed to reestablishing our relationship with and the trust of our staff. Is there any other business that needs to come before this board tonight? Motion to adjourn.

Motion by Beth, second by Erica.

All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? That is a 7-0 vote. Thank you, ladies.