Arts in Public Places Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Okay. I will call the meeting to order at 05:30. We have myself. Yes. Brian. So we do have a quorum. Do we have any public comments? There's none. Okay. So

Can you introduce everybody?

Oh, yeah. Sure.

I'm I'm Dave Drieger. I'm the new liaison, and we missed a meeting last month. Right? I couldn't go.

Yeah. Yeah. Who

are you? I'm Ryan Parker. Ryan Parker. Okay.

And Jason Chappell. You? Jason Chappell. Jason Chappell. Okay.

Jason is our vice chair.

Vice chair. Okay.

And I'm Beth Stell.

I'm the

chair. Beth Stell. Yeah.

I'm Brad. I'm senior librarian, and I'm just

So you're staffed with this? I'm staffed. Yeah. Oh, so this was Quorum. You're gonna meet it to Quorum. Okay.

Okay. You showed up.

Okay. First order of business is the minutes from the February 2.

We have a motion to

We approve the minutes from last

Second.

Second.

And all in favor?

Eight.

The next item is the library work board sorry. Library board work plan presentation. So we are scheduled to present to council on Tuesday, March 17. That will be at the White Rock Fire Station. I'm gonna do the presentation.

One attached out presentation from last year, which I wasn't able to attend. So Michelle, who was vice chair at the time, kindly stepped in and and put that together and presented to council. And so, I've included that there just for reference. And so as as you'll see, it's sort of just a a highlights really of what we'd included in the work plan. And when I spoke to Gwen, she said there hadn't been any specific direction in terms of what the presentation should include. But councilor Rico, is there anything you would recommend or you know that the council is expecting in the presentation?

Let's see. Talk about the new open how that's gonna be managed, the new space, the outdoor Yeah. Classroom, performance space, or whatever it is. Mhmm. And I guess the library's going to be responsible for managing programming for the programming.

Okay. So I

That doesn't mean you have to break leaves. So

it sounds like then we can do a similar sort of structure to what we did last year. So, essentially, my plan is to sort of take that template and just populate it with the items, that we we added in the work plan for for this year. In the chairs report, I'll give a little update on some of that. But are there any comments, suggestions, the things you would like to make sure is are highlighted in the description?

Mine has is related, but not related to that.

So Okay.

You know, answer that question.

Okay. No problem. We can come back to it whenever I think the time is right. Okay. So I I will put that together, and then at our next meeting, I'll give an update on how that goes.

Just for my benefit, being on two boards, is that gonna be all boards presenting that day? No. They're staggered usually. Yeah. Usually staggered. Okay.

And when there isn't an expectation that all board members attend, are they able to, or are there concerns if that happens? It would be quorum concerns. Right. So But

Yes. If anybody did want to attend with you.

Right. So if someone does, then contact me directly, and then I can, you know, make sure that we don't accidentally have a quorum there.

Okay.

Our next item is from Gwen, and this is an update on outdoor classroom. And we have some printouts that Gwen has made for us.

Yeah. Each piece is a little different. That's correct. Yeah. It's for you.

Hear that? Okay. So these are the latest designs from, Wayne Lloyd Architects, who is the firm we've been working with on the project. And so as you might recall, the discovery of some inconveniently placed utility lines have altered our original design, and that was, the presentation that the board heard last summer, I think, was when that happened. And so these designs are slightly different.

And so I just wanted to present them to the board and get your input, whether there was one that, thought was was better over, any of the others. There are very slight differences between all of them, and I'll kind of just go through what I've noticed as we talk about each option. So layout one is is the first one, and you can see the performance slash stage area has moved closer to the library. So that's one change. And the other change is that the space across from it where we had hoped to have some built in seating, sort of the the landscape, that is not possible given the the building lines.

And so that's just an open space right now that we can put portable seating.

Is that because of the utility lights?

Correct. Yeah. From what I understand, it's the shade structures that need to built into the ground that are the really the the problematic piece of the of the design.

Question on that seating area.

Would there

be any leveling or, like, compacting of the dirt to facilitate being a seating area. Yes. And that's all fine with it. Yeah.

As far as we know I understand. There is some drainage. The water kind of just naturally flows in that area, and so that will have to be addressed. The architects are well aware of that Okay. That issue. So, yes, it would be mostly a flat a flat space.

But no shape. Flat no shape. And that is

So flat as opposed to slight, like, you know, stadium ish. I I don't know the

I think the I think the the rise there would be minimal.

Okay. So

So so

person in front of me is not gonna completely obstruct my view?

Except yeah. Yes. So option for layout one, you'll notice the stage area itself is a half circle all along the perimeter. And the shade structure stays the same in all the designs. It's just the that's the concrete part stage itself that changes, and there are some differences in size for for each of us as well. You can see the furniture placement is where we identified back in the last summer, and so those are pretty well indicated in the.

Is there a plan to keep that sidewalk that connects to oh, sidewalk to keep that there?

Yes. The only reason I'm saying that is because I can see the gas line that cuts right through, obviously, the sidewalk and the structure. Yep.

I mean, heaven forbid, there's some sort of gas issue. It would be helpful to take that.

Yes. That would

be Get the whole thing down?

Exactly. So, right, those are questions I have for the for the engineer on the project, the count the county engineer on the project, and so see that with him. But from my understanding, it really is the the the, you know, pillars towards the back of the shade structure that needs to be well clear of any utility.

Oh, okay.

So, yes, the plan is to keep the sidewalk as close to as is as possible because that really is the accessible entrance into the up to the upper level of the library. That area of this.

And what the side of curiosity, what are the red?

You know what? I don't know, and they don't appear on subsequent so I'm thinking that might just be a mistake. So there is, you know, additional plantings that they've indicated. I think it's on

Oh, I think I know what it is now.

I yes. It's new landscaping, and that is to minimize the sound any sound disruption to. So that is option one. You'll notice it is 441 square feet. Here are two options.

It's 514. Will notice the shape of the page here is sort of a wedge shaped with seating up on the back. This is the appealing feature about this is it does leave sort of walk walkway between the library and the edge of that concrete piece sage piece. We're doing the same sort of flat flat space in the middle. Slightly larger Stage area there.

Three is 560 square feet, and it is the same circular space that we saw earlier with seating up against the side, and it's got a sort of wedge space on the other side of the sidewalk to provide a little more flat flat seating that's open area. Is that wedge that could be added for any of the system? I would think so. Yeah. Do you know

why it wasn't presented with, like, two, for instance?

Yeah. I I don't know. Probably just at this point to just demonstrate kind of what's what's possible. But, again, that's covering water or gas. Gasoline.

Yeah. We have the fourth. Feeding on the I guess that would be north and east side of the stage area. Smallest of the. It does it's like it butts up against the library.

So, like, walking behind in there. So do you have up the types of furniture that we're looking at in case you'd wanna put pressure on what that looks like? So these are the types of seats that we would out. Sort of these cafe tables on the upper left. Curved benches.

Locations. This green is sort of a close-up picture of some Adirondack chairs. The bottom right are some handicap accessible picnic tables.

Since I wasn't here for the last presentation, will the the furniture, chairs, tables be into the ground, or they will they be seasonally taken out?

They will be into the ground in there. Somewhat correctly. Yeah.

And I read

yeah. You're right.

Sorry if you already mentioned this. Section b, the public seating, is there an estimate for how many how large that is? Like, in drawing, it looks about equivalent to this stage. Would that be accurate?

You're right. I don't I don't know. It's a good question. I'll follow-up with the architects on that one to see what year it does look similar in size to the let's just state your Nice. Yeah. I guess it would

be helpful to know what your expectations are. I assume with this kind of designs, the blover, it just would happen naturally. It wouldn't be

they wouldn't be

shades or anything like that. Would

So that is one of the things that we've lost is sort of that that shade for that area, that that seating area. There may be a possibility where we could bring in some, you know, umbrellas after the event. There may be a space where we could get smaller shade and avoid the utility ones.

I was gonna say, I mean, if just hypothetically, you know, using using this one as an example, you know, we could put something, you know, movable umbrellas or something like that along the f and b sections, maybe where the h and g are Yeah. Into that tree line Yeah. To potentially add to visitor count. I don't I don't know Yeah. How we wouldn't describe it yet. But

How much do you think the lack of shade will impact the usability? I

think it's going to facilitate that we have programs kind of in the morning. Initially, when the sun is not quite so intense, we're not gonna be able to use it without some sort of shade from, you know, I would say, noon four. Luckily, afternoon, the building blocks a lot of the afternoon sun, but it's the new day that I think is gonna be cute. But we could be able to be able to do things underneath the stage area too or on the stage area where there is shade.

Regarding shade, obviously, I mean, you can see the utility lines there. Do you know what the clearance is roughly on how far we can go into the ground without, like, my gents? The the only reason I say that because I've seen them in you know, if you go to, you know, some of

the more modern, like, parks, they'll have the the sort of like what we have at the ponds Yeah.

You know, with that cloth y material that's sort of, you know, durable. But, you know, you can put it up at the beginning of the summer, take it down in the fall, you know, kind of thing.

That is what the intention was with that seating area is to have sort of some sort of sail, like, fabric covering or shade shade shade covering. But they still do need to be pretty far to the ground for stability. But it doesn't mean that there might be other options that we could

way off in the corner. Yeah. I

was gonna say attach one to the building here, attach one to the the stage, and then one to the tree way up there.

Yeah. So does it do you anybody have preference on which of the layout designs I better or any of the others?

I like option two. Like, simple fact that it's

got the square footage and activity. But at the same time, you know,

the sidewalk, if heaven forbid, like I said, we have to dig up anything, that gas that gas line that goes through, you know, there will be minimal effect to that sidewalk. You know? Whereas, I think the other ones,

they sort of the whole structure goes into the sidewalk. And from this picture, anyways, it appears that there's minimal

Yeah.

Yeah. Minimal impact to the the sidewalk. That way, wrap it, get under the grounds.

What do you think would be most useful for programming in terms of that seating or edge? Did you wanna prioritize, like, more of that and hence, like, the the option that goes all the way around or being able to access from the sides?

That's a good that's a good question. Probably the more seating, the better. I I would say.

I was gonna say I I I like option b, but I believe that's option, yeah, option three with the more rounded seating or Okay. We'll call it

concrete, you know, that little block area. I mean,

I don't know if we can make option two and option three, you know, more as opposed to the back just the back wall, but more of

Yeah. Yeah. Sitting there. Yep. Yep.

I do on which one is is this option one? This is 3. 3. So the one thing I do like about three also is not necessarily the whole half circle on the the left side of the screen, but I do like that a separate little pad for somebody with possibly a wheelchair or somebody that might have some mobility issues that can't get into the dirt, you know, and walk over to a place. So I I don't necessarily think it has to be that big, but maybe, like, a little offshoot of the sidewalk.

I I don't know how many wheelchairs we'll have there at any given time or you know?

Well, we

can just walk us sometimes, that kind of thing.

Yes. And I would hope, you know, that whether it's this one, the transition into the sidewalk is fairly seamless regardless of what side of the sidewalk you go. I would hope it's you know, there's no lip or anything like that. I would hope it'll all just be one flat continuous service. I mean

That is what we had asked for with the initial design, and so I'll double check and make sure. Has there been any input from the CMS Internet about how this might affect their use? Meeting with them on Thursday. Okay. So this is the the the first stage is getting the input from the from and because these changes are fairly significant, we do feel like we need to go look as well and get what this would be like and make sure that there's still support.

Mhmm. Ask the board for assistance and and getting getting the word out. And

would that be like a listening session similar to what you held? Yeah. That actually had quite a few people who came to share opinions. Yes. I was pleased.

Can I ask one more question? So, obviously, I see this sidewalk up here. This is the senior citizen right the senior center right here in the lower right hand corner. Right. Is there a possibly underneath where we can't see is their direct line from the senior center back to the library sidewalk, or do they have to

go it's probably easier if I just point with my hands. Mhmm.

Or do they have to go from here all the way over here? Or

No. So the where the senior center is kind of facing the library, there's the patio. It seems it has a patio there.

I don't believe

that there's a path. Yeah. There's a path that kind of hooks into that sidewalk that's in the city.

Here ish. Go ahead. I

I'm terrible at visualizing.

It's okay. It's okay.

I have to stand in.

When I look at all these layouts, I think, to me, 400, 500 square feet seems rather large. Right? I mean, the square root of 400 is 20 by 20. Right? Yeah. Sure. This town would know. So can you imagine what I'm imagining, I guess, is there could be presentations or programs in which the seating is really the stage and the presenter is out in the sun. Therefore, the majority of the people would be under the shade. So not a bad I mean It depends on what it is.

I mean, obviously, like, I don't I I've totally forgotten all the programming that that but I'm imagining, like like, a, you know, a raptor. I know this is crazy. It's sound crazy. Say it with me. But, like, you know, they're the people who have birds.

Yeah. Ladies.

What I think when I think outdoor classroom is, like, five year old me. It was like, they brought the raptor to the school, and I'm like, the raptor is not gonna be underneath

the overhang.

Yes. Yes. You're you're correct. I think so it yeah. You're right. It could be any any of those scenarios. I think in our initial design, the thinking was that they would be kind of kind of a slope up for the seating, and that would naturally, I think, dictate that the presentation happened under on the on the stage.

Yeah.

But now that we're looking at anything in a more on a flat kind of surface, it could be kind of either either way.

So in programming, like, movement, everyone would be under That's There's no real audience. Yeah.

They don't have great experiences. Yeah. So that's the type of thing that we're envisioning happening, having their music performances. We're having their the stage itself will have electricity. And so for some performances, that will will be necessary that they they are performing from that from that stage. Exactly you mentioned is a good one. Any particularly messy crafts maybe we want outside of the stage, that that kind of thing.

Yeah. I guess that's all to say. I would advocate for the little concrete pad on the opposite side of the sidewalk. Just

This is like a place to sand and set your if you're presenting your

Yeah. Or if you have an especially small, like, intimate program, then you could have seats on on that. Don't know. It just seems pretty

Yeah.

To me.

Yep. For M and M's. So if the material is consistent with the previous design, it's like a crushed gravel, coated with something so that it stays in place. So, is that gonna be

Like, some sort

of can still see yeah. I'm sorry. I'm a proxy.

I do have another question directly related to furniture, and I only ask this because I'm on the board of the and I'm on another board at the school's credit union. When we built the little park here, we put in audio visual, and we have a little box on the backside where we keep that stuff and stuff. Like, will this structure or any of the surrounding areas have built in audio visual type components?

No. This will be just electricity, and we have portable equipment, portable sound system and speakers and microphones, that sort of thing that we would

So we won't need, like, a little outhouse on the backside?

Yes. Exactly. We do have a storage shed indicated. See

In the top right?

Yeah. The seat. It's a storage shed, and that is intended for, you know, seating portable seating that we can as well as possibly. We probably would keep this the equipment inside just for your test. And

is there any thought once again, space limited on when you say portable seating, is there a thought on, like, semi permanent seating, like an Adirondack chair that's so heavy it's not gonna move? Obviously, you would need a lot, and that would be its own headache. But is there is there a thought that section b there would be totally empty until program implement chair then take away chair every time?

Yeah. That's I think that that would be the intent for that for for b, and that is to give us the flexibility because we might want tables there, for example Yeah. At some point. And so just to give us the maximum flexibility.

We did a fire pit.

I will take it under advisement too. So the problem will love it. Maybe we could get an electric fire. So,

Gwen, do you need a vote from us on a specific layout, or was it just to get some of this feedback?

Just to get this exact feedback. Feedback. Yeah. And so the folks have a a strong preference or ideas on which which layout that would go a long way towards putting us in the right direction for the public feedback.

I have a strong preference. I would like to note, I have a strong preference against Layout 4.

That's fine.

It seems like it seems smaller than the other two. Let me yeah. It is the smallest. And I don't know. Something makes me uncomfortable about the edge of it going right up against the building. Right. How it how it's drawn on on the site plan layout. Yeah. It just seems like it would kinda force a wider audience when the audience is limited.

Yep. Other questions or suggestions? Hopefully, this is helpful. It is. Very yes. Very, very comfortable. Expect we'll be hearing more about this. Yes. Yeah. Let the board know about kind of next next steps.

So next item on the agenda is the chairs. So in update, we have interviewed one candidate for the library board vacancy, I believe. Brian to thank for letting people know in his circle that we had the vacancy. The recommendation will go to council on March 31 for their vote. So if all goes smoothly, we should have a full board again next

Yep. It was a good interview.

It was. It was a very good interview. So, yeah, I I think that's an excellent addition to that. Thank you for sharing that.

I actually only met her myself today.

It was your wife. Right?

Who Yes.

Yes. So well, that was great. Very it was very helpful to have that. Just a note that this month, I will be requesting a permit to hang hang the library week banner on the overpass. Library week is the April, so I think last year, did it about a month in advance to make sure that we could get that spot. Gwen, is there anything else we need to start thinking about or preparing for for library week? Or if and if you're planning to address that in the manager's report, we can

No. I I didn't have it on my on my radar until today also. But, yeah, so we it is the week of Yeah. Right. Library week. So it's basically do a proclamation and do staff appreciation activity. Plans are being developed, but I don't really have any Okay. On just yet. That'll be next meeting. Yes.

Yeah. I'll I'll get the permit submitted, and then we can hear more about that at our next

morning too.

So an update on the semiquincentennial art competition, which we heard about last month. Unfortunately, the event can't go forward anymore. I believe that I don't have a ton of details, but just some concerns about the board's ability to run a competition like that and maybe that not being something that that we could do or that the art in public places board could do. So we won't be having that on the calendar. I think Step Up Gallery will be figuring out what else they wanna do during that time.

But I think that we should sort of just be thinking about other ways that we could collaborate with that board or any of the other boards and commissions. That's something that council encourages us to do. So if you have ideas for sort of natural overlap, I imagine with the outdoor classroom coming back up, we'll have parks and rec be giving some feedback on this process like last time, like other suggestions for collaborating. For outreach overview, I wanted to just check-in with Glen and Veronica about March events that might need support from the library board members. I was having a look at the calendar, and a couple that jumped out at me were the jigsaw puzzle competition, which is on March 14.

And then I saw the seed libraries having a birthday celebration. So if there are events that might

be useful for to attend, I'd

love to hear, and then we can sign up for whoever is available. Any other outreach? If anyone has attended events in the past month?

Any other suggestions? Don't know. As Beth mentioned, we do have the seed library birthday coming up this weekend. It's on Saturday. Board members want to attend that and use it as an opportunity to to get some feedback on library services, that would be great. It is usually pretty well attended. We can get for for third. For birthday celebration. We do get a decent attendance at that event.

And I think that's they're doing the sowing seed sowing wildflower seeds on the eighth. I attended it at Peak on the weekend, and it was super interesting. So heads up. That's a great program that the library's doing with the seed stewards next weekend as well.

So

And that will be in White Rock.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So that's all I have as updates in the chair report. Any questions?

Next item is the boards and commission committee luncheon report. There hasn't been one since our last meeting, but there is one scheduled for Thursday. So next month, I will have an update from other boards and commissions. I don't believe Michelle is needing to attend online. So she's our liaison for the friends of library, so we won't have a report for that item, which

I actually attended that one as well. Excellent always. I'm not Okay. Eby Jacobson attends, but I did attend that one. And I think the the thing to note about that meeting is that the Friends of the Library Board voted to award the library $55,000 as their block grant commitment, for this year.

So that usually comes March, April time frame. This is the the block grant is the so the friends of the library are obligated to turn over their earnings that they make at the bookstore minus their expenses to the to the library in return for usage of the. So It It's

for 50,000. Correct.

55,000. Yeah. And, that amount is, actually, what they earn is, I wanna say, between 35 and 40,000, but they often vote than what they're required to by contract. So we very much appreciate that.

Yes. It seems like the Thriftbooks edition is, is being really helpful in terms of the Yes. Yes. It

is. It is.

Thank you for sharing an update. Any other items?

No. That was a good way. Up for Friday. Yeah.

Okay. So that means then I'll turn it back to Gwen for the none that she's reported. Alright.

So for the month of February, your print circulation was 22,120. Our digital was 10,030, which was 32% of the total. We're seeing month by month that increase. For our programs in February, we had a total of 64 programs with an attendance of 1,395. Biggest event was the opening reception for the All Schools Art Show, which happened last week.

We are always extremely well intended with some fantastic art. So if you want to see some really talented kid kid art, then please come take a look at that exhibit. It'll be up for me. Highlights include a tabletop game day, which we do monthly, and we launched the discover series in White Rock on cell phone photography, which was very well received. The attendance capped at 15 for that class, but we had a waiting list of at least 15.

And so we will be offering that class again as well as additional classes building on that topic. Start by Leslie Buckland, who is the assistant public information officer for She is talented. Upcoming programs, as we mentioned, we've got some Seat Library activities this weekend. On Sunday, there is a talk with Sarah Rovang on Georgia O'Keeffe's relationship with Los Alamos, and it sounds like it'll be a fantastic talk. We also have some musical performance planned for Mozart as well this this month.

Be over the lunch hour, so I'm gonna listen to some music. Let's see. In terms of projects, we are replacing the software for the it's a library, library software, and that is project is going to cancel, hopefully, for their approval tomorrow. And that will if that is approved, the project will begin in April and will go live in September.

Why so long?

Their implementation period with is is a six months, and I think it's just to to give

Work out the bus.

Time to do, yeah, to Training. Trainings and that sort of thing. We're also we're pretty firm that we did not wanna go live during the summer. A busiest busiest time, so we needed to shut out some Yeah. It's a very busy

Will that be a very different experience, user experience for patrons of the library and new catalog?

Yes. Okay. So that is a component of the project is the public facing catalog. And that was a one of the drivers for this change is because the product we're interested in is much more user friendly and attractive, more modern facing system. It's a better better product. And

will that be integrated with the new website, or will it kinda be separate like the current

It will be separate. Okay. So we have another project coming up. I'm very excited that we are going to be getting EV charging stations at public library. About that. It is a grant funded project through the county manager's office. And I think there there have been some installed throughout the county, but the libraries identify as a best location charge charging stations.

The class three ones, the last ones?

The last ones. Yeah. Yep. What's the timeline for

it?

So soon because it is grant funded, the to be extended by in the spring. So it was spring or the summer. So proposed location is kind of on the west side of the main library parking lot. Just Yeah. Staffing is in really good shape.

Knock on wood. We don't know. We are currently interviewing for casual position, which are a substitute substitute library employee positions, and those are the only vacancies we have current. Just jinxed it. We don't have a lot of patron feedback this month, but I will share that we had a patron who saw the new craft and hobbies database that we subscribed to. And they asked about it. And they were delighted to be shown how to access it from our website. Today, the patient told a library staff how much fun he had wasting time, he said with a smile on the site. I had some he had several other comments on his resources.

The announcement that went out about it was really great. It I was very excited to get in there and try it out. Yeah. After seeing it. Yeah. Really well done.

That's all I have. Questions?

Any updates actually on the community?

Yeah. So that's probably be on the agenda for the April meeting along with if there's plenty agenda, but we also will present on the collection development guideline changes we're recommending. It's upcoming around the agenda, depending on timing. But making progress, and and we'll have to share in April.

And the next item is our council leaders. I need updates, and is there any questions for council?

So I didn't plan anything for the updates, but there's there hasn't been that much library related at the council lately. Does anybody have any questions? We're all looking forward to seeing this and seeing that plan for sure. So just wanna know what your recommendations are. Are you gonna have another meeting on this, or you're just gonna collect it all, and that's gonna go into the future presentation to counsel?

We will have a public meeting with their input on on the. Not scheduled yet. Probably the March, April.

K.

Certainly let you know when that when that happens.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure.

And the informational items, I will just note that our next meeting is six, and it's gonna be at the White Rock Branch Library. But there will be an option to join via Zoom.

April 6.

That's right. Another information over there.

That means we have January at 06:13. Everyone.