Leach Library Trustees - Regular Meeting

Okay, here we go. I'd like to call this meeting to order, and we are going to begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. So if you would all rise for the pledge. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to start by reading our mission. The mission for the Leach Library is to provide materials, information and services for community residents of all ages to meet their personal, educational and recreational needs. Thank you. We're going to move on to our consent agenda. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the minutes? Any changes to the minutes? No? OK.

Manager, I had a couple quick things. On page 3, the motion that's in the building update section, The language just reads that the total cost included remediation units and it should be rental units If you want to include the glycol installation It was supposed to be rental for sure And then the only other thing I had was page five under unanticipated funds, the Dairy Medical Center should be Dairy Medical Center Charitable Foundation.

Okay, Charitable Foundation.

Say that again? It's written as Dairy Medical Center, but it should be the Dairy Medical Center Charitable Foundation.

Those changes have been made. Thank you. You're welcome.

Very good. We do have some meetings that we would like to let you know about. On Thursday, June 4th, we will be meeting at 7 o'clock here in the Moose Hill Council Changers for a regular meeting. On Thursday, June 25th, we will be meeting here in the Moose Hill Council Chambers for a special meeting at 7 o'clock. On Thursday, July the 9th, we will be meeting here in the Moose Hill Council Chambers at 7 o'clock for a regular meeting. And Thursday, July 22nd, we will be meeting here in the Moose Hill Council Chambers at 7 o'clock p.m. for a special meeting.

Wednesday.

Is that a Wednesday? Yeah. It says Thursday.

Yeah, it's supposed to be.

I apologize, that was my error.

And Miriam did catch an email earlier.

So we're meeting on Wednesday, not on Thursday. Yeah. Okay.

what time seven o'clock okay very good with the changes in mind for the minutes I would like a motion please for a consent agenda I move to accept the consent agenda that's a motion by Erica may I have a second please second by Miriam all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed very good motion passes how many are we tonight six six zero I'm abstaining, so 501. Okay, very good. And one abstention. Public comment. Do we have anybody here that would like to make any public comments this evening? We are a large and raucous crowd tonight.

Get yourselves under control.

Okay, committee reports. I understand that the financial committee met earlier this week, so who is delivering that report?

Erica?

Or excuse me, Azra, I beg your pardon.

No, you're fine, you're fine. Yes, so the financial ad hoc committee met, time doesn't exist anymore, last Wednesday. And this is our second meeting ever. We went over the... maintenance and utilities budget lines Donna was very kind to have proposed numbers for us and we decided that we'd also loop the budget committee in early so I sent out an email to Nicole a couple days ago just asking what are the rates for utilities including heat and water. We also talked about the donations, trustee donations, how to organize them. Some libraries did respond to Donna, but we decided that I would email the charitable trust about if they have any donation trackers that preferably use Excel not to buy more expensive software they did email me back and I'm going to bring that up at the next financial ad hoc committee and then is there anything else that I'm missing now so then our next meeting tentatively we're waiting to hear about room availability we're going to be talking about budget lines we're gonna go each meeting we're gonna go through a couple of budget lines so that we meet the end of July deadline that the town has set so we're going to be talking about programming next time and one other one am I missing one supplies yes and these are public meetings so the agendas are posted and anyone from the public is welcome to attend

watch on youtube watch on youtube okay very good i thank you for that report um just to let you know that the bylaws committee will be meeting tomorrow wednesday the 20th of may and we will be meeting here in this building in the sunny crest room so we're going to start digging into that document and donna i unless you did and i just don't remember it but could you please send me the late i know that there were a lot of flavors of that document but could you kindly sent me the latest one that that we had from last year so we can start digging and could you send that to erica as well and perhaps the vice okay thank you okay presentations and discussion i do have an update for you tonight last fall Colleen Majors, sorry, senior library technician. Not only is it cold in here, it's dry. I have some right here, hang on. Brought some concerns to our attention. These concerns were shared with me recently in a private conversation and were very personal in nature. However, Colleen, I want you to know that I heard you. We heard you. I am speaking on behalf of the entire board when I say that I am very, very sorry for the undue stress that we caused you last year. We recognize that this past year was chaotic at best and disrespectful at worst. We also recognize that the Board would not have been compliant in accurately documenting and reporting last year's financial information had it not been for your attention to detail, your diligence, and your dedication to this library. We are working very hard to mend our ways, and we recognize that we have a long way to go, earning your trust as well as the trust of your colleagues. You nor any member of our staff should ever feel intimidated, disrespected, not valued, and not heard. You are valued, we do respect your work, and you are a very, very important member of our team. We have a really big goal in front of us this year. We must all work together as a team to reopen our library, and I know that you have been disappointed in us, but as your chair, I am committed to conducting meetings that are respectful and productive and work toward the common goal of reopening. Thank you for your service and thank you for being here tonight. Anybody else have anything they might want to offer?

Pardon me?

Speaking freely.

um colleen i would just like to thank you for being willing to have an open conversation and being willing to um being willing to put some faith in our willingness to hear and talk about and move forward i think that takes an incredible amount of courage and um I have a massive amount of respect for you for being willing to do that. Thank you. And thank you for allowing us the opportunity to improve and try again. for everything you do.

And I'd like to add thank you as the new treasurer for being kind and patient and understanding and willing to work with me because there's so much that I have to learn and I completely understand any hesitation you've had but I am committed to working with you in a positive way that we can move forward and fix things and i know it's not going to be today it's not going to be maybe even this year but just thank you for for working with me to get this done Anybody else?

I'll just add that I'm deeply ashamed and embarrassed that Leach staff endured what they endured last year. I'm very angry, but I am more proud of you all than I even am angry because leach library is our community the heart of our community and it's a building like we're repairing a roof and we're repairing floors but it is the people who make leach our community center and i'm deeply grateful that you are so committed to that space and the people that meet there that you were willing to Be courageous and stand before a microphone and speak truth to power. Incredibly brave, empowering, reminds people in positions of power to hold up what we have been assigned to do. So I'm grateful for everything that you guys have done, but I do not want it ever to be in vain. So we will fight for you to the end because we know your vision for Leach and you deserve to see it happen. And we will be there to back you up and to make that vision a reality because you are what makes this place special. So thank you. And I'm sorry.

Thank you, Beth. Anybody else? Moira? Nope.

I'm just going to say thank you so much for serving the community and thank you for being a great librarian.

Very good. Thank you. Speech, you want to make a speech? Come on.

That was more than she's comfortable with. She's like, I'm good.

It's your only opportunity, girl. OK, very good. Building update. Donna, you're up.

Yes. So last night I presented to town council on the scope of phase two, but also a brief update on where we are with phase one in terms of scope and cost estimates. I did just this evening send you, I had three short slides that I put together to show the council. It was all based on information that was already posted to the public and available to you. I just put it in a format that I hoped was more digestible. and I appreciate Beth you being there to also speak to the council and Kevin from RE-ARK was there with us Bob Slater also spoke later on in the evening about the project so AND I APPRECIATE YOU BEING THERE, TOO, NANCY. I KNOW YOU HAD TO LEAVE EARLY. I'M SORRY. THAT'S COMPLETELY UNDERSTANDABLE. SO I APPRECIATE YOU BEING THERE AND I THINK IT WENT WELL. IT WAS JUST AN INFORMATIONAL PRESENTATION. THEY HAVE SOME TIME TO GET BACK TO US WITH QUESTIONS OR ANY NEED FOR MORE INFORMATION AND THE HOPE IS THAT SOME KIND OF DECISION WILL BE MADE BY JUNE 15th.

AND YOU DID SAY THAT'S THE NEXT MEETING, IS THAT RIGHT?

So it's not the next meeting. It's just that that's the last meeting before the end of the fiscal year is June 15th.

Do they have a meeting on the 1st or not? I think they have a meeting on the 1st as well. Okay. And are we on the agenda for that one too? It seems like we're on the agenda all the time.

Not as far as I know. Okay.

Well, stay tuned. So the town council does have a meeting on June the 1st and another one on the 15th. So if we need to be there, we'll be there. Okay. Sounds good.

Just to clarify, you were saying this was an informational presentation, but by June 15th you're anticipating another vote on funding?

Yeah, regarding how they're going to move forward with either Phase 2A or 2B is what we presented, and potentially how that will be funded.

Thank you.

In terms of current building, so I sent you an email, but yesterday we found a leaking radiator in the morning when they opened the building to start working. We had ServPro and E&E respond the same day, thankfully. ServPro got their equipment in quickly to start drying things out. It was not the extensive damage we saw the first go around, thankfully. I do think that we probably lost another floor table and I'm not totally sure about so they had just put in the drywall on Friday and I'm not sure about the status of the drywall yet if it will need to be replaced again but that is We're going to figure that out. There will be another insurance claim filed for that. And E&E was able to come up with their best, I guess, theory on what happened. They do believe that that pipe did freeze over the winter and that the pipe expanded but did not burst. And then when the weather got nicer, things warmed up, it shrunk back down and started leaking. I do have that piece of pipe that will be looked at by the insurance, and RE-ARC also asks to take it after insurance is done to see if they also agree with that finding. So I'll have more on that later on. Good news is that remediation work is nearly done. The biggest piece was the children's room, and I do believe that they're going to be wrapping that up within the next hopefully day or so. I did want to pass on that RE-ARC shared with me that EnviroVantage really went above and beyond to provide some extra protection to us beyond what was like really paid for. Because they were there and could do it. And so I certainly appreciate that. And I wanted to make sure you knew about it. Drywall patching is in progress. Obviously that area was done on Friday. So I don't know if that's going to have to be done again. I expect that painting will be next. So painting of the big main reading room. So the movers will start getting involved. And the carpeting is ordered and hopefully really hoping their placement work can begin in about a month's time. We're good to know steadily moving along.

That's wonderful to know. thank you for all you're doing because i know that town council is really grateful they see so many numbers every week um and so many requests that they really appreciate how much work you're putting into like giving them really concise tables so that they can just absorb it and keep moving um so i appreciate everything that goes into that and i know they do especially by like 10 o'clock at night yeah any questions or comments

from the board or donna stay tuned it's a it's a it's a work in motion is it not it is okay thank you for that report moving on to deliberations and vote um we do have some unanticipated funds to accept this evening So would you like to tell us about them? And then we'll vote to accept them individually.

I did also want to ask before I go through unanticipated funds. I did reach out also to the Charitable Trust Unit regarding questions that had come up from the board about unanticipated funds. Yes. I have an email response if you'd like me to read it into record for you. Sure. That'd be great. It's not very long, so. Just to recap, the board had asked about two things specifically. One being that the friends of late have been paying their program sponsorships directly to the presenter. And there was questions about whether the board needed to accept that as an unanticipated fund or not. And then the second question was just to confirm that the board is correctly accepting gift cards under unanticipated funds. So the response, this is from Amy Nichols with Charitable Trust Unit. She said, the Charitable Trust Unit is unable to provide specific advice, but we are allowed to provide educational information. By way of education, if a gift in any form, for example, cash or physical item, is being given to the library, then the library trustees should vote at a meeting to accept the gift. If a program is sponsored by another party but held at the library and the library pays no part of the program, then the library trustees need not have a vote to accept the program. The library is simply offering the space even if the program is for the benefit of the library patrons. The only thing I would potentially ask you to consider with that statement is that technically the library is paying a part of the program because you're paying for staff time in doing the program. So if you are interested in pursuing that further, I'd say the next step would be probably a legal opinion.

Can you forward that to me? Because I think that's a good question. That is something that we probably would want to run by counsel. I can forward it to the whole board so that you all have it. Oh, yeah, here we go. And I will get it over to Hannah for an opinion. Sure. Thank you. Did you have a question? I thought I saw you. Any questions or comments down the board? Okay, very good. Let's get started on that one.

All right, so the list of tonight's unanticipated funds. We have a $25 gift card from RAP City that was donated for as an adult summer reading program prize. We received $150 from the Londonderry Historical Society to co-sponsor an upcoming event on New England stone walls. That is an adult program. in early June, I believe. O'Shea's Cafe donated a $25 gift card also as a prize for the Adult Summer Reading Program. And Black Dog Car Wash donated three gift certificates. Each of them is for three extreme washes, which is a value of $66 each, total value of $198. And those will be used for the Adult Summer Reading Program prizes.

Very good. We certainly want to thank our very, very supportive community. So all of you businesses out there that are supporting us, we are grateful and we thank you for your support. So we should go through and accept these individually. So could I have a motion for Rhapsody, please?

I make a motion to accept the $25 gift card from Rhapsody. Do we need the RSA on this?

I was just about to add, you usually accept them all in one motion. Oh, do we do them all at once? I beg your pardon.

I stand corrected.

But yes, you would say the RSA. Go ahead.

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

Very good. That is a motion by Azra. May I have a second please? Second. And a second by Beth. Is there any discussion or questions? All those in favor please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, any abstentions? Very good, motion passes. Thank you. Thank you very good, very much. We're back to public comment. Nobody here for public comment? Okay, very good. We are going to be moving into non-public in a moment, but I just want to read my closing statement, which is that we are committed to reopening our library to meet the needs of our community, and we are committed to reestablishing the trust of our staff. So having said that, could I please have a motion to move into non-public?

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

Thank you. That's a motion by Erica. Is there a second? Second. Second by Beth. This is a roll call vote. Moira? Aye. Miriam? Aye. Beth? Aye. Nancy Hendricks? Yes.

Erica Laue? Yes. Azra Palo? Yes.

Very good. Motion passes. We are going into non-public. We will be moving into the Sunnycrest room, is that correct? Merrill, back upstairs. Merrill room. We're going back to the Merrill room. At which point we will close our, we'll come back into public and we'll close our meeting from there. Thank you. I would like a motion now that everybody has sat down. I would like a motion to adjourn, please. i move to adjourn this meeting at 8 30 p.m very good that was a motion by erica with a second by miriam i think yes all those in favor please say aye aye all those opposed any other matters of business to come before this board tonight this meeting is adjourned