Library Board - Regular Meeting

Your board to order. Roll call, please.

Bowie? Here.

Coleman? Here. Johnson? Kim? Naker? Here. Yang? Here. Chair Joss? Here. Five present, two absent, two being excused. Council Member Johnson and Council Vice President Kim.

Well, welcome everyone to the March meeting of the Library Board. We have a couple of items on our agenda today, so I'll turn it over to you.

The first item that we have on the agenda is minutes 20 six-nine, library board minutes for 02/04/2026.

So, I'll take a motion from council member Coleman to approve the minutes. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed?

Five in favor, zero opposed. The minutes are approved. The next item on the agenda is Resolution Public Hearing twenty six-forty nine authorizing the execution of Mo to support the transfer of funds from the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library to the St. Paul Public Library in amending the library's 2026 financing and spending plans.

So this basically is a resolution that's going to support and execute MOU between the library and the Friends, and this is specifically for the Hayden Heights Library. And this will increase create an increase in the capital budget for Hayden Heights by $1,650,000 and it allows us to have enough cash from the friends to be able to begin the project this year on schedule. So this also is a public hearing. So if you're here to speak on this item, you have two minutes. So if this is a public hearing, is there anyone here to speak on this item?

Okay. I am not seeing anyone, so I will take a motion from council member Yang to close the public hearing and approve this item. All in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed. Oh, sorry. Council member Yang has

a comment. Thank you, chair Jones. I wanted to say thank you to the friends for their amazing work and the partnership to the city. When I was looking at the resolution, I

just thought

to myself, I wish every city had a friend, you know, the Friends, like how we have them here. So we are just so fortunate for their partnership. I've been very supportive of this.

Thank you, Councilor Mori. All right. So I think we already took the vote.

Five in favour, zero opposed. The resolution is adopted. The next item on the agenda is Staff Report 20 six-twenty eight, Hayden Heights Library Update.

Great. So I will turn it over to Director Hartman and we also have Marika Enzina here to give the presentation.

Chair Jost, thank you so much. As the first of the item earlier alluded to and council member Yang's excitement demonstrates, we're moving forward with Hayden Heights. So Enrique Stela and Zenia Hernandez with our project are gonna give you all an update

on that. Thank you. Zenia, yes. Welcome.

Alright. Thank you so much for having us here again to talk about transforming libraries. We're so excited that Hayden Heights is getting going as heard from the money coming over. Marika, Senia, here to talk to you. So, we have facility investments, three of our locations.

Today we're going to talk about the Hayden Heights. Just a reminder too that all of our libraries will be also getting technology rich space updates and play and learn updates and that will happen at the Hayden Heights Library as well. Hayden Heights is a very sleepy little library right now largely due to the fact that it's really closed off from the outside. So one of here in this drawing is that we're gonna be really making it a visual impact on White Bear, being able to see that it's a library, see what happens inside, and also when you're inside, being able to see what's happening outside when you're leaving. And also being able to bring our children and our families together in our play and learn spaces, and having access to nature, and having more flexible spaces between the loud and the busy areas here, and then the quiet areas also.

Why it's important is that this is an equity focused community engagement process that that really told us what we needed to be doing for our libraries, making them safe, inviting, and affirming, and making them comfortable for people of all cultures, abilities, and communities. Our libraries really needed a place for community to feel safe, to to seek shelter, to do life, to find connection with each other, and to access information of all kinds. We did a lot of community engagement starting with our facilities direction in 2018 all the way through the LSE led community engagement that went through the design development process in 2022. And we finished our design and our construction documents with LSC in December 2025. We knew once we got the funding that we wanted to act quickly.

So in January 2026, when we knew we had the funding, we opened the bid process for getting a general contractor. We just finished that process in February 2026, and we have offered that award again to Stall Construction. They are the same construction company that have been working on the Hamlin Library. And so we are gonna be moving forward very quickly on this. March 24 is the last day it's gonna be open to the public.

So our staff right now at the Hayden Heights Library are getting ready to decommission the library, which means we have to take everything out. We don't do that until it's closed, but there are some preemptive things that we're doing. So the public will start seeing that. Our displays are coming down. Our community boards are getting taken down. So, there's going to be some visual evidence of that. That does help with the change management for the public that uses the space too. They can see that something's happening. We also have boards up explanations of what's happening and and the timeline is being communicated. We do expect to start construction in mid April, and that is expected to take up to eighteen months.

So by 2027, we will be open to the public with a brand new designed interior of the building and more exterior items as well. The key features based on community feedback are having it be really visible as a library. That better visibility will also give a better sense of security so people know what they're walking into and what they're walking out into from the library. We're offering more flexibility if library spaces space for both loud play and the quiet study, a very large community flex room, which will then have accordion walls so it can open to the bulk of the library for extremely large events, but it will be able to house large community events, have more accessible technology inside, and also a flex room for community partnerships to be able to use and store items inside. And then connection to nature and green spaces, there will be a story time garden on one side of the building and on the other side, will be a green space that will have large windows that will open up to the teen area.

So, green connection to nature on both sides.

So while Hayden is going to be temporarily closed starting March 25, there are a few ways to stay connected. You can sign up for the Hayden Heights transforming libraries e newsletter to get updates. And I did hear from our branch manager at Hayden Heights that one of the heaviest traffic days at Hayden was the Monday after the closure update went out by the newsletter. Everyone came in asking like, is this really happening? It's like, yes, it's really happening.

So, I encourage you all to sign up for that. While we are closed, items that are currently checked out or on hold will be moved to the Sunray Library, so you can pick up your holds there. And if you Sunray is not your preferred location, you can go online, call us up, and change that location. We are also inviting community members to come in and check out as many Hayden Heights materials as you want and to keep them at home until it's time to reopen. So, that is something that we've done for some of our other locations, and you can fill up your home libraries if you want. All right. So, we will have some alternative services while Hayden Heights is closed. Mainly,

we're going

to be referring our patrons to the other East Side library, so Sunray and Arlington Hills, and then to our Ramsey County library partners, North St. Paul and Maplewood Libraries are quite close. And similarly, when Maplewood was closed, a lot of that traffic came over to the East Side. So we'll be paying back the favor.

I have a quick question. So I see you're directing folks to the county libraries. So, if I have a library card with SPPL, I can use that at the county library. Is that correct?

Yes. You can use it there, and you can also sign up for a same public library card at the county libraries. So you won't be turned away there. You'll fill out a little MELSA card and get set up.

And then I have one more question. Does does Library Go work at the county libraries? No? Okay. No. Okay.

Can I? Director Hartman.

Director

Hartman. That's the only bad news. But yeah, just to be clear about the library card, so your St. Paul public library card, you just have to register it at Ramsey County. You just have to bring it in, and then they type it in there. But it can be used. And then Library Go is a city only service at this point. Even if you have a Library Go card, you can also get a physical card. Yep. So you can use that physical card at Ramsey County Library.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you for the question. So during closure, we have some existing mobile library stops on the East Side including the Inns Lake neighborhood. That's the closest one. The other sites are currently a little bit further away closer to Dayton's Bluff. So, we are looking to add another community stop at the Iowa High rise building, which is just a little under half a mile north of the Hayden Heights Library.

And then we're planning for some summer pop up events, library in the park type events at Hayden Heights Rec Center and Lake Phalen. And then I also want to point out that Wi Fi services are available at all of the rec centers. Hayden Heights, Hazel Park, Duluth and Case Rec Centers are the ones on the East Side and folks can still access Wi Fi there. March 10, Tuesday, March 10 from six to 07:30, we will be hosting a community meeting at Hayden Heights Library. And, we're going to be sharing an update with community about the timeline similar to what we've shared here.

But, we are also interested in hearing from community members about what services they're going to be missing during this time and they may want to have in their neighborhood versus having to travel elsewhere. Similarly, we also want to know if there are other mobile library potential stops that would be of interest. But keeping in mind that if we add a stop, we would remove a stop somewhere else. But so we want to get as much information as we can. So, yeah. If you're available, please come on March 10. There will be refreshments provided. And the community meeting is in partnership with council member Yang's office and District 2. Alright. Any questions?

Any questions from my fellow board members? Council member Yang.

Thanks, Chair Jules. No questions here, just excitement and gratitude for all of you and our community partners and many electives for making this happen. My staff and I, we shared the post that you all put out about the temporary closing date. And it was just so exciting to see the comments from people all over. I mean, one of my favorites is just the yes, yes.

People are excited about it. And then I just often think about the stories from residents that I hear about them seeing when the library opens over thirty years ago and just being able to see the renovation that will take place. Are also very excited. And I want to thank you, Director Harmon, you and your team for your continued partnership and willingness to keep engaging our communities. It's going to be a huge shift for our residents having their neighborhood library closed down, even if it's temp for just temporarily. And the community engagement session is really an effort to understand more like what are they hoping to see during this closure here so that we can best serve them.

Thank you, Councilmember Rayang. Any other questions or comments? Well, thank you both. And I just want to also echo my gratitude to our library team. Really excited about this project and to see it all this is happening so quickly. And I'm just really looking forward to the process and to when the new library opens. So thank you so much to everyone.

Thank you. The final item on the agenda is staff report 26 dash 29, Rondeau Community Library Update.

Wonderful, I'll turn it over to Director Hartman and I believe we've got Marlena and Alex here to present.

Thanks, Board Chair Jost. Exactly. We also have a current, as you all know, temporary location for the Rondo Community Library at the Hallie K. Brown. So I'm pleased to introduce Alex Riley, the manager of the Rondo Community Library and Marlena Okechukwu who is our public services manager overseeing a number of services including Rondo. They got the latest up to date.

Thank you. So, thanks for having us. I'm Alex Riley, theythem pronouns. I'm the branch manager. Last time we spoke here, we were gearing up for the move, and I'm excited to kind of report some some positive things going on since then.

Oh, sure. Hi. I'm Marlena Okechukwu, public service Manager with the library. And before we get started, we just wanted to talk about the ribbon cutting that we had on January 8, which was a really vibrant, exciting event. Community really came out in full force to support us in our new location in Hallie Q.

Brown, and happy to report that we had over a 100 folks, think probably closer to 200 folks that came in the space to share in the joy and excitement that we had for that relocation and opening up there. We have food from local restaurants, Villa and Soda Soul, which I hadn't heard of. Thanks, Alex, for a new restaurant in town. And we started the afternoon with remarks from our director, Maureen Hartman. We also had some remarks from Mayor Her, Library Board Chair, Jost, and Council Member Bowie also shared some words and a poem, I think, A Letter to Rondo, if I'm not mistaken.

That was really nice. So, yeah, Love Letter to Rondo. It's there in the notes. I didn't see it. But, yeah, so it was a really nice ribbon cutting and again, lot of communities shared their thoughts and hopes and desires for that space and also the support that they have for the library. And, it was really nice to hear given some of the challenges we faced prior to moving into that location.

Alright. So, at the ribbon cutting, we heard some requests for materials by local Rondo authors. So, our March display, is or our February display, which is actually still up because it's been so popular, is Rondo authors and figures. And so, were able to get books by living legends Frank White, Melvin Carter Junior, Doctor. Artika Tyner included some stuff from Ms.

Mercedes as well. And then you can also see there's the we have some printed transcripts of the Rondo Oral History Project. So we're able to turn that community request around really quickly, and it's been popular. Super excited to mention that our homework center has been full. So when we last talked, I mentioned having to kinda tweak and move things around and spread things out, and it's working.

I am also that's also a huge shout out to how resilient our families and youth are during this kind of stressful external time that has been full throughout. Our Creator Tech and Fun Lab programs for youth are reaching out to new youth that we haven't interacted with before who are usually just at the rec center, and so we're able to kind of co host some of those programs. We're doing some creative and collaborative scheduling to have both of the NIDCAD Sankofa reading programs at the MLK and Hallie Q. Brown Center so that we didn't have to reduce any of that. We were able to just host both of them there.

We have our computer class and open lab attendance is rising, and I wanna note that even though those classes are usually pretty small and there's a lot of one on work that goes on one on one work that goes on there, We already, within our first month of open lab, had a participant come back and share that they had gained employment based on some resume and application help that they've gotten in our open lab. So that's still happening. Our crop program a lot of crop programs across the it's our community resource outreach program with providers from Ramsey County Public Health. A lot of those providers have seen a decrease in clientele and so have we, but we're still getting people through who are getting services. So an interesting kind of data point here is like our our daily visits are slightly down because we're in a smaller place, but our program participation is actually up.

So we're getting more folks more regularly for our programs even though we're not seeing the same number of people throughout the day just because of the nature of the smaller smaller space. That's been cool. We've had we've had some major events and are looking forward to some major events. In January, we hosted the Friends Fireside Reading Series, which is a weekly author talk series, really well published. And we even hosted Rondo's own Deborah Stone.

And I heard from the friends that we had around 35 people attending each of those. So that was once a week for about four weeks. Upcoming at the end of this month, I would hope you all can attend the, club book with local author Lee Hawkins. That's gonna be March 28, 2PM. I actually met mister Hawkins because he came into Rondeau at its 461 Dale location, as a patron and introduced himself, and we were chatting for a little bit.

So I was able to connect him with the friends for this program. So I'm excited to host that at HalleQ as well. What else? Community engagement, we're still very committed to being as the Rondo community library, still being in the community, listening to community in various ways. I feel very lucky to have been included on the on council member Bui's ward one tour with mayor Her, where I made some really good connections with folks from Walker West.

We're actually gonna do a collaborative program later. We're doing coffee and community events. We did one last week and one coming up on March 19 where we're we're starting to distribute surveys and get feedback and input on some design concepts for our renovation. And that and then I'm also visiting some elder groups at Hallie q Brown. We'll be doing some focus groups with parents on that, and I'll be visiting some other community events as tabling with that.

We are lined up to table with Penumbra events. They've invited us to be there either to do library cards or kind of share the renovation updates. We have some in library engagement day to day. People are coming in and doing the surveys on the on the renovation. We're well connected with parks and rec, so we're at their events and then still staying connected with ward one businesses and service providers as well.

Thanks, Alex. So, there's couple other programs that we have on the horizon, including some literacy nights in partnership with our coworkers and colleagues that run the LOOP van. And we are planning some evening programs that will include some literacy focused events. So just connecting the Loop families with the library itself and bringing them in to attend these literacy nights. And, again, it'll just be literacy focused activities, maybe some refreshments, and some some connecting activities there.

Alex touched on the partnership that is brewing with Walker West and our colleagues in Parks and Rec. And so what we're doing there is working with Parks and Rec staff and some folks from Walker West who both have equipment that we don't have, and they'll bring that equipment to the library spaces. And we'll host some workshops in our Create Tech program, which is our drop in after school program for youth that's based on the, what is it, hang out, mess around, geek out model where kids can just come in and basically interact with the tools and technology we have. And so it'll be really exciting to have some equipment that we don't have in the system in our spaces. And they can maybe do a podcast or videos.

It'll be really youth driven. So basically whatever they decide they want to do with that equipment. But that's on the horizon as well. And then another exciting program that we're working on is a partnership with Springboard for the Arts. They have a weaving social connection program that is between local nonprofit organizations or organizations like the library and we've been partnered with local artists.

And we've been partnered with two artists. One is Victor Yepez and the other is Brianna Williams. Victor is at Highland Library but Brianna will be at Rondo at our Hallie Q Brown location and she'll be offering a heart and soul workshop. And it's an intergenerational workshop and it's designed for teens. So the focus of her program is to connect teens and elders through her her workshops.

And those will run-in March. They'll start in March and run through September. And then at the end of that entire program, we'll have sort of a celebration between both artists and the work that they did and some feedback from community on how they were able to connect in libraries through those art programs. So, transitioning from some of our programming that we have at Rondeau and Hallie Q Brown, I wanted to talk a little bit about the renovation updates because we are keeping an eye on what's happening at our our actual location at 461 Dale. So we've selected a design option.

I think Alex touched on that. But we had a core team, or we have a core team, should I say, of library staff that meet regularly with our design partners, MSR. And about a month or so ago, they presented some design options for us, about four options for the layout of Rondo. Some of those changes included the restroom relocation that I think we've talked about previously, primarily moving the library the restrooms and the layout of the restroom. So they would go from single stall to multi stall.

Those were options. Meeting and study room relocation and redesign, the staff welcome desk being located in the space and a redesign of the entryway, relocated team space, some additional study rooms, a wellness and lactation room, and some staff focus rooms. Those were the major changes in all four designs. And ultimately, we decided on a design choice that incorporated most of those changes, but the most significant change was the team space would be somewhat separate from the library space. Right now, it's like in the middle of the library and in the new design, it's a little bit separate.

So, yeah, that design gives the teens their own space to somewhat remove from the main library and then a multi stall restroom. Those were the major differences between all four. They all have like a larger meeting room, additional study spaces, the wellness and lactation rooms, but those other differences weren't there. We are also working on some community engagement around the design and getting feedback, which again Alex touched on. So last week we began some sessions to gather feedback.

We're using mixed methods, so some dot polling where we have some poster boards with the layout and folks can just give some feedback on what they think about the changes. We'll also do some surveys which were also used recently at one of our coffee and conversations programs. And then there'll also be some surveys where folks can just pop into a library and take a survey if they like and give feedback on the design selection. The five key areas that we're asking for feedback on include the study rooms, the expanded community meeting space with the upgraded AV systems, the larger welcoming interest and marketplace is being called, but that's essentially the entrance to a library where you can just come in and you may not necessarily need staff support, you can grab something and check it out using self check or you can look at lucky day or something like that. But it's almost like what MSR has termed almost like a self serve area of the library that they are they're calling it a marketplace.

And then the new wellness rooms. I think that was it.

That else got a question? Yes. Oh, Thank you, Chair.

I'm just I have a question about the wellness. Well, first, want to say thank you so much for just the expansiveness of the details and the updates and the engagement. You know, also won't belabor the point because I did get a chance to talk with Director Marine prior and get a chance to look at the slides, but just for my colleagues, if you could just share a little bit more about the wellness space. You know, that's actually one of the spaces that was a bonus, right? We going into this, we didn't anticipate that, but I actually get a lot of joy with the thought of birth censoring wellness.

But if you could just expand a little bit about what's the idea around it and if there's room for the wellness to also be purposed as like a prayer room, understanding that some of our patrons are Muslim faith community members and they may use that space as a wellness and if we have some thoughts around how to make sure that space is welcoming for everyone who Mhmm. Wants to use it. So

Yeah. So that's exactly the thought behind the wellness space that it would be a multipurpose room. So, again, it was wellness and or lactation and or prayer space. Yeah. Again, it's it's multipurpose, and so it would be utilized the way someone wants to utilize that space, whether it be just, like, needing to take a mental health break and have some private space or someone would like to pray as well. And I do believe if I'm not mistaken that there will be a sink in there because I know that there's some sanitary requirements that folks that might use it for a prayer space might require. So, I think that that is in there as well.

I appreciate it. I got a quick little follow-up too. Just came about when I was actually asking the questions. So, is this wellness space just for the just for the public or is there also just kind of like a more private space for staff? Because I know over the years there's been a lot of conversations particularly around like what does wellness look like for the staff, especially in multiple ways. So, it's just for the public or could staff use this or would that be something separate?

Staff has something separate. So, the one I'm referring to is for public use but there are also staff focus rooms incorporated into the new design.

Okay, thank you. That's great.

Thanks, Chair Jost. I really appreciate this update. I know you mentioned that there's a group of staff who are meeting regularly with the design team on the design. Just wanting to know, do those staff include frontline staff? Obviously, Alex you're frontline staff person, but others who are working day to day in the building. I know we we had some messages and communication a while back about staff saying, know, this isn't really going to address the issues we're seeing in the library and I just want to make sure, you know, we're putting in a lot of money that the changes that we're making are actually going to address the problems that we were seeing.

So Alex is part of the core team. And Alex can maybe if you wanted to speak to that, but Alex does communicate regularly with the rest of the staff from Rondo and share concerns and questions with the rest of us.

Yeah. So having worked in urban libraries for almost ten years, and I do a lot of desk shifts at Rondo, I do also gather feedback from our staff, and MSR is having a staff we've had lots of sessions throughout this, like, before getting to before narrowing down the design options. So we had the four staff were incorporated in all of those. So they're separate meetings so that they have more space to speak. And we have one coming up tomorrow actually for staff.

So, they will and I don't sit in those meetings. It's for staff to share what they say. And then I just wanted to add to our survey materials have been translated into Somali as well because we have a lot of Somali families that come visit. Mhmm. And then in terms of supporting prayer space, we also offer, like, some prayer rugs and stuff like for just comfort and space.

Councilor Boyd.

Thank you, chairjos, and I really appreciate you, council member or or board member, for that question because I think that's as a council member, especially representing this board, I get those questions all the time of when we talk about engagement like who is the ones that are being engaged and how are we being transparent about that and also just being more intentional around like we may be missing someone, right, and what are some process or path ways. And you know I've always shared just being a partner and being proactive around you know inviting people into those conversations and working with you on it. My question particularly you know on that same vein if you can just be a little explicitly clear particularly around who makes up the core team. I understand that staff and I have my monthly meetings prior to the library meeting with director Marine, but you know from my knowledge like there there's no one from my office that's on that team and I don't know if that's just like capacity or like if you want it to be solely operations and also understanding that this is a new administration administration and I will be curious to know just if there's anyone from Mayor Her's team as an assistant mayor that's also part of that just so we can just make sure like all trains are moving and you know, there's not like things flagged later in a process where just like, well, we known, right, or had my office known, like we could have been able to help solve some of some challenges.

Councilmember Bui, thank you for that. So, the core team is really the operational focus in the library. So, happy to continue to meet with you monthly as we are. I think we also have something on your calendar, so you can come out and review the plans and give us that feedback. Thus far in this, and of course I update my boss, assistant Mary Jodi Farr on a regular basis.

So, our focus with that core team, I think we have who we need on that, but I welcome continuing to provide updates at this meeting and to the mayor's office as they request them. Were we to come up with any challenges that we couldn't solve, we would certainly reach out to the folks that we might need to engage further. But, whenever we do a renovation, our kind of core operational team is focused on process, right, and incorporating the feedback that we've received outside of the meeting into our next steps. We're focused on timeline and ensuring that we have what we need in order to make sure that the Rondo library can reopen on time and on budget.

I just I just who is on the core team? Yeah. I'm just trying to understand. Oh.

Thank you. Thank you.

That was a team. Yeah.

That was too long of an answer. Okay. Do you want

me to

I just wanted

to Do you

want me to

take that? Yeah. Okay. So Alex Riley is on the core team. I'm on the core team. Marlena Okechukwu. Joshua Schafer, our deputy director of operations, is on the core team. Our deputy director of public services, Rebecca Ryan, is on the core team. And an optional member is Lisa Machke, our technology manager.

Thank you. Thank you. You. And

then another thing I'll add too about the input is I sent invites to our coffee and community events to Ward 1 members. So, I know Councilmember Bui was on that email list, and I can also send it Polly as well. But just making sure that all of our partners are inviting folks to come. Last week, we had ONS come to one of our feedback sessions too just to hear and see what was going on. So, people are coming and showing up, and I encourage you to spread the word as well. All

right. Okay.

All right. I think I left off on we were finishing up community engagement. So, Alex mentioned already, all of our materials have Somali translations. Next steps are furniture and flooring selections, which are underway, and then we have some exterior signage at the old Rondo location, just about the fact that the building is closed for renovations. Next steps, and a lot of this is provided by our design partners, MSR, and so some of these, I might not be able to answer questions about But some of next steps would be some more community engagement between now and the March.

We'll be reviewing some schematic designs and cost estimates in March, and then in April, all of the construction documents will be completed. And then May and June, bidding and contracting processes for the actual work will begin. And so, those are the ones that I might not be able to answer specific questions about. And I believe that is it. If there are any additional questions, we're happy to hear them.

Great. Thank you so much. Any other questions, comments from my fellow board members? Councilmember Bowie? Thank you, Chair Giles. A

comment, just super excited and really, really excited for what the new Ronda Community Library is gonna have in store. My question particularly just it's not more so around the renovations, but it's more so around like how the renovation plans parallel with also the safety plans, understanding that we're in this position right now because of some of the safety challenges, the substance abuse we've seen in that community, the unsheltered communities and just really not really having a place to go and just using these public spaces not for its intended purpose. And I know that's probably a whole other slide within itself, so I'm not going to expect you to deliver you know, extensive response, but I do want to just make sure that it's at the forefront, right, as we are making these changes, how are we also updating the public around how this space not only structurally will make it make the library safer, but how we're gonna have management, right? Is there any updates in terms of like change of management, thinking about policy, you know, having stronger regulations, we we at this point in time once Rondo Library comes back, I believe it will be a year and a half of having our library safety staff.

So, many of them you know, be a little bit more more experienced, right? So, I'm just curious to know of just how that safety aspect will be implemented.

I can take to some of that. So one of the things I think I forget who mentioned it earlier, but we're not. We still have eyes on the corner. There's still staff working out of that building who are in mobile library and our safety manager. And then I'll also just kind of highlight some of the work that we did before the move took place, which was partnering with ONS, Office of Neighborhood Safety, and our partners in SPPD to support that area.

So there were a lot of safety issues for staff, but also safety issues for patrons that we responded to, and the situation in that specific corner has actually improved. I'm a neighbor of that corner, and so having seen the change just from last year at this time till now is kind of night and day in terms of what we were seeing on the corners. And then we're continuing to like, I do a weekly either me or one of my staff does a weekly sheltered and unsheltered meeting with other ward one service providers that kind of keeps us updated on what's happening in the area. And so, right now, we're hearing more of the overdoses are happening in Minneapolis and not as much on the St. Paul side.

And so, we're keeping just kind of keeping an eye on safety in general. And then, I don't have any other comments there. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Great. Councilor Rieh.

Thanks, Chair Cholst. I really appreciate just that regrounding, Commissioner Bui, about safety and that really being one of the hearts of the project here. I agree with that too. I was wondering, Director Hartman, can you speak a bit to what are the spaces that maybe you or a staff member from the mayor's office is involved in, in terms of conversation with maybe Metro Transit or some of those other partners around safety? I'm kind of thinking that because the Boundary library is temporarily closed now, maybe we're seeing less foot traffic at that corner.

Not sure, you can correct me on the or just if you have a status update on that. I think it'd be helpful to know. But one of the things I've always said at the table here is I'm really clear about not wanting Rhonda Library to be scapegoated for what we're seeing at that particular intersection. And I still stand firmly in that. And so I'm just curious about what other larger conversations are happening around safety.

Yeah, Councilor Marie Hing, thank you for that question. I don't know that I'm quite the right person in the city to answer the questions about where are all the safety intersections. I work very closely with the Office of Neighborhood Safety and its new director, Saint Paul Public, Saint Paul Police Department, Fire Department, Familiar Faces, Heart Team. And the county and the metro transit are kind of looped into that, but I think that's probably a much larger question, right, just for the administration in general, is how are we operating those pieces and what's working well and what's our plan as the weather gets warmer.

Yeah, think it's great that you are in connection with a lot of those city departments already, and I'll just name that for me personally, Commissioner Bui, that this would be something I wanted to just ask you to look more into. What are those spaces where those larger conversations with other entities are happening? That way we can continue being an advocate for our city, also St. Paul Public Libraries too, and really involve them in the conversation.

Thank you, Councilor Wriggian. Councilor Wriggian. Thank you.

I almost called you Commissioner Chair. Chair Jones. Just wanted to share on that vein. I know last year was really intentional with really helping to add capacity to what already exists. I'm not reinventing the wheel because this isn't in the vacuum.

There's been way before me tons of efforts from our departments and our other agencies. I know in the last year there was an incredible investment from our Ramsey County Sheriffs to be there where they had a large presence. We saw some changes. We also had heard from our the chief of the Metro Transit and they had incredible amount of resources for community resource officers. So, we've seen a large presence on that corner of law enforcement from multiple agencies.

But one of the things that one of the gaps I realized from last year that I'm really intentional for this year is involving in DC and involving our small businesses. Actually this Friday I'm going to have a meeting safety around the University Corridor with one of our businesses at the Orion Event Center, East African businesses as well who not only have been having safety concerns around the operation Metro Surge, but also safety concerns around what's to come this summer, right. And understanding that we haven't solved the fentanyl crisis and we want to be you know prepared right with the strategy. So, those are conversations I've committed to particularly with this administration now that we have a more broader administration at the top, we're working with assistant mayor Erica Schumacher and as well as assistant mayor Nick Stumo. You know, I see some capacity and also a lot of that conversation can come up in our budget particularly around what resources look like and also partnership, community partnership is really key.

I also have a meeting coming up with the director of ONS, Cedric Baker, and you know, just getting some time for him to really, know, take a leadership position and have a focus area around the university corridor. And I just wanted to just say too because I believe it's gonna be tomorrow, we have the award one meeting, I anticipate being there. I know in the past it has just organically was a coordinated effort with some of the department heads and for this year, I'm really intentional around you know, having this Ward 1 meeting being a meet up space, a meeting of the minds, so we're not just having meetings of meetings right, but we're really being planned, planning and being coordinated around what the resources are. And last but not least, know really wanting to be intentional with the opioid settlement dollars in that conversation and looking to our departments to have a plan just because this is not just isolated to just a fentanyl response, this is an area where we've seen you know crime, drugs and we've seen complete blight you know on this corner. So, just making sure all the people are at that table is important.

Thank you, Councilor Mowi. Will did you have a comment that you wanted?

If there's time, but no. There's not,

that's fine. Maybe very quickly because I do wanna make sure we have time before our 02:00 meeting.

I was just gonna say, I think when we first presented in November, talked about how where the safety measures for the library is not gonna fix everything around it, but rein reinvigorate and intentionally use the space that we occupy now. And so kind of retooling that to make it more library apparent, not as a silver bullet.

Wonderful. Well, I appreciate the conversation. I really wanna thank Alex and Marlena for the update on the library. I'm really excited to see the Hallie Q. Brown Center as well doing really well and having, you know, more folks showing up for homework help. That's really great to see, and I'm looking forward to hearing more about the continued progress of Randall Library. It's also my understanding that we are on track and on budget, which is fantastic. And thanks to my colleagues too for, you know, the discussion at the end here about the bigger picture public safety. I think that would be a great topic for us to explore in the public safety committee. It's just such a big citywide issue.

So thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I do want to just share really quick that tomorrow is the big Read Brave event, where we're going to have our panel discussion on this year's book, Lobizona. And I'd invite everyone to come. It'll be from 05:30 to eight at Arlington Hills Library. And there's also gonna be a catered dinner by two Argentine chefs, which I think is new. I don't know that we've at least since I've been here, haven't done that. I think there's also dessert, which I love dessert. And then there will be a panel with a youth panel that will also include the mayor. It'll be facilitated by our director, Maureen Hartman. And then the author, Romina Garber, will also be there.

So really looking forward to it. I plan to be there as well. And if you haven't read the book yet, you still can. Still at the library. You can listen to it. You can read it on your tablet. But it's a fantastic read this year. So with nothing else to come before us, we are adjourned. Thank you.