[Music] this is the February 5th 2025 meeting of the chrisan public library Board of Trustees we are being audio taped and videotaped and we do have a quorum our first item of business today is the secretary's report from December the
12 does anyone have any clarifications or questions about those minutes nobody okay you just need a motion motion to approve second all in favor I thank you next on the agenda is the budget before we start with a budget um Talk for this year for FY 25 I just want
to have uh make a clarification on the budget report that I've been submitting uh every month so I received the encumbrance forms from town hall and the most recent one actually has the amount that was budgeted for FY 25 there is just a minor um number correction so in library technicians line um the number is uh
$2,773 um which is up $617 um and then in the material line which is down $617 it's $2,383 so the bottom um line number that was appropriated is still the same it was there I don't know where there the confusion was but I wasn't aware of it until the incumbrance actually had of
the actual numbers for the budget for each line uh with that being said we can go into what was spent for the past two months um so I received uh the energy bill for December which is 1309 um which is about right for this time of year I'm expecting January's bill to also be similar um because it's been very cold so it actually might be a little bit up from last uh from December
um but we are doing pretty well in terms of we're only at 31% spent for those uh for for the energy line and we still have uh two more cold months so to say um in the building and ground line um there was a uh we had our yearly um inspections of the fire um extinguishers so uh Southern Eastern fire safety they
came in inspected our six extinguishers and that was $96 um that was um sent to them and then a I'll get more into this but we also had um so Beacon Hardware going out of business which is unfortunate and we are having some minor painting uh work that was similarly done in the summer so um I gave permission uh to the m uh Matt and
Brady to go and purchase the materials because it's on sale before they go out of business yes so I'll explain what it's just paint and um supplies um so that was $27830 that was taken out of building and grounds line um another thing that I purchased for the uh Library uh for Rick was a vacuum our vacuum broke so um the vacuums we had I don't know how to
describe it to you it's a long hose a little box like this it's not like a push vacuum that you use at home and they're not really functional in the space um for a big floor they're functional for like Corners because it's a long hose so I purchased a regular Hoover vac a commercial size Hoover vac and Rick has been using it it's I used it um to make sure that it was doing uh its job correctly and um it's um it's working quite well for us um so the
vacuum I split between um office equipment and [Music] um building new grounds so uh I don't have a total here unfortunately ex excuse me Elizabeth was the long hose part of a vac a central vacuum system no no no it's a it's a portable it looks like an old shop a shop back okay no no it's not a shop no it's
it's it's it's like the size of this and a long hose comes out yes okay and it broke um we had actually had two and both broke um it was the other about a year ago uh Dave split the the wire put a new adapter and then it also broke again okay so I think it's it's just it's a long hose we have so much floor space here um I think it's better to just have a handheld I apologize I was just curious no you want
to come by vacuum anytime we have one on each floor and I know how to use it so it's um so it it um I split we had money for it so um uh sorry I split it with office supplies and equipment so that it's and it's been a month so it's doing quite well uh Rick is using it and he's uh pleased with it um our next item here would be the telephone so I've received
two months already very similar so they range between $1 and $13 for 18t and Verizon so we are um seeing a trend it it's fair and you know I can save comfortably for two months now that that's hopefully going to continue to be like that um the other thing is our materials line so we are at 84% spent right now
I have been ordering um because I don't want to have a repeat of last year where I was struggling to make this make the 16% spent on materials so I've been ordering through Ingram for our physical books unfortunately Ingram has been backed up for whatever reason so I am still receiving materials from October um so this line will be spent out sooner rather than later which I'm
okay with and then another thing that was taken out recently I submitted a $3,000 credit to overdrive to purchase books for Libby and um audiobooks for Libby because there's a lot of usage in our e- resources so that there are shorter weights for our patrons so that's why that number is really high um but that's okay and when that gets used um for example I'm going to submit credit to who HLA because hoopla once
again we had the highest month I saw the broken record but it's fine and I'm going to use state aid for that because that's what that's you know I can use it for that and I'm going to use it once again for other items come before the end of the fiscal year um and I think that's it for the the budget so we're at 59% spent for everything um in March will be the last quarter so I think we're we still have a a few more weeks left in in February or
yes um so I believe we are in good standing um where we are right now you know salaries are tight I am paying attention to that um and we'll see where we go in the in the coming months before Summer from able to have a staff meeting but i' rather have a cushion there for emergencies but I'll keep you posted on that any questions about the budget
anybody have any questions all right then we need a motion second all in favor I and then um before we jump into uh maintenance uh I would just talk about the statistics so um I I gave you januaries um which just came out um so just some
highlights here um compared to last year our physical DVD circulation has gone up and that's due to part of me buying more DVDs um even if it's TV shows or movies so I feel that people are coming to borrow not to the terms of where they were before covid but they are coming to physically borrow DVDs um e audio e magazines compared to last year are high I um even our Museum passes last year we
had three go out in January this year this month or last month we had six go out so even though um you know the holidays people are recovering from the holidays um you know uh circulation I feel is increasing um and even the number of people so in FY 24 there was roughly 1,899 uh patrons in the building and then and fy2
222 people uh roughly were here um but this is interesting is I don't know what happened in January but our highest cir days aside from the day after the holiday which is New Years uh we had 200 circulation transactions at the desk have been on Saturdays and we're only open um 5 hours on Saturday so it is mindblowing to see that in those 5 hours we had 173 checkouts on
one Saturday and then the following Saturday 167 so Saturdays are picking up um was that December or January that was January yeah so I don't know if people are just hooped up and they want to go out and do things and the weather hasn't always been great on Saturdays but there's something about Saturdays at the library yes so I just wanted to to point that out um and if it continues I will have to maybe shift schedules or figure
something out I mean we have coverage but you know there's always some improvement for to have better coverage and um we also have programs on Saturday too so that could also be it but that's what I de yeah dece and unfort December but January we had this and I would come in on Monday oh Saturday was so busy I'm like really and then I've been here for a few Saturdays for other reasons and it is busy and I come in in the whole pring lot is not whole but there's a ton of
cars in here that's great it is it is I'm glad people are are coming in on the weekend can you send that January one out if you don't mind yeah I have I have December but I don't have January I that's okay can you send that yes I can I print so I printed the wrong one no that's wor sorry no that's fine just just email it out when you I will no deal I'm going to write that yeah
oh that' be great that way I'll have it yes we'll all have it okay what's next we have next is old business um Building Maintenance so um there's been a few and this is not I didn't put it under new business because I feel the building is always old business always going to happen so um you know and it's nothing I haven't discussed here before um so Matt and Brady came in um in
December uh explaining to me that they're having a student from Old Colony come in and that if I had any little projects for them so I showed them um a lot of the items that have been um on the task list so for example um the wood the painting So on the staff side very minor to us cuz no one's coming in that door except for staff the baseboard of the stair it's all dinked and stuff so
painting was an item that I brought out um the other item that Matt noticed was that on our gutter on the deck side the snow was melting and it was Dripping over so he said he was going to go up there when the weather was better nicer to see if it's clogged um and I don't know if that's something he was going to do with the student um and then I talked about the painting on the outside but you can't paint right now so but he's aware
of the window cills um especially on this side um I don't know all of a sudden the paint is all gone so it it he's aware of it um there was also there was also another minor project in the library so uh on the weekend um I had an email that one of the shelves broke in the children's room so staff removed the items from the Shelf um so nothing was on it so you
know no harm could come of it and then I let um Rick know he fixed it and then Matt was in here again with with uh Brady and I showed him it and they're like oh we could put a piece of wood under it and you know do all the things instead of having a piece of tape on it so he came in made it so now it can't move but it's secure that's not going anywhere so that was fixed um and then uh 2 days ago I had an email of uh from
a staff member that a patron noticed that the car charges outside were damaged and um melted so yes so I went back in the trustees meeting from 2019 when they were installed I was a part-time so I remember the email of saying hey don't be alarmed ever Source will be here to install those items
any so Matt was here with Brady yesterday and they discovered that the Box on the outside the cover was lifted and inside was melted so either water got in somebody was fooling around with it we're not electrician he's not a electrician so they don't know so they closed it and then the other side so there's two charges so the other side was off and he fixed it um and then he said uh can you get permission from the trustees to remove it I said this
project has had enough and I knew because of being part-time I mean I don't know the exact details but I did go back in the meeting minutes and I'm like this project was done through a grant that Jim got through I don't remember where if it was ever Source or some other place and they were just put onto library's property without even Dina being notified of this grant being done so they've been there and the other question was don't don't you pay the bills I'm like no I'm almost positive
that I don't pay the bills I pay the eversource bill for this building and the amounts I mean that item has been since last year it's been being it was getting used nothing has increased drastically or anything so unless it's sense like it's a couple of dollars for that but I'm almost positive that I'm not paying for that so I I don't know where it's coming from so I I
let yeah I told Matt he went to the Town Administrator to ask and I haven't heard back yet um the only thing I can say in my email not my emails but in the library minutes and the videos on YouTube that um the way it was connected was just plugged into the poles out there so I don't know I don't know how there's a meter I don't know I don't know but that being said it's not our responsibility and um and if I'm wrong
I'm wrong you know yes is it your perception that it's owned by ever Source or by the town I want to say I can't I want to say it was a wasn't it a grant it's a grant that that's how they got there in the first place and then I I think like the library was going to have nothing to do with it like they were they needed one like on this side of town they have you know others initially they were going to put one in the handicap spot and
right so they put it over there and it was a grant but I don't think it's come up since then I don't think it's kind of been there nobody that function like a telephone booth like years ago the telephone and then you pay to use it so they don't pay so we we don't I don't nobody here has you have to use no I was told that you just and I I can download the app but I can't do anything else because I don't have electrical car that
is free yeah it couldn't be free maybe it pays with the app yeah you probably do I the electricity for the vehicle were free we'd have cars lined up from here including yours and mine I mean I thought they all set up with some kind of a charge card that you have to there is an app if you go there you can download it but I I I I'm just going by what I was told um and no one has been using it for this month so I would go
out there and say hey and sometimes people just leave the car there and take off so I can't talk to anyone but um but you know because there's an issue with it no one is checking it you know it's not our responsibility it's not functioning we we wouldn't know and you know I'm grateful that Matt was here and and Brady but now they have to call the town nutrician to see if they can fix the the box out there but you know I told him I'm like I don't pay the electric bill
for this and I'm I don't know I don't know why this is floating in my head but I don't know if with that grant for installing it there's also a grant to pay for the bill I don't that's just no they have those at Town Hall and so they're using it knows the answer to this questioning wings and the and they must use them constantly so they know how that works urce right I think
it I mean I'm thinking it's it may belong to urce they generate worth just being proactive and somehow notifying a source and saying hey there's a problem I believe you're right see how they react yeah and probably you have to have an app to use you do so maybe you get charged through the app I would call episod that's free yeah it's free it's free it's I just heard it
on the radio that's one of the things everybody who has an electric car everybody pays for their gasing up I don't know how but it was on the radio wow interesting drawing thank you so um but I just wanted you guys to be aware of that um with the the car charger and then one last thing uh major props to Matt uh for snow removal um so the light snow storms that
we've had on uh January 11th January 20th and February 3rd which was this Monday um I've had notifications from staff members saying that the lot was plowed um and uh salted and the walkways were also shoveled and salted um and also Rick uh during uh on Monday Rick uh shoveled and salted so major credit to having a library in your thoughts when
it's snowing uh so I don't know about tomorrow I you know the weather's all over the place but um I appreciate that there's an effort to have this place ready to go when we open um and I think we've made a lot of process with the snow yes thank you thank you thank you deeply appreciated and oh and the so the painting So this student is starting on
the uh February 10th but I don't know if that means in here or just in town because the shop schedule so it will be hopefully next week I'll have more information about that but the touch-ups of the paint will be um it will look really nice all right and any questions about the building there always question no I think we're I think that's good anybody else any [Music]
questions I think you're doing a good job keeping it keeping it up to Snuff that's good might as well try to prevent whatever we can from yes you know breaking or all right we have now we'll have an update on the FY 26 budget so uh all right last meeting was um December 12th on December 13th I met with the Town Administrator to present the budget I
proposed to us at that meeting um I'm happy to say that our numbers were very similar there was only a few um adjustments um I think the biggest adjustments were the salaries for the Tex um because they're in contract uh the contract is ending um I was going in at doing it at 3% um and I was told that going to be 2%
so I got um so what you have in front of you is what is present so I I don't know if you want the old number or just leave it as it is right now so um it only went it went down um roughly $22,000 so it' be $94,000 uh $700 for the tax and the same thing for the tech 3 position um our numbers just went slightly down um so it would be uh
30,700 okay 37351 for the library Tech um so they were at it was at 8% and now it's down to 4% um so what you see in front of you is what we agreed upon between the Town Administrator and myself um the energy line went up so uh it's now $1 16,540 and then the telephone line uh I
proposed 750 and we agreed upon 725 so the budget I presented uh here last meeting was three uh in total uh 308 527 and then today uh what is presented uh to you is 30770 and then below that you will see the mar for FY 26 which is
30378 um I also gave everyone two sheets of when I uh so this is still big question on when or if I'm going to present to the finance committee or the Selectmen um they are meeting tonight um um so hopefully I'll have more information um
I do know that the last finance committee meeting they assigned um liaison um they haven't reached out yet but I know they're probably just waiting for this next meeting um but when I do if I do present I will hand out these two flyers in addition to a it's a very quick like um how many checkouts we did a year statistic flyer and it's fun um so you know I I always have to make sure that we meet Mar this green fly just
explains Mar um and then the total that we need to be or exceed um and then the other fly that I'm doing also this year is the minimum standards so this on top of mar this is what else I have to we have to have in order to acquire for state aid so we have to be open to all residents of the Commonwealth um no charge for Library Services be open a minimum hours of 40 40 hours in 5 days
um have a director with an MLS and holds a certificate of professional librarianship um and then the big also the big one for on top of mar is 16% of appropriation must be spent on Library materials um lend books to and other materials to other libraries and complete state aid and the annual survey every year so the big one here is a 16% everything else um we know we do and
this will be you know when I do present if I present um this will just be explains to them um why it's important in addition to to meeting Mar um we don't know what the future holds and um it's good to to have um this information handy because not a lot of people are aware of that no they're not and um you know there's a lot we have to keep track of or or you know throughout the year
um and we do a pretty good job in the main two is the mar and the 16p spent on materials um let me see so I think that's it for FY 26 any questions about uh the FY 26 budget any clarifications I know I fumbled on the numbers again you did fine it looks good thank you I'm glad that we were really close
we were really close um you know and I went in with the salaries blindly because I don't know exactly you know it was very close and um we'll see what happens now I know they're still talking and hopefully tonight I'll have a little bit more information on if I'm presenting when or when I'm presenting Elizabeth those two Flyers are great there nice layout really terrific very my explanation for don't scare people do
no they it actually lays out the logic of it yes thank you which is what and then you know I could put the mar together but this is very very very very important and everything else is um you know so well the minimum standards too when you take a look at it and just run through down through it you go hey this is what you got to do to stay open yes and to participate this is great and then you can just go check check check check yeah yeah and then yep and then I always discuss what happens if we get if
we don't get certified right and that's how maybe I should make a fire for that nobody nobody explanation points we should you should put that in red yes no B why this is we're not going there took stop this is what we don't want to do Yes sounds good nice very good all right does anybody have any
questions on the FY 26 budget as presented can we get a motion accept second all in favor I thank you great job okay now we have new business uh a donation from the Jake faan memorial fund Jean Fabian uh reach out to us she um was a user of or is a user of
this library with her son uh who unfortunately passed away at a very young age um they she wanted to donate money through the memorial fund um for Jake Fabian um and this is done to the South Coast Community Foundation so we received a grant for $500 to be used to support children's programming um I am asking the trustees to um hopefully
accept this um and if upon accepting um I will reach out to Jean or to discuss what she would like to do what type of programming um we want to do something that would honor uh Jake uh may his interest so we're open book here and when I get more information on that I will let you all know so that's it that's good well thank you very much and uh that's fantastic for thinking about us here at the library um and uh
if question accepted all right second all in favor [Applause] I thank you thank you again Jean and Fabian family for for your donation to the to the library for the children's programming absolutely thank you now we have director's report yay um so December was short I was out uh for a
bit for recovery and um between the holidays so um I just want to highlight some items mostly children's items so in the children's room if you happen to go in there we have a new addition a little puzzle table that the little ones can do and then I also have a marble rck which I got off of a a freebie list and it's being used it sits in uh rub May Ben and stud students and kids are using it to
get creative with it and you know they sometimes they see it they walking around with it um and then we the friends group um funded two big craft programs before the holidays so the icicle craft and the New Year's Eve craft were both well received and snacks are provided um from the friends um and then in January our community room I will say has been hopping so we now have a
regular Girl Scout group of brownies who meet twice a month in here uh our d& group is also that that they've been in here uh using this room for a while and then we've also had serad so if you're aware the town of aush is doing their master plan so serad um came in during one story time to discuss or G gather ideas about um what people want in aition it for the for the new master
plan and then last week they held a u master plan info session in this room where they were all here to discuss um what people want going forward so they we've been working with them um to reach out to the community and and the we've decide or not decided but we are planning um right now we're doing uh through neighborhood Forest if uh if you're a student in a cionet um actually
no you don't have to be student if you're a if you have a child who you want to plant a tree you can get a free tree through this through neighborhood Forest you fill out a form and then what happens is neighborhood Forest ships us the trees and then we distribute them it's up to us how we distribute them so we're thinking a little program drop in come grab your tree and then we mentioned this to Surf head surf head um thought about doing a seed B which is paper mushed up like to be mushed and
then you put seeds in it and then you kind of just throw it in the garden so it's a good way to get involved so during the the picking up of trees sured could be here because we know we will have a good amount of people so we're planning on something like that um and this would be in April and then uh in May I know we're talking about may but uh in May Ford Ford Middle School course will also be here and like well this is a good opportunity for seret to come in
because we know those are students from a chushan so their parents Guardians will be here um so hopefully sured will be um joining us that night um I will be meeting with sured next Thursday um for another meeting regarding um the master plan I think it's the topic is transportation um and building maintenance so so I'll get more information when I attend that meeting
next week um uh I'm talking about the other thing uh that actually did new new this month is you know we have the library Calenders I um actually left them at Town Hall so I asked the collector's office if I could leave calendars there and they said yes so I put s of our calendar there and yeah I thought that was I don't know why I never thought of that a good idea that's a very good idea no but I should
bring it over there too yeah I can give you um that was a good idea I know I don't know why uh children's room so Lori uh hosted three new book clubs so it's for different age groups um it's we're trying this out for three months to see how it uh goes um so far the twin book club we had uh two practicians um so Rory also sent those news uh the program
fliers to the school they were sent I believe in their email blast that they have there news um and then excuse me I'm sorry and then um the library last two weeks ago hosted build wve which was sponsored by the friend so this build wve is a company that came in set up a the the projector they had a screen very Interactive and what happened was groups of tables got each got a box and you
just build something no no plan you just freefor all you just build something you're in a timer they go around take pictures they have a lot of fun and then the pictures end up on the screen then so it was a lot of fun and they seem to enjoy it um I've already booked four programs for the summer reading concert uh summer reading for summer reading um in our summer reading concert we're doing eight weeks and we have seven booked already so we're missing on one
yes yeah it's already started um another thing that happened in January was we held a membership meeting in here so sales membership meeting happens every other month uh every other month and I offered our space Oh God it was way back in the fall cuz um it was supposed to be at weham weam had a situation uh where there was flooded mold so I offered building for so we had about uh I think
it was 17 Library directors in here on top of the board members for sales uh they had the meeting and then um I thought you know and they might have been here before but not since I've been here so it was a good way to network show people the building and then afterwards they um there was a recommendations where to they wanted to have an informal director's lunch so we went to blueo nice and um it was nice to interact to meet people that I usually just talk to email over the phone or I
just see their names um so that was um that was nice and um I hope to now I sometimes the meetings I can't attend because of scheduling or just the time is off so it was nice to have it in here and actually participate um one more uh what else so uh I the t uh Town Administrator reached out that there's training for OSHA for wck so uh February 25th he'll be attending in OSHA
training I don't know where it is in town um but I think that's important to have um uh rck do so when I get more information on where it is I would let you know and what he does during those trainings um serent so I had someone uh they wanted the Library minutes so she's like it's not online
I'm like what do you mean it's not online so I wasn't aware that I had to submit them to the town clerk so not that guy from Mo so have or Nancy I forget which one I submitted 2000 FY 23 minutes she had put them all up and then last week I waited to put all around the minutes up so it's all it should be all there now but I promise going forward I will have those
minutes online for those who need to look at it um I apologize Elizabeth you can only do what you know somebody doesn't tell you oh GE this needs to be done and I would get for them because I have my own our own minut so I wouldn't somebody you know not a trustee they wanted to see what was going on in the library was discussed so um and I'm like wait what so I went ahead and submitted it all and I had it all so it takes me 2
seconds to do but I can't imagine on the back end of uploading it all putting on the website make sure it looks nice so but I promise that going forward um I will do that in a timely manner um and that's it or for the director's report I do want to discuss upcoming items because even though February is a short month we have a lot of things going on here so Sandra started a Lego Club for adults so we
have four days Lego Club for adults oh cool yes so you probably have to pick up your own Legos is that what that means yes so the bins are out it's very similar it's it's still it's still a work in progress I feel like there should be like an item and then you try to create it um but it's still a work in progress so we have four dates on February just to see if at different times so yesterday we had one the next one is Thursday uh the 13th at 11: and
then we have one on Wednesday the 19th at 6:00 and then Monday the 24th at 6 so we're trying to figure this out um getting feel because we've had adults say I want to do that well now is your chance to come in and it's very informal bring food bring a drink you know have some fun just relax um coming up this Friday I I don't see this advertis anywhere but ever Source reached out to me and they wanted to have a space to
discuss their 411 aush to Fall River extension program so they're going to be in here on Friday uh February 7th from 1: to 4: I don't there's a flyer on the door um but it seems to be really important uh for a cushion at residents um this Saturday the 8th we have a uh Lor's doing a drop in Valentine's craft and they're creating a Valentine's Day cards um pace is back in the building uh
Pace has been a little has been absent from having uh their mindful Melodies um there they will be here uh on Tuesdays this month um February 11th and February 25th at 10:30 um on Saturday uh February 15th at 12: we have the mass aond coming in to present intro to birdie so they have um we're hoping to maybe make this a series but they're
doing an intro verting program here at the library and this would be sponsored by the friends um and hopefully the the the goal here is to have other lectures and they also do off-site visits so The Sawmill might be a good place to do some bird watching even our own backyard here you we see so many birds that I have no clue what they are but it's uh I'm excited for them to to to come here um we are trying in I know in the past few
years ago before Co we used to have chess um but we're doing a drop in chess Pro program which is very informal we have chess sets so if you want to come in and just partner with someone you can do that um so we're we're trying that out Lor's doing another sewing session on Saturday February 22nd at 12:30 and I believe they're creating little um something small little small crack but it's always good if you're a beginner if
you want to learn um these sewing sessions are perfect um and if you're Advance you can come in and make 12 of whatever they're make so it's handsaw we don't have machines yet so that's it for February um or highlights for February there's still sounds like a lot there is a lot so it's a short month but we're noticing that you know people are coming back in you the holidays are over things are picking up and it only goes up from here uh you know the summer it's you know there's a lot so any questions
about what's coming up I don't think so I think You' got a lot going on we do yes there's a lot all right now let's see if we can set the next meeting um Wednesday March 12th at 12:30 or is 1:00 better I can't do 1:00 is is earlier better or later better or that day is not good at all um I have an
appointment at 1 okay so do we want to do um 11:30 sure 11:30 can everyone do 11:30 okay so it's the 12th 12 does that work for you on the 12th yeah so that's 11:30 yep March 12th at 11:30 does that work for you yes it does okay yeah so everyone's
good okay so we will do uh next meeting is Wednesday March 12th at 11:30 and does anyone have any other anything else to discuss questions comments concerns no Okay then if there's no other business motion to adjourn second all in favor hi hi this February 5th 2025 meeting of the
chrishna public library Board of Trustees is officially adjourned [Music]