Good evening. This is the Franklin Township Public Library Trustees meeting. It is Wednesday, November 19th, 2025.
like to call the meeting to order and we should start with a we will start with a pledge of allegiance to the flag. I >> 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. This meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meetings act also known as uh the sunshine law
scheduling notification of this meeting have been provided to the courier news the home news tribune and the Franklin Township clerk copies have been posted in the library's vestibule and are also available right here at the reference desk I'd like to call the role. Agnes
>> Kabana, >> yes. >> Amy Arala, >> yes. >> Kevin McNeel is not here. >> Nicholas Champa, I'm here. Mayor Kramer, he's not here.
Deborah Kelly, >> yes. Tiana Gisham, >> yes. >> Yes. Aisha, >> Ali, and January Adams, our director, is here.
First thing we're going to do is open the meeting to any member of the public who would like to speak. Then I don't have to read the rules about how long you can speak right now. Okay.
Seeing no one no one uh we'll close this public comment session and uh move on to the uh discussion and approval of minutes from uh the prior meeting.
Has everybody gotten to read the minutes? Um and is there any discussion? Seeing no discussion,
would someone like to move that the minutes from the October 22nd meeting be accepted? >> Senator, >> yes. >> Tiana, >> yes. um moves to accept. Is there a second? >> A second.
>> Amy need a seconded. Um if we had done things in order, we would discuss it now after the second, but uh apologize for that. Is there any discussion of the minutes now? If if
not, those in favor of accepting the motion to accept uh to approve signify by saying hi or >> hi. >> Hi. >> Can I say I because I was not here? >> I think I think you can.
>> Yes. Yes. >> Opposed. Uh this motion has passed unanimously. I think now we can move on to uh January's our director's report. It's first the
operations report and then uh we can go on to the financial reports. One of the highlights of the month was November 8th when we had our second annual local author fair and there was over a dozen authors and uh everybody
seemed to have a good time and it was it was a good event. And the adult services department had 56 adult programs with 847 attendees and the youth services department had 45 programs that 1,322
people came to. down in Franklin Park. The classroom visits have picked up again and there were 11 and staff from the adult services youth services and circulation have completed
the groundwork for the 2026 reading winter reading challenge and that's going to run from December 22nd through February 23rd. And I think that was all I wanted to emphasize.
>> Okay. January, are there any uh any items on the financial reports that you'd like to point out to us? >> I don't see any. >> Not necessarily. question
about the amount of classes that are visiting >> back in the earlier months of the fall had kind of fallen off. Not as many were coming. So this was having having a letter was good. I don't know if you remember but back when the library first
opened it was there were many many >> Yes. Yes. and we have some changes in administration so slowly but I did see a class in the fall just walking to there which is really nice to see so that connection is still building and you know it's being utilized which is great
>> and there's a new uh principal there >> yes >> so >> with that and it's great that the classes just to see classes walking over in the middle there >> it's nice because that was the that was the goal >> purpose Yeah.
>> Okay. >> Oh, and one more thing. We had a um employee from our district who was actually part of that annual book local officer. Yeah. He was actually from my department um Ted. So, it was nice. He was excited to be able to share his book.
>> It's a good way to It's a good way to do that because if you just have one one local author, you may not get as big a draw, but you have many, then they see each other. I saw on social media a great turnout of people. Sounds like a really nice event.
>> Okay, so moving on. There is no president's report and um >> I'm sorry. Yes. I I didn't realize that would be a president's report, but I'm sorry. Yeah.
Uh January and I did have a u a brief discussion with our architect who was going to uh be handling the renovations
that we're doing the roof, the HDAC and the internal u uh rearrangements. One of the big questions was did we want to do this as one large uh contract or
separated into uh three contracts and um I believe that I I'll speak for myself and and and I believe January and I agree with this that it would make more sense to make one big contract out of it uh because there
would be a lot of interfacing problems between the three job the three main jobs. Three main jobs of course are the roof, the HVAC and uh then the internal uh rearrangements
there. There are issues with um the HVAC involves heavy equipment that will be going on our old roof and we prefer that it doesn't get dragged along on a a new roof so that the HVAC
work would come first um the roof second and then the interior. Um, so >> what timeline are we looking at? >> Timeline we January. >> I don't have that in front of me.
>> Um, it's going to be I don't know 3, four months. >> Once it gets started, it's a year. >> There's months ahead of time with
drawing up the stacks. going out to be. >> Oh, including that part. Okay. >> Yeah. So, I would I think it was like a 18 months alto together. >> For the preliminary work and then the actual work >> and the actual work will probably later
this year. I mean later next year. >> Yeah. >> I would hope so. >> If the board wants to go ahead with it. Yes. Are you thinking of a single contractor or you going to hire different contractors since they are different parts?
>> We I'm convinced that there is an advantage to bundling it uh and letting one contractor be in charge of everything. Uh we discussed this with the architect and he said
when you do that the general contractor is usually very up on getting good subs subcontractors. And he even cited a case when where uh two bids had come in at exactly the same amount
of money uh because because each each contractor was very sharp about hiring the right subcontractors. And a big advant another advantage is of course the interfacing.
How much time would be delayed between one and the next? So to answer that question, I I'm convinced we're better off with one. >> Do you think we'll be saving money? >> No. I said, um, you thinking about
saving money moneywise? >> Well, that's a guess. you know, um >> there's there the architectural fees will be less if we bundle it, >> but um
I think the advantages >> would outweigh the speculation as to whether we'd be saving money. I think it would be a smoother operation and wouldn't have a situation where one guy is holding up the other guy. >> Yeah. >> Blaming the other guy and then then we
start doing this. One person is in charge of the whole thing. >> Yeah. >> Otherwise you might have like Yeah. You don't want to have conflicts. >> Well, we all saw the uh Well, I did
anyway. uh the construction of the youth center which was a big contract that was a10 million dollar contract and uh it was one general contractor with many many subs and they all worked together
pretty well I'd say. Um and of course in our library branch um much smaller project of course but uh one contract that included the plumbing
the u the groundwork electrical and the only problem we had there was some supply supply of some key elements but uh that would have happened one no
matter how we had done it. >> Thank you. >> Any communication or correspondence that any of the board members have received? >> I let you off easy this month. Nothing to read.
>> Okay. Is there any old business? No business. Okay. Now we come to the new business. There's a resolution uh considering a resolution here to restrict funds in the amount of $5
million for the completion of capital projects including but not limited to new roofs for the western and eastern wings, renovation of the HVAC system, and the interior at the Mont
Um the reason for restricting the funds is that uh they are ours to be used in this way and if they were not restricted and we did not use them it's possible that they could
be claimed by the township. doesn't happen often but it has has happened in some in a library somewhere. So um I don't see any
well is there any discussion about this would anyone >> how much cash do we have >> enough to cover this >> okay do we have our own balance sheet or is it a part of the >> oh it's worse >> okay I'm say
>> and this is not you're not accepting the proposal this is just setting aside the money >> okay's a a breakdown of how we got the 5 million estimate. >> Yes. Um what's on that? The architect's miss.
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> I think the roofs were 800, the HBAC was 400,000 and the interior was 3 million. So I ran
the last one. >> Yeah. Yeah, maybe it's not. >> Um, sounds like a lot of money to me, but >> I mean, I'm sure they have had
a fellow who does a lot of work for the with the bureau look this over and say, "Yeah, those those estimates are about right." Um, so we don't know what they'll come in at, but
>> right, >> but uh we will have at least that much money set aside. Is there someone who would like to uh move this resolution? >> I will make a resolution. I will make a motion that we should
the strip $5 million for this capital project. >> Okay, >> second. >> Agnes has seconded. Deborah has uh >> made the motion
>> which will incorporate the way it's written here. Yeah, >> I gave the short version. >> Okay. Any discussion? Any further discussion? I just commented I said I said with the way prices are high now with everything
so it's very appropriate that we have this amount set cuz you don't know what's going to happen further down the road you know >> well I think we owe a debt of gratitude to our director
for providing budgets that don't spend every bit of money that the township gives us and uh spending wisely and therefore there is this balance
and of course we just finished the uh roof of the gallery there and we spend lightly compared to the county system and provide good services
and we're we're grateful to >> everybody our director and all of her 60some employees uh for making that happen >> but it happens with the support of the board too sign
>> well you could say hey we want to spend more money on uh I don't know >> programs Speaking of spending money, I've always looked at um account number 930, which says
director's discretionary fund, and our director until recently has never spent anything. And now I see she has spent $69 out of her $4,000. You >> shamed me into it.
Okay. Um, those in favor of passing this motion that uh has been made and seconded uh indicate by putting their hands up. Okay, this motion has passed unanimously.
Most do. Okay. Thank you. Um, there's also a resolution to be considered to reappoint Douglas
Zucker as our library attorney at an hourly rate of $195 for one year, commencing January 1st, 2026. Um, I would recommend that this be passed in
case we need him. He works very efficiently and he's very knowledgeable in library law for New Jersey and fee is not it's low. It's lower than >> oh
and I'm satisfied with them. Would someone like to move that resolution to reappoint? >> Struggle with the wording here, but I motion to approve um Douglas Lucker as our library
attorney for next year. >> Did I say that correctly? >> That's fine. We know what you do. >> I can. >> Okay. Aisha has seconded it and uh >> is there any any discussion?
Those in favor of passing this motion signify by raising their hand. Surprise. It's unanimously passed. >> Okay. We have no need for an executive session
today. So, I'd like to reopen the meeting, the public portion of the meeting for anyone who would like to make any comments. Still no. Okay. Um like to announce that our next meeting
will be December 17th and uh is there a motion to adjourn? >> Oh Tiana has motion to >> and who's going to Oh, Deborah has
second. No, >> okay. She beat >> those in favor. >> We are adjourned.