I'd like to call this meeting to order and 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. And I'll read Nick Champa, I am here. Amy Arala is not here. Deborah Kelly,
you're here. Aisha here. Here. Agnes, yes, you're here. Mayor Kramer. Kevin McNeel, yes. Tiana Gresham, uh, has called apparently is not going to be here. And
January Adams and our director. This meeting is being held in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act, also known as the Sunshine Law. Schedule and notification of this meeting have been provided to the Courier News, the Home
News Tribune, and the Frank Franklin Township Clerk. Copies have been posted in the library's vestibule, and are available at the reference desks. Is there any member of the public who would like to make us say anything at
this point? There will be another public session at the end. Seeing none, uh we look for approval of the minutes of the June 18th meeting. Now, I think that
some people have not gotten it. So, um, January, would you like to read those meeting minutes because Sure. Why should we vote on something we haven't read? Uh, Nick Champa called the meeting to order at 5:45 p.m. Pledge of allegiance,
stated that the meeting was being held in compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act, and welcome the mayor's new leaison, Deborah Kelly, to the board. Uh, roll call. Kevin McNeel was excused. Nick Champa was here. Deborah Kelly was present. Aisha Ali was here.
Mayor Kramer was present. Um Amy Arval was absent. Tiana Gresian was present. Agnes Kulabana was excused. And January Adams was present. Nick opened the meeting to public comment. There being no comments, the meeting was closed to public comments. Tiana motion
to approve the minutes of the May 28th, 2025 meeting. Debbie seconded and all were in favor. January presented the financial reports of the director's report for the month of May. The financial reports were filed for audit. January highlighted various aspects of
the narrative section of her monthly report. She noted that the adult services department held 46 adult programs that 668 people attended. The youth services department held 41 programs that 1,298 people enjoyed. The
library participated in the townships gay pride day by staffing a table at the event. All of the library summer reading challenges would begin on June 23rd and the Lewis Street coordinator hosted an information table at the youth resources fair on May 31st. President's report
none correspondence and communications. Um one five articles the first one was white house fires librarian of congress. Second was copyright office finds itself in the crosshairs. Third was judge
orders hold to IMLS dismantling. Fourth was stacked against them. And the fifth was showdown wounds over library of congress. All business none. New business. None. Debbie motioned to move into executive
session for the purpose of discussing negotiations regarding a donation proposal to rename the children's section of the library and to discuss the director's compensation for fiscal year 2526. Aisha seconded. All were in favor and the executive session began at
5:54. Aisha motion to move the meeting out of executive session at 6:18 p.m. Tiana seconded and all were in favor. Deiana motion to approve the gift agreement contract between the family of Francis and Anna Diamante and the board
of trustees of the Franklin Township Public Library as amended by the donor. Aisha seconded roll call vote. Nick Champa, yes. Debbie Kelly, yes. Aisha, yes. TM, yes. January explained that the board had just approved a charitable
gift of $40,000 to the library from Jennifer Kellogg on behalf of Francis and Anna Diamante. This gift would be recognized by honoring the Demente Demente twin sisters 100 years of teaching in Franklin schools and would include naming the youth services area
of the pro of the library as the Francis and Anna Demente wing and the placement of a plaque inscribed with the sisters biographical and contribution to the township schools nearby. Debbie motioned to increase the
director's salary to uh 159,000 for fifth school year 2526 effective July 1st, 2025. Tiana seconded. Roll call poll vote. Nick Champa, yes. Debbie Kelly, yes. Aisha Ali, yes. Tiana Gstrom, yes. Nick, open the meeting for
public comment. There were no comments, so the meeting was closed to public comments. The next meeting will be August 27, 2025. Deiana, motion to adjurnn. Debbie seconded. All were in favor and the meeting was adjourned at 6:23.
Thank you. Okay. Is there a motion to accept these minutes as so nicely read by January? I'll motion to accept the minutes. Kevin. Okay. Is there a second?
Aisha second. Is there any discussion of this motion? Seeing none, I'll call for a uh a vote. Those in favor of the motion, please signify by raising your hands. Those opposed,
I abate because I wasn't yet a meeting. Does it mean it? Doesn't matter. Right. No, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. The motion has passed unanimously. Thank you.
Moving on to our director's reports of the financial report which would be for the month of July. So we begin yes the first month of our fiscal year.
January, would you like to point out any uh items that you feel would need discussion or let's see on the all branches line 98 918 equipment service. That one is so large
because we um had to pay the service contract on the uh security gates. Um, director's discretionary fund was a purchase of the letters, individual letters for the signage for the Diamante
sisters and um the facts. We had to get a new fax for the public and uh not line 938, the photocopier that was uh we had to buy a new copier scanner for the branch. So that's why those are out of line for that one line.
There's nothing really on the Franklin Park brand, but those are not recurring. No. Yeah, they're they're they're one shots. They're not something that we'd expect to go on at that rate each month. Okay. Would you like to go on to your program
reports? Your report. Um the young adult librarian and the outreach librarian went to the zoo fall health event and national national night out on July
August 4th and 5th. Um they were very busy. They gave away a lot of stuff and met a lot of people. Um the summer reading challenge concluded on August 11th. The adult challenge had 140
participants who recorded 210,170 minutes. Uh there were 81 teens. They read a total of 1,392 hours and 288 children read for 76,871
minutes. The adult services department had 46 programs that 576 people attended. The youth services department held 53 in-house programs
that 1,980 people enjoyed. I think that was it. Well, does anyone have any questions for January about her operations report? I'm just impressed by the number of people that come to read the kids,
especially the kids. I'm very impressed about that. Yes, the staff works very very hard on that and do a lot of work to encourage people to do it. people that are um people that participate get a lot of praise and
encouragement to stay and do it. Thank you. Okay. Um I have no president's report today and uh we can move on to discuss
correspondence. Um although some of us did not receive it yet. Um would anyone like to would anyone who has seen the correspondence like to make any comments? Um
I just thought they were interesting. I mean um just seems like an assault on intelligence, you know. I don't know what the end game will be. Yeah, because you know
this uh all this seems politically uh motivated and um I don't think it's a good thing for anybody, but uh thanks for getting the information out. I guess being aware of the things that are going
on. Uh you know my father used to say forewarned is forehmed. So thank you. It was this is the American Library Association.
Yeah. I mean, both of them had the same kind of um same theme, the same theme, you know, federal cuts, the federal cuts and it's and it just seems to be an assault on intellect, you know,
libraries and and and books and and colleges and everything. So, but anyway, I guess we'll get through it. I didn't know that ebooks were more expensive than regular books. That I found
very interesting. Um they were they really have they were much more expensive. What I mean because they can I guess I mean they have a silver bar. There's no there's no um
because it would seem like it would be less right. Right. Yeah. less material less space and right no wear and tear like no depreciation I'll call it right yeah I found that really interesting
because I mainly do ebooks myself that's probably why because of me not you specifically I'm talking about you know supply and demand right so it's like more people but it's great when you travel like you
used to have to bring you heavy books and now it's like you just load up your Kindle or your iPad and well but uh January has talked to us about ebooks before and one of the things I think January
that you said was that uh you don't really own anything right because you pay a fee for a to rent it for a period of time and they take it away and then it's gone. So, how do we build a collection of books?
And and let me ask you, can um is there still a if I remember correctly, there's still a a certain number that can be uh is is you know, once you once you have the ebook,
you know, for for people to to check out is a certain number. Yeah. Once Well, we limit people. We limit people. I think it's five right now with um Hoopla because we're paying every time somebody in addition to everything else, we pay every time
somebody takes it out. So I mean like so if you have one copy of the book and can 80 people take out that one copy at the same time, right? It's still a a finite number of so you might have
five cop I mean I don't know how many but it's a it's a it's it's a number right we only have one copy you only have one copy of each one so once somebody takes that out even like a
one person at a time so I person a hard book that's what I'm Yeah. So once they take it out, it's not like six people can have it at the same time. I can go on the waiting list for it if you have it, right? Wow. It's not like you think like we can all
have the same book at the same time. Right. That's what you you It's like a It's like a a real book. I don't know how to say it. Except it is a lot more. Yeah. Isn't it? Isn't it? Disappears. And it disappears after a while. And the other part of that is we're not
buying these books in a vacuum. We also have to be on a like a platform and that's hugely expensive to have the access to the books just to be able to buy the actual cost. Yep. You think that would be cheaper like
more efficient more but it's not. But do we know like do you do you have an idea if there's more ebooks that are reserved versus hard coverver books or equal? still in the minority, but I
would expect it's going to grow. Yeah, the ebooks are still the minority. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Probably because I could even tell you at the next meeting specifically what's been circulated. It's in our state aid report, but right now it's not it's not
as it's not more than the books. Okay. Yeah. The physical books. I think I contribute to I still like the hard copy. Oh, you did? Hard copy. I get tired of looking at a screen, you know? I feel like Yeah, cuz when I read a book, I'm like,
"Oh, this is nice." And then I go back to like the Kindle, I'm like, "Okay." But then I'm Yeah. But like you said, it depends on what you're doing. If you're home Yeah. And in in a lounge chair, you might want to have the book, but if you're waiting in the airport or you're on
Yeah. I'm traveling this week next week, so I'm like, "Yeah, I'm loading up my iPad." Well, the discussion has come up in among my family members uh starting with someone making a statement
we don't need books anymore. Anything we want is online, right? However, now non-fiction books might be in the minority, but a non-fiction book gets treated, at least by me, quite
differently than a fiction book. So, I might leaf through a non-fiction book and see things that I become interested in. You don't do that with an electronic book. An encyclopedia was an was a good
example. remember those? Yeah, you Well, I didn't pick it up to look up this particular thing, but here it is. There is there is a difference. And uh how how many
what percentage is non-fiction? Is it less than 20? I have to blow. It's a it's a small it's a small it's a Would you agree though that it's a smaller number than the fiction? Yeah. Electronic books.
No books about let's say science chemistry book physics book biology book or or a history book which is non-fiction. Yeah. Okay. What happens when people are in a
a reading club and you have to read from the ebooks? Well, how do you manage that? They don't read from the ebooks or they take the hard. We have um we have book club kits actually where you can take out a bag. It's got 10 books in it. Is it 10?
Yes. 10. So, we've used them in my They're reading print. Okay. Yeah. But in my book club, if we buy books, certain people will buy the hard book or people will buy the ebook. You do what you like. Okay?
Or people will get on the waiting list here. Okay? Some people in my group live in Hillsboro or one woman lives in Princeton or they'll go to the county, so they may get it from a different branch because most of us live here in
Franklin. Um, so people are duking it out. a lot if it's a you know resale lease but your book club members I guess are all aware of the fact that uh we have borrowing
yes we've used yeah we've used the the kits and yes we've used the county we're all aware of the county privileges okay so yes we're all good library how's network that that that borrowing that's great that's great made everybody very happy good
yeah it's a new director. He's there. I I Do Did you know him from his last uh Not really. Okay. The uh Somerset County Library. Brian O has retired and the person they hired to
replace him is the person he replaced some years back. Wow. He came back from Salt Lake City. Oh, okay. Okay. Well,
how about old business? Anyone have any old business to bring up? I do. I'm thinking about the the um charging stations. What happened to that? The charging stations. Charging stations.
Yeah. For those for the electronic cars. We haven't heard much about a new charging station. Can you fill us in on anything here? Well, we want the town wants to install
one. You want a better one? I want a level three. Yes. Which is more expensive. Like way more expensive. Way more expensive. But the thing is we have two level twos right across the
parking lot and their usage is sort of low, rather low. And uh what I had told Mayor Kramer is that uh it would be a much better service to the community to somewhere put a level three charger.
Now, I live in a 55 plus community and we've just put in we have a couple of level twos, but we've just put in um a double level three. It's a big it's a big deal. What's the difference in the time it
takes to uh charge it? Not quite. Uh level two, I think, is 44 miles an hour. So, every hour you can put 44 miles on the cart. Obviously depends on the car. Many things
level three can be 2 300 miles an hour. Oh wow. That's Wow. That's significant. Wow. Uh I had pointed out a proposed location for a level three
which is not available. It's not available but but it has the power right there. Yeah. Yeah. And it's the um old middle bush spru which is right near here. It's when will that be opening this next month for uh No. No.
We're still figuring things out. Okay. It's but it will be a pre that's the current plan. Yeah. Okay. The reason why I as I thought this one, these two that are here were for
the police because the the advertisement is not known. I don't know if many people know about it. The two that are up here. I I've been seeing it, but I thought it was for only police vehicles. No, they they have they have 10 of their own
in the back. not not not these two in the main parking lot, but a separate parking lot where there are 10 level to um and I'm not sure it's only police maybe. Is it some of the other uh other ones? The ones that are
almost adjacent to the current where the two we've been talking about are for the um construction code. Okay. I don't know police charger, but there may be one. Okay.
Thank you. Is there any other old business to discuss? Um, yes. Did we ever resolve anything about the the young lady that brought up the um little free
library at that park? Was it Delar Park? Um, did we resolve anything? I don't I remember Phil, you were going to talk to Billy Connell or I don't remember. And Nick was going to build
now. I I think what we said was that the library would not we the public library would not be building them but we we could very well supply them with contribute we can books the books and that the actual construction
would be up to the public someone could volunteer and I think I did say I would volunteer to build one but no I haven't heard anything back yet. Okay. I would volunteer as a member of the public, not as not okay.
Committing the library to to that. No. Okay. Is there any new business? Um, yes. I respectfully wonder if we want to revisit the policy
of renting out the rooms. you like substantial lead time. I'd like to understand that better. Okay. We don't rent the rooms. Right. Right. Good point. Very good point. And uh I will point out that the policy
was um approved by the board some years ago. I'm not not pointing any fingers. Okay. And uh we need the two weeks because the rooms are not open to everybody and we have to check people out. They fill out a form. They have to
be a nonprofit. the person who's um running the meeting has to have a card in the library and it takes a while for us to check those things out. Okay, that was the reasoning. Okay, now I understand.
And and you people not rent out but um uh what am I trying to say? They they reserve right, right? They can reserve it on. Yeah. What they have to do is they the first time they do it, they fill out a form and they say what they want it for,
who they are, that kind of thing. And then we check them out. Then after that, they can reserve a room online as long as it's open. And it's for non they have to be nonprofit. Yeah. And when you say nonprofit, do they have to be a 5013C or just they're not making
they're not a business? We often ask for that, but sometimes we don't. Yeah. it fairies, but we do we do prefer that if they have that. And I will add since we're talking about this um that I've talked about
renovating the inside this part of the library and one of the things that I would like to add and there are in the plans that you're going to see soon um are more rooms, more meeting rooms. So that should alleviate a lot of the problems. In what space will they go?
They will be all over. Um but they'll take up some book space now or sitting space. Uh some of the sitting space. It's it's a very clever rearrangement of things. There's room actually for everything. Uh we've been weeding a lot of the books
because like we were discussing, people aren't taking out as many print books as they used to. So we've done a lot of weeding. We have the room and um Okay. We're not going outside the walls. No, no, no. Is there a large demand for people want
to go? Yes. Yes. And we're going to have some that are just for one person, some that are for a small group, and then some are for larger people, larger groups of people, weighters, watchers,
6 feet 2, 6' 3. Basketball team. How many rooms are you thinking of? I'd have to look. I don't know how many there are on there. Maybe five or six. Okay. More than what we have now.
They are in high demand. And I'm I'm hoping to bring you the plans next meeting at the September meeting so you can see for yourselves. Are they charged? Do they pay?
No. No. Okay. Thank you, Phil, for bringing that up. Is there any other new business? It's time for a second part of our public comment portion. Come on.
Anybody? No. Okay. Our next meeting is scheduled for September 24th this year. Is there a motion to adjourn? A motion that we adjourn.
Kevin wants to adjourn. Agnes agrees with him. Seconded. Any discussion about adjournment? Those in favor of adjourning. Uh this is the anonymous well film.
You're not going to be here in September. No, that date. Not that date. Okay. So asking for to be excused because I'll be in Texas. Texas. You get around. Yeah. I'm going to North Carolina tomorrow.
My childhood friend, his dad is turning 96.