Board of Trustees, the Grand Marray Public Library to order. I'm Sarah McManis, trustee. >> I'm Sue Mlone, trustee. >> Elir, trustee. >> Kevin Lavore, trustee. >> Amanda St. John, library director.
All right. Thank you everybody for being here. Um, we do have time for an open forum, but I see we have no guests today. Not a problem. we can move on to the consent agenda which contains the today's
agenda, the minutes from last month and the payment of bills. Did anyone have anything they wanted to pull out of there to discuss? [Music] >> I move acceptance of the descent agenda entire. >> Thank you.
>> I'll second motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes unanimously. Amanda, we have your report. >> Yay.
Where is it? >> It's a lot of documents, isn't it? >> It is. Okay. We did have a resignation um Evelyn Coffin and we also have recommended two names to city council
for hire for library clerks leaving one position the library and one position open to fill and interviews are in progress as we speak. We've had uh we have a full set of programs coming up for um October. Uh
just yesterday, we had David Hickinson here talking about the life of Helen Hoover. We had 39 people attending that. Award-winning author Brian Malloy is offering four writing workshops. He's got two that are the formal instructional and then he also has two
sort of office hours where anyone can drop in with their work in progress and get his feedback. That's great. We're going to do two basket making workshops. It's the same session repeated so that more people can have an opportunity to participate. Um that is
happening on Saturday the October 4th. And on October 11th we're celebrating Indigenous People's Day with Jeffrey Tibbitz who's going to do a carving a stone carving course as well as talk about Ojiway world view. And so it's
pretty exciting lineup. I think we also have a folk music thing at the end of the month that didn't make it on this calendar. Um I think I'll cut to facility. We have been doing a lot of work with our doors.
So at the front we had several issues come up with the handicap actuator being able to open the exterior door. We no sooner fixed that when the arm fell off. And so then when you install the arm back on the door, it has to be
recommunicated to, you know, reprogrammed to open and close properly. And the actuator stopped working again. So Northern doors came up, they fixed all of that for us. We also had the
interior lobby door that continually has been sagging and scraping our tile. we did need to go ahead and replace the hinge on that. We did both of the internal doors at the same time. And then lastly, we've had a real sloppy
lock um on the staff entrance which makes it pretty difficult to get in and out sometimes and took a look at that and found some other issues with the hardware on the door. So, those have been changed up and now we are looking solid.
>> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions for Amanda? >> What's the um when you're saying we're waiting collections? Are are is it like the
whole non-fiction section or is it just uh the little small ones in the uh that the psychology one that has maybe one one row in it? And >> Sure. Thanks for asking. Right now, I'm really focused on our picture book
section because um if you can see, we've run out of space in the uh wheeled carts and we're moving into cubbies that used to hold toys to try to continue having enough shelving space. So, we need to lead the collection to make sure that it
fits the space that we have. And um that's what we're that's what we're we want to be able to put the books away and not sit them on top. In addition, I'm also um speaking with a consultant at Demco to talk about what next steps might look like. I think I've
talked to the board before about ideas of changing up the shelving um for different reasons, including these um the racks that have the color coding on them. they're splintering and might need to be refreshed. If not, move in a different direction with how we house
the materials in that in that area. And then, oh my gosh, DVDs are they need my help. So, all right, on to communications. We had a memo from Nancy that I think would fit better in the
discussion of old business if we want to cover that there. And then we have a memo from Amanda about some masonry repair. >> So this is Yeah, this is informative. We
know that that retunda needs some repair and a gentleman stopped by um offered his service to go ahead and give us a consultation. And I thought it was very different from the one that we had received before um where we were talking about perhaps building the rotunda wall
out several feet and putting a facade to protect the original stonework. And I'm just sharing this as an alternative and to keep the conversation going. for financial planning for example. >> Did we have numbers from the other ones
or they were not willing to give them at the time? >> At the time I think we also needed to choose a direction because there were two two styles of approach that he was offering. We kind of had to clarify what what we wanted.
>> So we don't really know how this compares to anything, >> right? Would you like me to pursue it? Let's find out. Okay. >> Yeah. You and I looked at it a little bit. I think it was 18 months ago or so.
Looking at these pictures, it still looks like there's some um problems with uh support. You know, things are subsiding. >> Think the foundation >> possibly.
>> That's why it's cracking. >> And of course, there's probably some sloppy work in initially, too. And some of the loose bricks over there have been glued sort of back together by the city.
>> The the bricks that were sliding out closest to the staff entry were patched. They told us when they helped us out that that was not meant to be a permanent solution. >> Yeah. >> So, we're wanting some kind of an assessment on the stability of the ground.
>> Uh, no. Um, well, I think it's the whole building. I mean, you would start worrying about this. So, you see the pictures of out here. You know, he's got some pictures there. And if you go look at it, you can see that that it's sub they're having
the kind of damage that would result from subsiding, something being pushed down, something not being supported correctly. And so what's the long term for the you know the building
you know and all gets heavily used and is it falling apart. You might be able to send some pictures to a structural engineer and not have to pay to have that person show up to give you an initial idea if it's something. Some
cracks I I read on these various websites, some cracks mean more than other cracks. >> Okay. I do know that both of the masons who looked at our rotunda said that the cracking that goes up the wall on the
rotunda was in the planned areas. So that that was expected that that's where some of it would happen. Um but certainly we're not talking about the ground underneath it. I just looked at a little bit coming in and and there there appears that at one
time the brick was in line with the walkway and now it's below the walkway the bottom of it. So it's it's coming down. >> Is there a certain amount of expected settling in a building?
>> Not that bad. Yeah, but not not if you're building on rock. I mean, what when I went uh when I went to college at North Dakota State that was on the grounds crew for a while and they built and uh Red River Valley Fargo
Morehead is like a 300 ft of silt and clay. So they thought so they built four highrises for housing students and they thought they were putting it on something that was solid and it wasn't. So every every year the grounds crew had
it going. You could just I mean there was a wave of bush outs we had to level it out every year but it's but we always it was like two or three high through or three feet higher five feet out than it was. So, but yeah, here it should have been
pretty solid, but >> yeah. Well, this building has had problems cuz isn't Wasn't it made at the same time as the YMCA and by the same company and the YMCA has problems leaking roof and all kinds of other issues and this
has been sort of slipshot work I think. So anyway, I think some of the problem is that things are subsiding. They're changing, you know, pushing down. >> Yeah. >> Part of me wonders if we want to know if
the building is >> I mean, how how old is this building? >> You're not very old. >> 1980s with a renovation in 2011. >> Yeah, that's it's not young anymore. I don't I would I would think yeah
there's if there's either either we can find something and make plans to repair it or find something and know that within 10 years we have to have a new construction. I think >> I think having a full assessment would
be a good idea. >> Yeah. You know, I think you see in these pictures, you see a lot of uh cracks and damages to I think it's probably just visual because the support is inside on another column and that's, you know, not
meant to support anything. So, you would say, oh, okay, you know, that's maybe that's not as important as others, but it's still potential problems falling or whatever, you know.
And then there is the the wall, you know, around the retund out there. That's part of the problem, too. And that that definitely seems like it has because the bottom of the stone brick or
masonry that's on the wall is below the level of the sidewalk in places. I'm sure it was at the same level at one time. Okay, thanks. >> Got some direction there to go. I >> think so. >> All right.
Old business, the safety and security improvements. Um, we wanted to have a further discussion on the emergency exit project. We have a memo from Nancy stating her position on it pretty clearly. Um, Amanda kindly included the
original quotes that we got back in the winter. Um, >> we also have a statement from Michael Garary who knew he wouldn't be here tonight. Should I share that now? >> Yeah, that's okay. >> He'd like to say, I wanted to register
my concurrence with Trustee Jagar. I do not believe that a door or other enhanced in eress on the south wall will improve safety and it's not a good use of our resources at this time. If we had endless money, this would be
maybe something we could we could do, but we just don't have enough money to to run a library and put the store in. um we have a lot of exits actually
and um sort of think all along this is one of the things I get accused of this all the time from my husband that you know I'm letting perfect be the enemy of good the the door is perfect but
maybe we can't do that so maybe we we've done a lot already We have done a lot of security enhancements. >> Spent so much time on this. We've really tried all these quotes on the door and each
one is worse than the next one. >> Mhm. >> It's so much of our budget. It's not clear to me what that the door the door solves a problem either. >> Yeah, >> we could look at an egress window if we
wanted to go that direction, another direction. um which also is not perfect but might be good. Schools do it. But we've really tried with the story. We've really tried
and it just it just the first quote was shocking and then the next ones just got worse and worse. Well, I'm never I'm never sure that another egress is really what you would be any benefit in a shooter situation or
active shooter situation or whatever the problem people have identified. And I know that there was a pretty serious um problem last year with an individual that scared the hell out of a lot of people and I did. But I don't know. Um I
looked again this afternoon at what happened at Annunciation. Um I went to I went to grade school there. Uh all my brothers and sisters went to grade school there. Uh that church was built after I left
there, but the church had decided that it was locked the doors and so when the mass started, the doors were locked. So the shooter couldn't get in. That's why I chose to do the windows and that was part of their safety
program. We're going to change the way and also part of the safety program was kids jumping on kids to keep them safe. >> Now, I did I have survived a huge fire. Um I shouldn't have, but I did. And uh
um I have some familiarity with that and how to how to react to that. Um it it that one was just I don't know dumb luck even though it had awful lot
of exits and the whole back end of the building was blown off. So you had a big exit which is where where I ended up going. Um so I don't know it just
that the fire problem is more of a issue in my mind than than anything else. I read a book here two years ago or three years ago about the fire in the Los Angeles Public Library and was it the 60s was a huge thing.
Uh, lots of damage, lots of problems, and uh, nobody I don't think anybody thought a library would burn like that, but it sure did. >> And uh, this one might do. I know under the right circumstances.
Mhm. >> But it wouldn't be as bad as the Los Angeles one because that was they had a room for history and they had a room for this and this burned and that burned and hallways and
>> there's no way to prepare for every possibility. So what should we decide in uh in old buildings and in case of fire break glass and you know a
big axe to knock knock knock out the Don't >> you've improved fire codes somewhat and our building does need all the necessary codes. >> One of the things that should it should help is the cameras
>> because people are aware of cameras and you don't want to be on cameras >> and all the planning that Amanda has done with staff and the preparation that has to help. >> Yeah. training
>> all these different safety things that have been added. We've done a lot. >> Yeah. >> And we have Well, I think part of the discussion once was about I mean we do have some blind uh frosting
of windows. >> Yeah. you know, um maybe that could do do one ways so that people from the outside can't see what they're doing.
>> That's another thing we can pursue. We talked about it. Since we've made no formal motion on this or anything, it would nobody makes a motion on it, it would it would we would uh not forward it into any business. >> Yeah, I think we can comfortably direct
Amanda to let the project be done and not pursue it further. >> It's been well researched. >> Yes. Thank you for the effort you've put in to answering their questions about it so that we could make a decision.
>> Yeah. >> As we're under safety and security, are the cameras up and are you running around changing the batteries every day? >> We're not changing them every day. And I'm going to have to work with maintenance on actually getting them changed because they don't want me up on
the ladder, which I appreciate. They're up pretty high. >> But they are installed and we're moving forward. I saw the notice on the door as I came in that there's cameras on the facility. >> Okay. Anything further on safety?
Under new business, we have the review of the library performance. Remember, we spent some time and effort coming up with a review tool and decided that we wanted to review the board's performance and the library's performance. So,
Amanda has attached that here. Um, if we could complete it and get it back to Amanda by Thursday, October 9th, that would give her time to coate everything so that we could look at it together at the October board meeting.
>> We'll do. >> Thanks. It's kind of exciting. I'm looking forward to what we come up with. >> Yeah. >> New tool. We'll see how it works, how it flows. So definitely appreciate your feedback
on the process as well as on the actual review, but we can talk about that on the far side. Have we done it all? >> I think we have done it all, folks. I call us at 5:25.
>> Thank you so much for being here. Are we officially off?