you are live all right i will call the Thursday March 27th meeting of the Grand Marray Public Library Board of Trustees to order it is 5:01 p.m um we'll do quick introductions i'm
Sarah Mcnanis trustee michael Gary representing city council amanda St john library director sue Mlone trustee ryan Lang a librarian an Olymp
terrific all right um no visitors today so we will move on to the consent agenda which contains the agenda for tonight the minutes from our last meeting and the payment of bills
make a motion to approve consent agenda i'll second thank you motion and second any further discussion all those in favor i opposed motion passes unanimously all right moving right along
to our director's report i have a super exciting announcement to make that the library friends of Cook County received additional grant monies and are completely funding our purchase of staff computers at $11,331
that's really amazing we'll still be paying for the technician but the machines are purchased and be exciting wow thank you Easter Bunny indeed sold a few more Cadbury eggs on the about I guess i think with an
unexpected donation of this size maybe we can do a letter or something that would be great from the board yes okay yeah we'll send some eggs okay and also uh the vulnerability assessment that we had completed in 2024
on this building noted that the library had no dedicated parking spaces for staff or the public and that illumination on the street could reduce slip trip false hazards as well as deter any other potential safety concerns and
I'm very grateful um I was working with administrator Mike Roth on uh illuminating the street he had an assessment completed and a street light has been installed right over there um on First Street nice
oops the improvements we've made to our building the LED technology as well as the airsource heat pumps uh have created rebates for us that are being regularly applied to our utilities bills and um
the amount for the LED technology was $3,576 and the amount for airsource heat pumps was $4,036 so that will affect our line item in our 211 budget this is the summary of our sum
our winter reading program it's been a very successful program i'm looking forward to hearing some of the numbers but the enthusiasm of the patrons and the excitement of everyone participating has been such a joy to witness and for my staff to participate in um we're
giving out the last adult prize this Friday it's the cozy kitchen prize package and there are so many tickets in that box it's very good very good for um reading throughout Cook County and also I hear that we're all uh the community is also done like the the length of the
program was just about right the prizes looked really nice thank you the baskets whoever put those together it's nice yeah um the project leader is Erica and uh I believe that Evelyn did a lot of
the curation of our prizes and they do look so nice i wanted those baskets h um and then I also wanted to talk about that I had partnered with the hub to distribute um mailbook cataloges and we were able to send those out to all the
meals on wheels participants and also that I'm working with care partners and they are now also promoting mail book service to their clients on our behalf and um looking for other ways for the two of us to partner
together it's very exciting that's great excitement and then for programs I wanted to talk about Carving Your Clan which is an art and cultural program featuring Minnesota artist Ojiway educator Jeffrey Tibbitz and so it's a mix of celebration and
culture and ceremony and learning how to carve these um I these little uh little things little carvings we did postpone till next week due to the weather but the program has been very um well
received and that's my report oh thank you um for communications we've got the fund statement and then on to new business the library report do you want to just give a quick
overview yeah what we're doing here sure certainly so the Minnesota Public Library annual report is a state level requirement required by law Minnesota statute 134.13 and um every year I collect data
throughout the year on things like how many people have visited how many books have circulated how many people connect to our Wi-Fi and that information gets reported to the Minnesota Department of Education and um it has to be completed
no later than April 1st so for trustees I have compiled this report and I need you to approve the submission of this report and then that would result in having the president sign off and um I would would submit the report and the
required board approval form okay reviewing this always get just makes me take a moment to appreciate how much this library does mhm it just the numbers are so large for such a small staff and a small building and yet
it just clearly the reminder of how many people are touched by the library and in how many different ways it's beautiful thanks well I would make a motion to approve and report
I'll second it motion and second any further discussion all those in favor of approving the annual report i I Any opposed passes unanimously
so is this the report that the data was going to be looked at in a different way this year and we always do really well on but this year we might not do as well thanks for asking so um the Minnesota public library annual
report is a state level requirement and then there is slash was will be um we don't know the um institute for museum and library services the IMLS which we're hearing
about in the in the news um potentially being eliminated is a federal level so we submit state level and they like to review the the data from across the nation on the performance of libraries throughout the US and then that report
that IMLS makes is what the American Library Association's publication library journal would use to uh mix the metrics and do the fivestar libraries and so um we're we're all connected we're all we're all doing big data work
for each other and um getting getting that national level picture so that would be the American Library Association's magazine library journal that does the five-star library star library program put everything on hold
after the pandemic made the metrics so difficult to compare and they are starting to wonder about whether to continue at all but also because like uh the message that we're putting out is that some libraries perform well and
others don't and there we know that there are certain um characteristics about uh where some of us are located geographically and so on that make it possible for us to excel for example Grand Marray Public Library is
considered a um a city library but we actually serve the entire county so when we look when we look like a city library we are 1300 uh pedestrians residents residents um and
then it's the performance of that um number of population to how much pressure we receive which we get from the county and being a destination point and being small and so uh library journal I think is doing a healthy thing for libraries
in in our nation of taking a pause and thinking about a different way to tell the amazing story of the work that we do thank you that's a good question yeah I know we were doing trying to find comparisons for for your job across the
state and that's really hard to do because you know really it's city library but it isn't it's serving so many more people find any comparisons it's very different yeah and I and I still I think we are still not
considered a county library we are a city library but our statistics for the NP or for the report that we are talking about last year the language around our population
size changed and now we are visible as uh having a population that includes the whole county so what is that 5,600 people um is now reflected and could could make adjustments on uh how we were rated um
I'm not a mathematician so I I can't guess but but the program isn't in service right now super okay um the 2024 year end budget before we
head into preparing the 2026 budget um we should just take a moment and look at how we did in 24 um hopefully you've all had a chance to at least glance through it the library came in slightly under budget um
due in part to some lower than expected expenses that were actually out of our control so that's okay that's okay sometimes there are expenses you can't control and sometimes they're high and sometimes they're low and in 24 they were lower than
budgeted a man does a great job of keeping us updated on the budget and um keeping the library on budget which I appreciate thank you are there any questions or anything anyone needed further explanation on
otherwise we can move on to reviewing the strategic plan so we also don't want to lose track of the strategic plan as we move forward so I asked Amanda to just update um some
of the things that the library has done especially around safety and how those integrate into the strategic plan so looking specifically at focus area three the library provides staff and leadership the environment and resources they need to provide quality service um
she added in some of the things that the library has accomplished and how those fit in the strategic plan um and then hopefully as we move forward we can regroup and focus on other aspects
of the plan but um it's nice to see that we are keeping our strategic plan in mind even as we're adapting to new circumstances the strategic plan was intended to go for two years two years three years um
and we're coming we're in the last year of the strategic plan how is the board feeling about wanting to do a new strategic plan or how to proceed going forward this was three years it was really fast
mhm yeah i was going to say like no I mean February of 2024 so it was Yeah so was the Are the dates wrong maybe the dates are wrong y'all should be 24 to 26 but we'll be in 26 before we Yeah yeah it should be 26 okay
got it i'm in no hurry to do it again yeah I know it was a good process but yeah we just But it was just last year so I don't Yeah think they need to keep rolling along yeah I don't think we need to make any
plans to renew it or to redo it or renew it at this point it's a good plan as it is so maybe we'll just keep it on the agenda monthly and just do a quick check-in see where else we can make progress incrementally over the next
That makes sense okay all right and then we have the security camera system proposals okay every agency I believe that I spoke with about safety in the library and being
able to respond to a threat wanted to know where our cameras were um and I've worked closely with the sheriff's office on issues even prior to 2024 and the question comes around so often of why
why don't you have security cameras it's um a great deterrent as well as a tool to use for a variety of reasons the So I've been exploring the security camera systems that are available i've
talked to um city of Grand Marray i've talked with Cook County i've looked into some um businesses and things in the area as well and just got some of the breadth and scope of what this would be because I've never dealt with this
before um and what I'm finding is that there are basically two kinds of security camera systems that we would be looking at and the first kind is that we would purchase equipment outright from a vendor we own everything we buy data is
stored here in the building not in the cloud and it can be accessed remotely by app important considerations though are you always want to get a uh box that is larger than the number of cameras you
think you want because generally you're going to want to add more and then it would cost you would have to buy the next size up in order to expand so by a larger data storage box than we think that we need and then
um the other the other piece of that is that the technology will age and you'll want to budget for its replacement at some point another type of system that we can look at is uh digital the cameras
are leased not purchased and there are software licensing fees involved and also we get the support of the technicians who have an active engagement and relationship with the library going forward so I have three proposals for us
tonight two of them are solid complete proposals and those are what you have in your board packet they are from ESC systems and from next tech systems they both provide the first type of system where you purchase
equipment outright and their quotes are attached here for us to look at esc uh already services the libraries buyer system and they often split the cost of mileage between our organization and any
others in the in the area who are receiving service so they consolidate trips and charge us less for travel to get up here and help us out um NextTech had really good customer service they were very responsive and
seem to understand our concerns about balancing privacy with our security needs the other proposal is in the handouts that I provided you it's on the bottom of the pack and it is by This is they got me what they could get
for us for the board meeting tonight and um they this company is not only able to talk to us about installing cameras but they were also speaking to me about uh doing um controls remote controls on the
two doors at the foyer so that's why this is significantly higher um if you sort out the content regarding the door from the cameras which is where the final quote would land we'd have those separated
out um this is about a $13,000 camera system before we pay for the licensing if you look on the page two there's a licensing section and the cameras are listed there um you would buy your
licensing in packages of one three or five years with five years generating the cost savings each company has identified where they believe the cameras would go and about how many and kind of how to do
it and they're all landing at about the same area so like the the and how much equipment we'd be in installing around the building is fairly similar in each of the quotes and Protek saves to the cloud and the other two don't is that right that is
right and both systems are accessible remotely say that again well and we we would own like all the infrastructure or the other two yeah and and there's no threeyear licensing fiveyear there's
there is no fee like that for this other technology so the door is under the access control yes and that looks like it's just a couple
thousand dollars h that's not accurate i wonder if that piece of the quote is not I don't think that they've actually provided the cost of the doors themselves i think they're still exploring what that would be um the so I I also have worked with
Northern Doors uh to get a quote on not both doors but just the internal ones like what would it take to purchase um doors that could be remotely locked from the front desk at the foyer at the foyer level and
those doors are coming in at about $10,000 uh 13 by the time that you have electrical work done locally to make it all work so I think that this quotes incomplete and they they advised me of that when they provided it
uh but isn't this supposed to be uh releasing their equipment um for the camera system not for the remote doors I believe are they showing it differently well I'm seeing that they're charging us
charging us for it $30,000 that it doesn't say they're charging us uh $500 for four cameras each year they're car charging us the cost of it so it isn't So I'm releasing the software but we're
paying for all the hardware i'll follow up with them because I I may be mixing since their quote is incomplete and not separated out the way that I had asked um I may be mixing what I know about other businesses with what they're providing for Grand
Marray Library so Protech if someone has to service this they drive up from Minnetonka is that right there isn't a local person they do have an office in Duth and who would service these other
two they would be installed and then you own it if you needed help you would call the vendor protek is basically charging $10,000 just to install it not including the
equipment cuz it's the implementation services at every end so are we buying the cameras are we charged for transportation with service or is service included have you talked to Jeremy about either
any of these i did talk to Jeremy about So I did speak with Sunu Technology about whether he provides cameras himself and he can put them together but it's not his 4K um and I haven't talked to him about
the systems however well that's nice to maybe hit him up and see like hey we've got these two systems but really it would just be the two right if he had a thought on either
one so he he is familiar with the buy it and have the box on site type of camera system and if he were to make a system up for us he this is the direction he would go my understanding
of the Protek security system is that there is significant benefit with a system like the one they are proposing when you are large andworked which we are
not so if we were if we had four libraries in the area we could centralize security very easily and this system could communicate between all of the buildings overkill for what you need though yeah
yeah i think well it would still be good to get more information from the protek folks anyway um but yeah I would love to get some questions on the two two other systems
to see if he sees anything significantly different between them for for his purposes if he had to back them up since he's already doing our computers here
be great to get integrate the whole thing who's responsible for I'd also like to ask him so all this this information goes into the a black box where but not to the cloud is there some
way to save that information in the cloud you know if something actually happens your library burns down or something it's really would be nice to have it saved it it's it's pretty easy you just uh what you oh What's the most
common one that Well that's on the Windows system where you just you just buy the storage yeah I I think the extra storage in some way otherwise I mean this has the cloud but I think you could probably circumvent it
and still have stuff stayed on the cloud i mean would it be stored on the companies so it would be I wouldn't be protect or but it would be it would just be the library would buy cloud space in the
here they're providing the storage here we could get the storage in the cloud by figuring it out we could do I mean if your concern is like the place burns down is that or or something happens that your all of your your data about what was
going on here is damaged then you got nothing and but if you've got it in the cloud yeah I know that one thing we used to to do couple of different locations I was at u we would actually have like the
days information stored on on a hard disc or something like that and then we would just take that switch it out every day or every night schools used to always do they and then we'd always say somebody would go home with it two people would go home with it so they'd
always have the brains somewhere still alive so I don't know does city hall have any with their new new uh do they have any camera system yeah I actually don't know i assume we do but
I'm actually Yep she knows they claim there's a camera on the drop off box out there oh so probably more um so with with the conversation around the
cloud I'm intending not to keep data for very long the so I had thought wow I think probably a week's worth of data is sufficient if something happens we'll go get the record but beyond that we don't want to create a situation
where the police are coming trying to subpoena information that we have backed up with people we're trying to protect their privacy for coming into the library the what was explained to me about these boxes is that you can't
really set it up to do one week it would do as much as it can hold given how much activity it's picking up outside and then it would write over itself and it it ends up being closer to like 30 days that's a lot still
yeah um Yeah i had something to add yes just a question with the with the city since this city's owned by the or this building's owned by the city uh if what system they have and uh are are
they doing something like this where they're leasing and could that be a little cheaper for us since we would uh already be using the same system as they have at same employer um
and then and the other part of that is is uh is that hooked into what they have with their security system also hooked into the fire system
and stuff like that so that it's um you know is it all one system that so that something happens here and it'll be triggered at city hall saying danger
Will Robinson right so or or with the sheriff's office so that so that if this Well I guess we have the sidelin alarm so that would be the thing yeah yeah be like burglary or staff pulling
an alarm yeah yeah i mean I the camera thing did not come up in discussions so I mean I just assumed it was happening but uh you know that's at a lower level than so I actually don't answer system
it is and this is a standalone system even though um since we already working with one company my my initial thought is to go with that company because then we don't
have to deal with two different companies to come up and deal with this we can get the Coopers in there we're satisfied with their with what they've done with for so far we should be the relationship with ESC is really
healthy um their quote is the lowest in the bunch um all three companies do provide service to businesses in this area how would we pay for
this it's a great question um is this something we would want to throw into the 2026 budget for facilities especially if we are going to need to plan for ongoing
replacement should we look at budget again should we look at budget stuff yeah okay um so this is where perhaps policy K comes in handy for everyone policy K is the financial policy of the library board of trustees it was developed by
the board for the board the board owns it and can change it and hopefully that will help you can understand it a little bit um when it comes to the 211 account the city is looking for 6 months
operation budget um they want you to have 6 months in reserve right now you have that it's healthy we have a little bit more than we need but not so much that we need to be spending that down and also we understand that there are
expenses that happen one time a year and so it may look a little higher than it actually is it's it's good where it is so you're meeting that criteria right now the 215 um there is a generous discussion in
this policy about what boards prior felt was healthy and important to do including maintaining the $10,000 you would need for an insurance deductible that is an amount that we could rely on the 211 reserve for but trustees in the past felt that that should be backed up
also in the 215 um computer replacement you are currently spending toward that um the where does it say the intention
here where does it say the board wanted to keep 6 months operating in the 215 as well under the 4D 4D thank you the balance should not drop below 6 months of operating
expenses and in that way they could keep the library operating for an entire year the way that our funding works for operating expenses is that the it's sort of like if I'm getting this right the city pays in a little bit each month
until they've paid their share of our budget of which the county pays half right so the first half of the year the city is paying in and doing their part of giving us the tax dollars that were approved then later in the year the
county provides a one-time lump sum amount so that's kind of how the this functions our budget um our budget was about $475,500 50% of that is
237724 so about 240,000 if you can remember that number for a moment is what the board wanted to have in reserve in addition to I mean add then the the other $30,000 in there so now you're at
270 am I doing the math right okay right now how much we have in the 215 is $276,700 thereabouts although that's the number that we have in the account you have
approved about5 or $6,000 for landscaping you approved up to $35,000 for the computers um 11,000 was paid for by the friends and the public computers um are not intended to be
installed this year so there's um a a cushion of time before that spending would happen um you wanted to have airsource heat pumps installed those are already paid for and have gone through billing so this reflects that purchase and you
allocated $15,000 uh $15,600 for programming and the friends have contributed o about half a little more than half at this point and I didn't get far enough in to give you an exact dollar amount out of
that so um yeah do you have a question that could focus my That's That was my next question was going to be okay so where are we financially with the 211 and the 215 um so that's where you currently are
um with the Yeah and so with the safety So then the other part is like what else is going on here right what are all the pieces that we're trying to accomplish right now the significant improvements intended for the safety response are the
emergency exit which we know we have a quote for $42,000 and the uh security cameras which are coming in between 10 and $15,000 and if we were to move forward
with a controlled access door to facilitate lockdowns in the building um just the one door would be in the $13,000 range and then I provided you a list of the library improvements project that
we've been working with which helped us choose to do things like repairing the boilers and uh installing the rest of the air source heat pumps i will pause you you shall speak and if you have questions perhaps I'll have the answer
today okay so in the 215 it's 276 but you say that's kind of a an incomplete number at the moment because things are coming and going that's right i mean this would fall under 5G but in
the 215 just fine but maybe you're we're too close on that it would be a lot to spend another 10 if we're already going to be below 270 with what we've allocated and and I
lost that number so is 270 the number that 270 is the number we want to hit at 215 we're at 276 but we have outstanding allocations it doesn't seem like it falls under these others too easily let's talk about your recovery rate
yes the 215 grows the most through the Keith the key requests when someone offers us a very generous gift which hasn't happened since
um 200 something I believe 2004 or six I don't have the numbers in front of me on an annual basis we're seeing between six and
$17,000 going into the 215 but it is um a distraction from how much the growth actually is because uh we receive grants and things like the 11,000 from the library friends that are intended to be spent immediately or within the
fiscal year so your recovery rate if I'm doing my math right because it's a little wavery it's a little wavy um it's about $5,000 is there any option to do partial like put in a few cameras and then go next
year and put in a few more and do you need to buy the box that's big enough to handle all the cameras plus some that you weren't expecting and so that piece is still a part of the equation
when you'd be doubling your installation costs as well when we're looking at the 211 our budget next year uh that we're going to start working on in a month or two we're going to have to do some work this year because we've made changes
that impact the budget going forward we agreed to do some automation fees that I believe are about $1,300 a year which are the the cloud storage backup for the new computers the anti virus and the other
protection protective measures that we've added working with Jeremy the landscaping will be just under $3,000 and should go into the operational budget um and I'm going to be talking to you
shortly about contracting to have uh regular maintenance on our heating boiling system the local company had a gentleman that worked for them for the longest time who's serviced our building but um he's
retiring and our strategy might change a little bit given the busyiness of the um company if I'm understanding that right from my colleague so then we're going to have to make decisions about how to accommodate that
growth in the budget um oper in the operational budget as well we also discussed adding programming to the operational budget thanks for reminding me um Library Friends of Cook County is
doing an outstanding job with all of their fundraising um that I think I mentioned that they're getting um generous donations that weren't expected or part of a strategy so what provided us our public computers this
year may not be in their future we don't know that um you also have two other financial things to think about we do have these endowment
funds I feel like but need to research that we reinvest one of them every year and so there may be an amount of money that you could tap into or know about um I think with the Duth Superior but I I
really would have to dig and I just kind of need some guidance of what to do next um there are conversations there that you can have too about the replenishing of your fund i think I'm not feeling really like we
should go for this right now kind of like me i mean it's not going to go away and it won't go off our radar maybe now is not the moment to go for this need to wait you're making
finan we're making huge changes and costs to security systems here this year and that's really turned out to add up to a lot of lot of money in a year we maybe don't have the additional right now i also feel like there ought to be a
way to do this cheaper but yeah no I'm with you sure do you want to sit on these quotes for another month um do you want could you get us some information
about the community fund and the community foundation and just what those the statuses of those two are the community foundation the family funds are for children's materials well it kind of maybe they could play they
could play with the camera maybe not so find out what the status the statuses are there are two the two Duth Superior Duth Superior and St paul see what's okay okay um but it sounds like we don't want
to act on the security camera proposals today should I pursue the um getting the final quote from Protex so we have that and separate it out from the door and such or should we can I just put this Do you want me to put this aside
i I would think put it aside i would think put it aside rather than spending time on it for us to say it's not in the budget right now i think maybe let's set it aside let's look at when we start in September
we budget in May June July because we have to get our budget to I mean the fiscal year starts fiscal year is um the annual year calendar year but maybe sometime if you're just talking to Jeremy Sundu he's in here um
go over some other possibilities maybe something he could put together would be good enough these are I mean these are quite the systems that we've got the maps of Maybe I mean our at our church we have a what's called the blink system
and so it was two outside cameras two inside cameras for like 350 bucks yeah that's of wireless system i mean this is the public library then we had to buy an additional some additional cameras once we realized we had some blind spots you
know but we see so we have one two three four five so we have six cameras for three outside three inside and it's probably cost us $800 i mean if we want I mean it is a
home security system so so I always get So I mean so it is it really and and it can be it can be tapped into the computer so you doesn't have a separate monitor you can just
pull it up on your computer and look at it um so I'll come visit you what i'll come visit you yeah show me what you've got and how it works and um we'll take a look at that
i mean I I I'm a little hesitant to say we can wait on this for six months knowing knowing that we don't know what's going to be happening in our our country in the next couple months and that by the
same token we say the same thing like oh maybe we shouldn't spend yeah I gota it's just an awful lot of money and that we don't exactly quite have yet but I just kind of my gut is that this could be done cheaper yeah let's just ask
Jeremy like you know if you jerry rig something like what would it look like and how much would it cost it's not his forte but maybe it's something he's willing to do came with so that segus us to old business which
was the emergency exit proposals which were seven 700 uh seven seven cameras so I you know so I got right here on my on my on my on my pull up and
Okay emergency exit proposals the last time we were here you had access to Donald Home Construction and their proposal um uh David Mills Commissioner Mills felt that this was a little high and you
requested uh one that we get Donald Holm to update the language in their in their proposal so that it reflects materials are part of the bid and that has happened and it's in here for you now um Johnson Wilson uh
was responsive and believed they could get a quote in to me on time and it just didn't happen at all if there were more time they're still interested in working with us johnson Wilson is only interested in doing this project on the timeline that
would work for other projects that they have going on this summer i contacted Gardener and they referred me to CMC Construction cmc Construction was working on a quote but they could not get us the the final
details they couldn't get us the finished quote because they're trying to like bid the parts right now and so it wasn't ready what they could provide for us is this information um based on what they were able to see
uh they believe that their quote will come in between $35,000 and $50,000 the rough scope of the work would include demo of the exterior finishes and cutting a new opening for the door installing new single aluminum entrance
door with a transom light above it if there is enough room they would tie in the exterior finishes to match the existing they would patch the interior wall and repaint they would tie in interior finishes to match existing and they would pour a new concrete pad on
exterior to tie into the existing entrance um it's a very rough ballpark obviously um but having more time they would seek to finish their proposal well one thing is we wanted context and
we kind of got it there in the same yeah but it would be nice to get both of those yeah we can get one time no one ever thought that would be a
cheap project it's No so we want to see a full quote from CMC Construction and Johnson Wilson might as well we're not going to look there till next month i mean we give them until our next got if you can make it okay okay
giving you a shot but but to your point now we have a sense of a range yeah i'd hate to find out that anybody else could do it for $6,000 see if Jeremy can do it
you're so good at these things north Hall's just rough in a trap door there all right anything else lias as Kevin would say we are adjourned at 55 thank you so much thank you
you just you keeping track of so many different little projects