##VIDEO ID:zdxEDZPPQio## [Music] f welcome to the January uh Library trustees meeting happy New Year everybody year we do have a forum um saying on citizens speak and I do not see any citizens here so we'll just move right on um secretary's report if everyone have a chance to do the secretary's report any questions or discussion move the secretary's report so move I no I can't because I wasn't here sorry and that's my mistake so I corrected it I had uh High here and not here so I just you updated I perfect I did can I have a second CH a motion to correct in favor you can't log in no it's perfect just I bring paper right don't those computers I know somebody's working in his office all day all right all set I'm Sor all right moving on to the report of the building committee and I think we have a discussion around the parking lot update and your p i do there's a lot of information um that uh has been discussed thus far and thank you Chris for being the spearhead of of all that Co authored with Wills way if you'd like to lead us in the discussion sure called a little earlier since I only have 10 minutes minus the other building discussion I'll be very brief you guys can ask a lot of questions if you want but so you have in your packet the original um public forum that we did in June I think it was June for those of you that didn't make it um and and also you have the latest document that we got which was the um estimat that we paid for so we authorized some money this Spit with then pick um the development costs um and then you have a little spreadsheet which is basically a summary of everything we've ever done really to parking I love this country yeah so just highlight so we explored you know the options we did the public forum um then we continued on with mic um with mic we came up with two potential new options which was some Town Hall Parking and then putting some development on top of that um potential parking lot that a Canton have um and then we have the development estimates that if you can read them you're lucky because I they're like they need interpretation and don't even try to read them so um we'll go right ahead but they I think they need a lot of I did keep going saying I I hope there's a chart there's the chart and so out of that we created like I said you know I created the sum which has the characteristics of each of the options and then also how each of those options um aligns with our um Library Nam as we met them um so basically our next steps are to meet with you guys and um if you want to go through those development estimates which or you have any other really super detailed questions that we I can't answer we will schedule another meeting and have Cheryl come to guas um because she can and she can interpret those developments if you really want but um and and certainly you know feel free to to say if you need to to have more questions answered but um otherwise our next steps are really to meet with the select board to kind of review this final spreadsheet we probably have a couple little tweaks to it maybe um and get their feedback on it um and if that's positive like it was last time then I think the next step might be then to prepare an AR cure town meeting to create a um a library parking building committee so um depending on which option we go for the town to vote on to have their committee to have a committee yeah um if you guys have other thoughts but I guess that's where I thought and then if we go with some of these big options we're going to need some expertise to go forward andic is not the people to do that um you know they did help us to get through certain any of their qualifications to go with that so um you know similar to the library building committee that we had I don't know 15 years ago or whatever probably do something similar to that um and then have that group go forward um with more details on where we should go can we interrupt just a minute minute um so Sarah's stopping by uh just say hello but um and I'm sorry to interrupt this but she's in between programs because she's constantly on the Run um but I told Jim beforehand that we had just a a special announcement to make and I want Sarah to make the special announcement yes uh hi everybody uh I just wanted to let you know that um you all sent Tori and I to a conference in uh in September we went to Denver and um for the um um the National Institute for um children's Librarians and um we had a great time and thank you so much for doing that and um before that conference I went to event called The Morris seminar that I applied to I think I told you all about this and it's about they teach people how to be on Awards committees and um I left that feeling very excited about that work but not really sure where I should go from there uh because I don't have a lot of experience doing that kind of work uh but I figured out where I'm going to go because I got an email last week I've been asked to be the administrative assistant for the 2026 Newberry committee which means that I will be a nonvoting member of that committee but I will um get to um be privy to all their discussions and I can't tell you anything about it out in the mystery you're not going to leave your job are you um but um I thought um um I wanted to tell you all about that because it's um it's certainly an honor for me but it is also an honor for our library so um yes um my congratulations thanks very much uh so um I'll I'll know who's gonna win before anyone else it's super exciting because now like she reads all the books anyway so at least now she she might be getting some copies of them and I'm not 100% sure but I think they send me the books like everyone else and it's hundreds of books that are about to show up at my house I told my children they're not allowed to come home because the rooms are going to be full of books how you go from how many to the one winner it's like it's over 400 books that they and um committees um they make their own rules like um they'll say you have to give it a minimum of 50 pages or whatever you know so um when I meet the um when I meet the committee I'll find out what their parameters are but um yes so so we non voting member so you just get to provide advice on what you read well it's more that um I'm managing um like the um the data collection for the committee so basically um keeping track of all the books that everyone get sent and who got them and who didn't and all this but then also keeping track of their voting I believe because they all nominate different titles and um throw out different titles and all of this so I'll um fun the spreadsheets for me yeah she's a conductor this year of the whole show yes but um the way it's been explained to me is that this is a direct pipeline to being a a voting member of a committee yourself and the person who filled this role um this past year is um serving on the 2026 um cicott committee so um so you're paying your I am and I'm very very excited about it so I'm so sorry to interrupt you and I thought you might want to know about that and when does this start January 31st so yes thank you thanks for sharing I am going to go run a book club now that's great good news yeah it's a big deal there newspaper article on well so we were talking about that we'll get back to parking but um yeah there's only like six or eight people on these committees there's only one of her that runs the Committees she's been she's been trying to do this for a long time um and had gotten to a point where she was thinking about stopping trying to get it but then she had this breakthrough over the past year with the the mo seminar and all so she's very very excited about it and uh we're all excited for we thought we would try to do um a newspaper article towards the end when they're about to announce it so it it will because the um Newberry will be in the news at the same time we thought we we'd do something about it then um because she doesn't want the reporter to ask well what are the best books right now because she she's by the rules so yeah we're all really happy for her but that's pretty awesome I thought you was going to resign I know take any job we so this is this is um this is being recorded and Sarah I apologize if anybody does watch the recording of This she came into my office the day she found out and she was crying so I thought something terrible had happened but it was just terrible in a good way um yeah it was really emotional and really exciting day for her so um but not resigning so yeah so um sorry to steal the Thunder of parking but we sneak back to parking wait for cind just step out for a minute or um a real feather in the cap for the Milton Public Library these These are the kinds of programs and events trustees support staff going to um direct result of that great um so anyways those are kind of the steps I am going to try to interpret for you the development costs of option um a b and option C on Highland Street um one thing to just to let you know if you did try to read that document that document is based on union workers which we don't typically do for this kind of work so non-union estimates is what I'm going to give you when again it's kind of a you know it's an estimate but but option a um would be about 13 to 135 to 15 million as opposed to I think it had like 25 million in there um option b would be about 3 to three and a half million um so option A is the parking lot on the Canton a space with something above when not sure what affordable housing office space um whatever who pays for that does some of it come out of our funding and or this is all town did what what for what if you go with option A B or C we haven't even gotten anywhere near funding okay we're just at the study phase yep you'll see in the characteristics yeah there's a um column which says funding sources and those are lists of some of the we think funding sources we could use so okay um we don't have any we're not asking for money that's a really important point to take away because we keep getting comments or push backs that oh we're looking to do an override oh we like this but we don't have any money we're not asking anyone for money right now so um not to say we won't at some point but we're not we're not even anywhere close to asking for money um so option b is just a parking lot Alone um and when I say alone it would still probably look something like some of those beautiful um portrayals that that Cheryl included in that public document you know it covers up some of the parking and it and it can actually be a you know a lovely but a very nice looking building that you know you're not ashamed of or whatever um and C is the Highland Street um option for those of you so that's a parking lot down at the end of Canton AB more on Highland Street just an open parking lot so and that estimate is about 6 to 700,000 so I I really would like you to all look at this if you haven't because the um you know I attached colors to the to the uh whether it meets or partially meets or doesn't meet our at all or things at all um and then I indicated the challenges so there could be more that you might want to add or you may not agree with them and if you don't you know I'd like to to know your thoughts on that um but basically there isn't um the only one that would meet all of our needs is adding a parking garage right next door here like probably like a Story by the time you did the go around which you'd have to have over and over to go up the ramps and room for the ramps and everything you'd have to you know the number of parking spots out there would be reduced by I don't know 10 to 20 and then you'd have to go up so we'd have a lovely you know garage right next to our to our beautiful building and we talked about that at these meetings um and as you'll see even though it is green all the way under the challenges it was were many reasons why we all first said no to it um haven't really got any formal feedback from anybody else um the B that's the hospital parking so it doesn't really meet um anything at all um except maybe the safety so um the build Downer off street parking at the Reed jail is totally like off the table and that was quite a while ago due to um a review by the conservation committee um and number five is expand the parking at Town Hall so the suggestion was that maybe we could piece together parking from several different areas to make up the 40 rather than building anything um so we could use you know so they're looking at a possibility of building um adding some additional spaces at Town Hall like widening the spot where the fire trucks would come right out widening that street a little and making some more formal parking spots there people park there now but it's not formal um but add some there so we did a lot of you know the um Town planner did a lot of counts um you know current counts of the staff and who's there and how often they're there in the building or whatever and it was kind of based on that um so the last option on this is to combine expand parking at the town hall with like either an option A or B which would be let's use some of the church parking over here and some over here to make it up and um it would be you know new construction to build the town hall but um and even though it could meet the 40 maybe the 50 it couldn't meet it really at any time in place that we'd like it and the only way to you know so you'd be telling somebody okay we're going to have a program on Tuesday night and we're expecting a lot of people so if you can't find any parking here then go across the street and go to this church and if you can't find any there go to the other church and if you can't find new there go to the town hall um so space noing so anyways I need to add probably some more challenges because I didn't in there to that combination because it really should identify you know that would be one of the biggest challenges it's to really how do you and you that that space um as you look if you these and these other spots during the day and these other here so there's no consistency and every time you wanted to use the spots we would have to you know go through with them and see if we could use them and when could we use them so it just seems not really um you know very usable um so I don't know if you want to add anything to that yeah the only things I'll add are um you know we've we've been having this conversation with Master planning committee now for maybe it's been two years so it's good that we're getting to the end it took some time to get to this point where we've we've got these estimates um you know we we did our homework on what times of day um you know we've been trying to take some pictures out the window especially on mornings between like 10 11 12 o'clock when we have multiple children's programs going on people making interesting spaces to park in that aren't really parking spaces because it's so full uh one of the byproducts of this whole conversation has been that the addition of the crosswalk with the flashing lights from town hall to the library that's a couple months old now um that's because people have already been parking the town hall to come to programs that are overfilled but um so you know kind of Little Steps here and there um but yeah we really tried to listen to some of the feedback from um from June from the from the um presentation we had some follow-up meetings with different people in involved in in different agencies or groups in town including the the hospital um yeah so Chris really it it was two years worth of information and dened down into these two spreadsheets uh the best we could do and um keeping in mind that a lot of the times like one of the parking space options like Chris said was the one on Highland which is done by the police station which might be an inexpensive solution to put a parking lot but if you're pushing a stroller with two kids if you have um any issues walking distances up steep hills it's not a solution for the library um so we you know try to keep all those different things in mind along the way but yeah option six I know which is the most expensive has a revenue component though I'm sorry option six has a revenue that's a good point F yes so konf a the developer that's the one 13 to 13 and half to 15 million yes so posibly yeah speak and this kind of gets to what cindu was asking but we're not there yet um some of some of these Solutions so if we go for not just a parking lot but a parking lot with a building on top it could be potentially that a developer pays a certain percentage of that entire project which would include part of the library parking part of that or if the town pays for it and rents it to a either commercial or whatever there would be a potential lease income for the town um not necessarily the library that we'd have to figure out like who owns that right um um so there are for these larger amount um building projects there's potential other funding sources but we're not at the point where we're officially identifying any of those um but we did have somebody come to master planning who talked about what it would what it would entail to have somebody come in and a developer come in and do it so I guess one correction to the spreadsheet I think you added that last option of combining the bed one m and I wouldn't agree those are all green Meats so I need to revisit that so um certainly the 50 to 60 it doesn't I don't think it meets even with all the numbers um walkability is kind of a question because people are going to be walking their all around so I think I'd probably change some of those to to Yellow so doesn't have EV station so I think that last another part of the conversation sorry is incorrectly noted as all green so I will update that I remember at the public meeting there was a lot of comments about trees trees trees and trees have we have any other conversations about trees we had a meeting with um Alex haser who's the current chair of the um climate action committee um in town and has also been a part of sustainable Milton for a long time for many years um you know his background I'm not sure exactly what it is but he's a scientist and he's a pretty a pretty smart guy um and we met with him and he said well first of all I just want you to know that the climate action committee is not the kind of committee that votes on yes or no we like this or we don't like it that's not our purpose I'm hoping that I haven't seen the goals that they've set for but he goes but the goals of this committee is to lay out the town's goals for meeting the climate action by 2050 it's got nothing to do with yes we agree with taking trees down from Library no we don't so he said we would never we would never weigh in any of those kind of things but he said personally I am you know certainly he can't call him a tree hugger but he certainly is somebody who's extremely environmentally conscious um but he said but I would never just say never build because you're cutting a tree down like that's just ridiculous to think that our whole future is never going to cut a tree down and we should all try to never cut a tree down in our life like that doesn't make any sense at all um you know so in theory he said he did support the canav option um he's not sure personally whether he would if it came to town meeting this thing because of the money he's like I'm not sure this is the top priority I think the override is the money and I want a school and and whatever but you know again we're not here to to vote on this one way or the other but um and we did have also Pete Jackson come I think you guys were updated on that so he came and toured area before we actually had the public forum right and um you know he's pretty familiar with types of trees and the quality of trees um and he just said that within the area that we were looking at at the time with if that's really the footprint that we decide that there were probably about four trees that need to come down anyways and they should come down because they're dangerous or they're you know diseased or whatever um and then there's probably maybe about the same amount that a really good trees that you're going to take down like some big ones but again he felt like that was something that you could replace either further on down a cab or in another part of town um so yeah he said less than 100 years it's mostly New Growth those trees yeah it was a field less than 100 years ago so yeah yeah yeah a lot of the trees over there are like the I forget what the kind was that he said but we have a you know somewhere else they're the kind that grow up in a year or whatever they're not like some really long-term valuable right oak trees you know most of them and you could move the footprint a little bit he said possibly to protect some more of the ones but you know again that's to be decided at some point in the future and the other thing I guess this not this again is written in stone but the idea of building the parking lot kind of into the space not just being a flat footprint would save some of the total area so could potentially save some of the trees there are different ways creative ways to look at it yeah yeah well I personally don't like the park like the park lot start out here so you know what I I wouldn't want to do a sture out here garage right garage right I mean I think we took a vote on that or we talked about it but that was before we had this current committee so I mean I I guess I'd like to know the feeling about everyone in this committee about building a garage since it does have green green green Green that's the one that highly meets it I don't have I we might have missed it the cost that we have on that one is a per space cost I think Cheryl had in the package of total cost but I don't know if I the issue Cheryl identified well two issues that Sheryl identified with with building a deck here um one was based on current um whatever zoning and what whatever it may be you could build a ramp going up to create a second level but it couldn't it couldn't go around it was like she had drawings of it because of how close the turnaround is to the street like you would go up to the end and then have to do a k turn and turn around to go back down there's there would be no way to circulate back around in that um so she thought that created more confusion and more danger and you would actually lose spaces in creating the curves to go to a second floor and then the other issue is you'd have to either close the building during construction or have some sort of busing system to an off-site parking lot so it's very comp it would be very comp not impossible but very complicated and I think I mean I that it would be inaccessible on here and I think we determine that because underneath the current parking lot are our HVAC systems and like like serious systems that run the library so if you're going to dig in there the library will not be open so we will be shutting down the library if we go with that option and we're not even sure what you know so we'd be digging under as well as up um right we looked at that for a couple of months worth of meetings so I'm not looking for a vote but it would be really helpful to have some kind of a consensus if if you want to vote or what do you all think about it because if we go to the select board they're going to want to know what the trustees so um you know we can go around and you can each give your own opinions or thoughts on these do have a priority if you had one choice or do you have something that you never want or um I don't know how you handle it but it would be really helpful to go forward to have a good sense of the committee I personally like six and seven what's that op a and b six that's my personal I just want to say Chris thank you for all the work you've put into this really than you you go around the table sure yeah Mike um I'm with 's got to say well Jim on I'm a little weary of like a giant parking garage structure um and I'm sympathetic to six and seven as well um are we taking a vote on what aution we would most prefer we having more discussion right now I think it's just more a discussion I guess I'd like to know are there any of these so you're saying you you think two is out of the question but which ones would you feel would support our needs and You' be in favor of um yeah would I would like a little more time to think about it but just in terms of what we've discussed so far reviewing this today yeah um mean six and seven are interesting okay I don't want to put anyone on the spot if they're ready that's six and seven can't na six and seven okay not so big on that garage out here for all those reasons I don't think it's really viable in so many ways c i I do like six and seven but I was wondering about the Highland if we were to take a garage and it weren't and we weren't thinking just about library because it is far away from the library but if we thought of this whole area as a Civic Center I'm sorry I can't hear you I'm so I'm of if we thought of the whole area as a civic center with the fire station the city hall town hall and and the library then a garage in that corner for employees a parking deck as opposed to a lot could be where the people who work here from 9 to 5 work and it might free up space for the visitors okay so I'm that's Highland so you're suggesting the Highland option if we I'm saying yes six and seven makes sense to me I'm saying before we shut down eight if you thought about a parking deck there it and we thought of this area as a city center or Town Center that parking deck could Supply employee parking for those three buildings right fire department Town Hall and Library if there was a garage you're saying on Highland yeah so the proposal that's there is a um a just an open lot yeah it's not a garage um we didn't look it into a garage to support all of that parking that would be a lot of parking and a lot of garage and we didn't look at that um just you know not to say we can't because we certainly could but um most of the reasons why Highland was was removed was um you know for us the walkability and the ability like there's there's just patrons many of our patrons young and old wouldn't be able to use that's why I'm saying it's not for a patron for town hall or fire it's for staff of if we allotted it as a staff parking okay then someone comes parks in the morning and they're not blocking parking in any of those three areas for the eight hours of the day so what other three areas are you talking about fire station town hall and Library how many slots would that open up is it viable in terms of how many slots so would be open up there' be a lot of moving pieces in this one I understand what saying so if we turn Town Hall so a lot of town hall employees Park a town hall and and fire station employees Park a town hall and at fire station I think what cindu is suggesting is that we we all of those or most of those people would park on Highland a so then including the library so that free up you know 15 12 whatever spaces at the library for for users Town Hall I couldn't tell you the number it would fill 30 I don't know but all the space of a town hall Town Hall already has a parking issue for residents who want to come in New Town Hall business cuz it's Chu full so um so that that would free up potentially spaces for people to use Town Hall as well um so it so something we can talk about the yeah the only issu is staff dep park down there I I don't know how enforceable it will be I was about to ask enfor I don't know how enforceable it would be um I'd have to talk to the Town Administrator I'm sure there would be some sort of Union conversation around it for for every I'm not talking Library I'm talking the town um but maybe just to add um one thing that's not in here is the challenges with even just a small amount of parking there like an open parking lot one of the reasons why it was totally removed was because the entrance and exit would be on Highland app and there is a memory care unit being built up the street and just very slightly down the street on Canton AB is a new 40b complex coming in so the whole light light that's there there's not really a light there to support any of that so to add all this more parking going in and out of that road was one that they unpick um everyone on there just was like this is not a doable option um you know based on the amount of parking so you're suggesting to add even more than that um what I was trying to suggest is if it's not used for the visitors of these three buildings right then that Peak load would be in the morning and at the end of the day like that shift changes or whatever but it wouldn't be it wouldn't be all day long people shuttling in and out of that garage that's why I thought it would be a good idea it's not unlike Mall workers or Hospital workers where they have their own parking area to allow the users or visitors to have the primary spots but I don't know the union people getting annoyed with having to walk over to Highland it would happen be hard to think the firefighters would agree to move out of their parking lot that was just brand new built right next door to them but you I'll bring it up to administrator ask what he thinks about that but I would antip at Le some push back I'm sure there's push back I'm just when you when you have a kid who works at the mall Christmas time don't you dare Park in need to park over there absolutely can I can I jump in on your question which is for us to comment on the things that you've presented for us here today y um I've um really strongly against the idea of tearing up the present parking lot uh and building something on top of it yeah one it's not that old to begin with two I also was going to ask isn't there a whole bunch of stuff underneath it um and so it seems high effort low reward um I think development of s six and seven has significant upside for helping modernize milon in general getting us uh parking and the potential to further develop this area which it needs to and I remembered I don't remember what what it was but there was someone presented to us the pictures at one point of the field less than years ago just remind us that this is not old growth forest this is not valuable trees it was a field before and it's a small footprint and there's very small uh carbon benefits carbon seclusion benefit for the amount of trees there um much more important would be to put in 10 EV the amount of CO2 positive gain we would get by putting in a parking garage with EVS in it would far be a PO more positive impact than the 100 trees that are on that site so I would be strongly in favor of six or seven for multiple reasons of how it would contribut to this area yeah to to the library but also to the development and modernization this this part of town which I think still needs it yeah didn't can I go back to you I guess just because of light of what he said in the beginning which was based on the options here do you have any opinion or are you wanting us to go explore a whole new Option before you wait in on any well I'm suggest eight okay I didn't finish on my comments on six and seven but going back to eight if that derails everything to suggest a garage even the 40 spaces as is on eight if they were allotted to employees as opposed to calling it library parking it's not changing this option it's just saying how it would be used on six and seven when I go to Lexington or to um line or places like that around the town center there are plenty of parking lots and we don't have that and it makes our life a little harder than going to some of these other towns where the library and Town Hall might share a um parking lot it might be closer to one building or another but people are used to walking a block or two to get to their car I think we're spoiled here that we expect it to be right at our front door for each building so so I I like six and seven I didn't get around to it because you guys were all talking about six and seven I think we should try to get the tax revenue and it might employ five or six people in this town if there's a new dentist or doctor or whatever so I'll say town hall to town hall people want a coffee shop or something um but anything yeah you're right it's new could have those as well and part of the reason we started talking with Master planning was we thought the library is not the only place that needs parking Town Hall needs parking right yeah and we need housing but we need housing too y yeah so yeah I like six7 like everyone else I'd like to just keep eight on the table and leave it get on the table if no one else is voting for it I'll pick that one just it's amazing how people run and walk around town when it comes to the library yeah it's amazing okay I was ready to go after Paul and say whatever he just said sounds great um no I I mean I also have to say I think when we look at this it is kind of beoo of us to think about town hall and how we can expand some parking on the sides there as well because I think it's dangerous right for the firefighters and what like the trucks coming out I've seen people Park illegally and just be mindful of like if you're going to do some additional parking I think we need to just think about everything in this area um then what we can do for everybody that works here and comes here yeah comes to the library or saying no just the Town Center if you want to call it the town center but where the hall is the fire like if you know even if it's a you know small amount I do think a couple extra space the town should look into the town hall as well I think they're I mean can only help that gazebo in summer when they have their events there right to give I mean I I agree with you they should look at it and hopefully they will but they're going to have to get out there and strum up some um yes some support to spend the money to build it because it's going to cost money you know not as much as any of these other things but they're going to have to come up with the money the town will so I guess when I looked at it that way we're the trustees and we're here to look for parking for the library and yeah we would probably also support them to do that but that's kind of not I see our right our goal here so and is there any like the fact that you're giving a price of 13 to 15 million the school is what 200 million like this what 200 million to do a school versus 13 to 15 to build this small building with parking below it the scale is so different do we have will voters have to pick one or the other or is it like here's the big school and then there's this little while we're at it well we're not we're not going anywhere to vote anything right now you know I think we're not asking for any money I mean if we let's say we looked at six and S and you got a committee together and they might find if they found a developer that the parking may be you know it may be paid for um so I don't want to say it's going to cost anybody anything and um you know like I said some of the funding sources I think we put on here there's different you know options for um for that there's affordable housing grants there's Mass Works grants there's a lot of places that we may be able to try to get some money um in addition to a developer and then we have building funds ourselves that are left from you know the original building project that we had um yeah so the only thing you're putting the article is for the right to the for this group to become a building building committee yeah I'm sorry what did you say the only thing that's the article is asking for is so that we can have a building committee there's no other decision to be made I mean if that's what we do I'm not I'm just suggesting that as possibly the next step if we all agree on it and selectboard you know feels like they're they they kind of have to be be on board because they own the land yeah um then to me that makes like the next best sense um Step so the next step is to form a committee that focuses only on that and that's their job so excuse me y so I mean for me it seems like why aren't we working with the slide board why aren't we joining with them because that can be their lot too and our lot and for funding purposes I think it would be very helpful if you know you don't go with a developer I don't know if you looked into all that um we've met with the select board and kept them up to date on this and they they're the ones who um suggested the master planning committee look at the town center and we and for us to work with them and then to come back to them with that with what we're doing to cnu's point I think the select board this is this is Library priority to get more parking for the select board they're looking the schools they're looking at the NBTA act they're looking at a lot of things so the partment lot is one more thing so we're just we're much more hyperfocused on it so that's why we're pushing it not faster than the select board but like we have more hands pushing right now that's why we're getting geared up to see them again but yes we want them involved I mean we've gone through their needs they've gone through them I should say and they're saying they don't need more that they could Town Hall has said that town hall has said they don't need more so they they could use this extra space if they widened that space where the fire trucks come out but we've offer many times fire station could use it the town they're not really interested in right I don't feel like there's any real interest in joining with us to say let's make this a municipal L and let's you know join join together I won't say we have gotten that much support they've supported us in doing it ourselves yeah going forward to the next step which is where we went yeah which was really the developer so the next step was to really get a developer or talk to some developers or get some ideas of what the cost would be to do this so that's kind of where we are so um thanks yeah it' be all nice if we all were on the same page but one is just to jump a couple of steps what's up how many how much fund funding do we have in our treasury for the building in our what in our building committee the leftover money is that five million or is that two much no it's like 500,000 oh okay so none of these options could be covered completely no but I mean like the other building you know project that happened the foundation supported and came in so I think maybe Paul could help but if there was a project and there was a plan and there was some reason and you had money to me that would be a time when maybe the the foundation might start helping about raising money from the town to support our needs as well you know I we can't take all of our money all of our trustee funds that just thinking just to remind us all we've kept the foundation in sleep mode right waiting for this exact moment and that's why we don't really need to talk about about Revenue right now we have to get it far enough that it gets political support and approval and part of it will be how are we going to pay for it and that's where we will come in and say here are suggestions on how we'll pay for it one of it will be we're going to raise money like we did when we uh renovated the entire library and so that's abstract into the future but we have a significant uh tool ready to go to do that and our track record we just raised $60,000 just with our regular annual appeal is very strong to be able to say that we could do such a thing especially if there was multiple inputs just develop so it's it is very feasible down the road whatever that will look like it's this political step here that really is the most important that's why Chris is asking us like what do we feel about this are we all thumbs up because if we're divided then it's not going anywhere if we're thumbs up and feel like this is viable there's really really high upside for this let's push it forward then that's now we have this political arm ready to help can It Forward what happens if um you know so the parking committee gets created and then they go with an option that's maybe not even listed here and I get that n p has done work not in all you know catching anything on that work but that they find another option you said yeah or if they just chose one that if we're sitting here like oh we have consensus on an option I understand political will but I feel like we just kind of look a little dumb in that regard if this parking committee which I think it's a good idea is like yeah we're going to do this I mean is do you see like sort of the discrepancy there well I think the committee would be created with specific guidelines okay your job is to go forward on developing a park and garage on Canton a okay with development or without maybe after they again see if they can find a development but their job isn't to go back in and re-explore all these and find another one I don't I don't think that would be the point I think it would be we got pretty much consensus here we got the okay from the select board to move forward and we would move forward and create an article specifically to focus on these we would okay yeah I okay that makes sense I mean that was what I was envisioning I you know you guys I'm not you know this isn't this isn't my decision totally but that's what I I wouldn't say okay let's create a committee and start this all over again and go find your own you know go explore other things yeah no I appreciate you CL thank you for that and I think you know bigger picture we are the elected Boards of where I think it is in our per to say look I guess I'm going back on what I said my question but hey we want to pursue this Avenue committee and cash it out yeah yeah so okay that makes sense okay so I guess that being said do you have any other thoughts or you want to wait for a while more do you have some because you said you weren't ready to really weigh in on a it was more so like I understand that you and NPC have worked on this diligently um so it more so that I have not like watched every meeting and know all the nitty-gritty of each one of those options I am deferring you as my fellow board member on this okay thank you you know from J do we make it all the way around yeah okay yeah no I think the discussion has been good and um I think yeah has everyone spoken then yeah yes y cool I think everyone has said six or seven sounds like we're agreee I said eight and and you I said don't forget eight but I agree with six and seven six seven or eight okay and you haven't said any one of them so that's all I'm just wondering if you haven't I thought you said you want so no I said I would obviously you know I'm not expert each one of those yeah um but based off of what I do have my knowledge that I have of this so far that I was most sympathetic to six and okay great I mean if there's more information that you guys think you need or you want or you don't have here that would help you feel more confident so that um that would help you make you know just just feel more comfortable saying which option you're looking at so so next upep is to meet with the select board and then do an article yeah I think we have another meeting or so with mic we're going to refine this a little more so you know I just heard today so if you guys could read this and see anything else that would be helpful um because I just saw an error with that green one all at the bottom that doesn't make sense so and I think there's probably some other things we can add to some of the other comments that you guys made that was helpful so awesome thank you chis yeah nice 10 minutes thank you yeah sorry I deferred my thought to her thank you thank will tell me I really was told I could have an hour a for all the workship with all these years now moving on cleaning up who's good that's we're that's just a follow up on the money approved at the last meeting we were waiting for the new year we still we've talked to a couple of companies we're just trying to figure out the laundry list so we're moving ahead with it D good uh moving on to budget and finance report on the fiscal 26 budget discussions how are they going well I will be brief about this um the Town Administrator presented a potential 9 .5 million override scenario to the select board last week um the N9 and a half million doll override would um be very close to a level service budget there would be additions on the school side that I'm less familiar with and minimal additions on the town side some of this would be taking programs that started during Co and arpa and and funding them with the town budget including a social worker and um another another kind of clinical worker at the uh police department but it's not an override like we used to think of it where you'd add several positions around on the town side it's it's pretty minimal the majority of that $9.5 million override is funding school um requests the initial town government side budget was about a 4% increase over last year and the school budget was closer to a % increase over last year um so it's a9.5 million override proposed to the select board they have not said yes they but they have not said no I assume that number will change um I do think that um there will be an override scenario going forward I I I think that it's been about eight years since the town did an override um we used to do them every three years on average before that well the last one was eight years ago and I think it was five years between that that one and the one before but before that I was closer to every two or three years and they were much smaller increments um 2 three four million um so I think in override we'll go forward I don't know what the number will be I don't think it'll be n and a half million I think it'll be less um uh I've been asked by the Town Administrator to attend the next select board meeting which is Tuesday the 28th to because he wants to have a couple department heads talk about what will happen if there isn't some sort of an operational override to you know to continue level Services um but we don't know we need more numbers and data before we can say exactly what that would look like um so that's there's nothing definite but this is the most override talk we've had it's the first time I think an actual override has been presented to the select board in many years even though we've talked about it um in town so so there's no meetings with a warant committee scheduled because I think they're waiting for more information about this as well um I'll let people know as I have any updates um I I imagine if there'll have to be some sort of scenario where there's budget cuts so we would have to look at that we've created um the libraryies created impact statements in the past uh which usually start with um closing hours on either Saturdays or Sundays um but that's something we'll have to review depending on the amount of uh of the cuts that that may or may not hypothetically come forward out of this process so um I'll let people know as soon as we get more information we have a department head meeting this Wednesday but even then they don't think they'll have numbers because the select board still has to do some work on it so without an Al we have to cut hours or it's a potential it's just a potential okay um just a potential I yeah I I don't know enough to to say that we knock on wood we've been able to avoid that all the once in the last 10 years where we have to cut back a few Sundays um not all of them but a couple of them so yeah I'm I'm still pretty optimistic about the process I still I don't if we have minor Cuts we I'm hoping we could absorb them other ways so thank you in your pack I think there was a report on Capital requests any other information on that John so Capital Improvement committe said two meetings and the so the news on that is bad because yeah the uh original lesson so the idea is the good news I guess is that the mass School Building Association a is looking at or agency is looking at also be funding a new school and everybody agrees that we need but in the meantime they're talking about renovating the third and fourth floor of Cunningham and the original es was $2 million and last Thursday we discussed the fact that it's gone to $5 million so which is just gonna Richard Wells was still chairing the committee kind of just going to low all the work we've done because you know where we've been submitting as you have been doing these fiveyear you know plans and all these departs and fiveyear plans this just going to blow all of that out of the water ow all it on what blow it all out of the water because it's $5 million that wasn't in any of these fiveyear plans for the that all the Departments are supposed to be submitting so that we cuz really have done a good job since Tom Hurley and those people and actually when I first was on the LA committee leason with the capital Improvement and never went I mean there was nothing to go through but we have you know done a very good job in getting you know yeah departments not anywhere near what they need or want but at least something every year and this is just going to knock it right out has you been on the capital committee for he's been chairing the committee since Mike yeah so see just I'm sorry to get back on the subject so if we get this school won't they looking at parking space too looking at parking space Also in new school if we did get project is parking for the employees and parents it's a beautiful plan but it's over by the high school it's far away it's not close to the building project okay yeah yeah just so they don't yeah right thank you John can we move your quarterly report to the next meeting moving on Equity committee anything to report I don't know you have Town initiatives I don't know was there anything you I could talk about town initiatives I think that we our committee should start talking again about September already so um already I know we probably but we should um so we should probably come up with a time to meet but um so Town initiatives um the the the diversity Committee of the Town employee diversity committee um is hosting five Employee Engagement events starting this Wednesday um be the morning we're having one at the police station one at fire station one at Town Hall one at DPW and one at the library there's going to be brief um introduction that there is a diversity equity and inclusion committee now we've had it for a year but at Town Hall uh we're doing a staff survey on employee engagement uh we're going to start doing that on an annual basis uh among other things it's you know going to try to track um people's sense of belonging but also what kinds of trainings uh work best for people times a day types of trainings that kind of thing so uh we've been trying to work towards this for a while Carla the um HR director is shairing that uh I'm on it with members of the uh Town engineering department and the health department among others so that's kind of the the news for uh for the for the townwide initiative so it's finally finally happening this the way I feel but everybody else would be like oh this is just happening so the Library events next Thursday morning so very good so this is explain that a little bit more so you're asking employees how can we yeah it's it's Employee Engagement but also we're so one we're we're telling the employees we're going to try to start having more Employee Engagement opportunities whether it's trainings or just like lunch or cross department meetings uh but we're also going to use it as an opportunity to start some equity and inclusion training as well um yeah it's it's a combination and how they work with people the public right so some of the trainings we've had in the past but some of the things are like working in an intergenerational workplace but some of them are also customer service based um so that's that's what we're starting yeah very thank you moving on to library J's report all right an hour um I just want to talk about a couple of things uh statistically numbers are doing well so I'm going to skip the statistics um I'm going to talk about of things in the building the children's room technolog is almost all set we're just waiting for some electrical issues with the town uh consia facilities Department uh we got the shipping manifest or whatever from the nooks those study pods that we ordered several months ago but they take you know six to eight weeks to fabricate those should be coming within a week so that will be uh quite the thing um I've had two meetings well I've had I've met with two groups over the last month or so um to talk about noise again noise reduction in the library um and I'm I've gotten quotes for sound dampening using white and pink noise speakers throughout mostly we're just talking about the second floor space out there um that's one thing we've looked at and the other is using you know foam uh paneling on some of the spaces on floor to prevent the noise coming to the second floor and the third is where we kind of have the art left over from uh those what do you call Suncatcher things that are or when you come up the stairs putting a baffling um like lattice Matrix in there so we're kind of we're looking at some of the different options to see um what we like uh we would probably use state aid for it they've all come in under 20,000 um the different projects uh the it it I'm still waiting for two more responses we've gone to places to like kind of see how it works or how it looks I don't know cindu if you've put any in any libraries any sound dampening stuff with white and pink noise yeah I mean we try to do it with the panels one more thing to do I mean but it's probably more reliable turn it up and down yeah yeah problem with the panels is they're not pretty all the time um but maybe it would be some combination the uh speakers would be mo most of the speakers uh would be above the drop ceiling so you wouldn't even see them um some of them would be on the ceiling or walls in the in the big um you know two stories out here so um we've done tests with it in different spots in the in the building it's it's interesting when you get into some of the science of it so that's a building thing we're looking into um and there's a lot of complaining about the noise because you have a quiet study here those cubes no there is there's a it's consistent complaints they come it goes up and down um the complaints sometimes it's based on the teens but it's not just that it's like people in the lobby space so um yeah the echo it just it's it just keeps echoing um as far as the town updates go I mentioned the Dei uh stuff that's going on um wintertown meeting is coming up in February the only issue that might affect the library that we mentioned last time we met was uh one day licenses at Town buildings um I'm not sure where that is right now with the select board um but it's the kind of thing that the the library would have to approve the license and then the select board would also have to approve the license and then talking with us and COA we would see it as only being for town events or Library Foundation or friends events um we're not getting into the let's have a Bo Annie down in the keys room so so that's that piece of it um so did we approve to allow do that no because we haven't seen um we haven't seen the Warren article yet from the day that the library buil that has been the issue yeah it's something that the the foundation has gone to the select word for in the past but we haven't done it in so what is the article the article would allow one day liquor licenses to any town to any Town building so that would just include us it's not specific yeah but if it's if assuming it is approved and pass would we need to come up with a policy or yeah we would come up with a policy for yeah it would be it would be a new policy because you would allow me to have my 60th birthday party down the keys let me pause the meeting no uh right exactly so like we're not getting into having showers and you know brunches with Moses and that kind of and who's proposing the article I believe that's select is proposing the article so besides us what Building Council on Aging is other major building that that would affect but it would I think I believe would it would do the schools as well it would affect the schools I don't know those departments all support it it seems like they would for support before the go to town meeting and everyone say does this department support it no yes the COA um so the administrator kind of pulled and I about and we had the same concerns that we wanted to be able to have the approval of the license and have as strict of Regulation as we want which would kind of limit it to you know Library fundraising events or if the library wanted to do a wine tasting for the public type in event but we were thinking once twice maybe three times a year tops if if it was ever a thing we would want to do and then I was going to wait for the article to come out the open house the open house W that's one thing that could be voted on in town hall town meeting is that you could restrict it to certain buildings as well I mean if you wanted to pick out a part right right but I just thought do we want to do we want to support it I mean right seem like if we don't want to support it before they write the article and assume it's all departments we might want to say exclude the library or keep us in there and let us have our own um you know guidelines or whatever that's a conversation I mean I based on um based on the opportunities it could afford us if we can restrict it I would support it for the library um you know the idea of a a beer tasting and a wine tasting as like a regular Library friends event um it's something that we see other libraries do that we can't do right now um we've looked at having friends events that were fundraisers or Foundation thank you events that were f risers when the library is closed but we still couldn't do it because of the liquor license thing I think in a controlled way it could be it could have benefits for the library and one I understand the one day liquor that we the library would have to P in the STP to approve I'm assuming it's you that has the authority or does that have to come up to this board that would be something we'd have to figure out for the policy yeah right I mean I think would happen so infrequently it wouldn't be an onus if the board wanted to do it but it also would would be up to the board if they wanted to defer it I think most of the times it would involve discussion with us something with yeah with the foundation of friends right so and we probably be able to identify the events once in advance I don't I think that if we had the right it's not going to be like you're not going to be getting things like oh Jim Potter's birthday party or whatever coming before the board to to discussed so otherwise it could go to for Village yeah yeah so do we want to have a vote or a sense of the room or what are people's thoughts it's been something we've been debating for all these years ever since the library and um we've discussed it so many many many times so I think I don't see anything wrong what was the opposition to it it's a slippery slope a slippery because the toal the word once you start to have some events then there'll be more and more and so it wasn't very rational emotional so I would be very strongly in favor of it so long as the Director had complete control yeah what when MH that he's the gatekeeper right that someone someone outside the library can't happens at the library so as long as the Director has complete control of the policy and I think it's an excellent opportunity I agree I agree as well so I'll ask them for the wording I I asked last week but it wasn't ready yet and I can share it with the board and if there's concerns we can have we can be prepared at town meeting for hopefully before I the warrant committee should review it and they we haven't heard about it yet so or just add some more clarification to the article that's what I would think yeah yeah we want us to include otherwise people will ask all those questions right can anybody just rent this yeah they're so they're going to ask all the questions no matter what even g b are you kidding me to get a how much for t wine how much is a draft beer going to be on Thursday nights um but so yes um between the COA and and myself we've given them all the restrictions that we we think would cover us so um COA was much more concerned about it I think they get used for for different events a little bit more more than us wine and beer yeah that's a whole another piece yeah yeah I was saying who also the license like the license servers and yeah no and then there's police presence there's all kinds of specifics something in yeah so you're thinking it would be Library events only I do do so nobody could come in and use the space for right so that yeah that I don't and I think that's enough yeah all right I will uh I'll talk to the Town Administrator try to get an update on that um just looking at the Statewide level um the I'm still one of the co-chairs of the mass liary Association advocacy and legislative committee uh we have found new sponsors for both uh the ebook legislation and the freedom to read legislation those are the anti-censorship um uh bills we also um have we're also working with a lobbyist this year specifically on the um anti- uh um book Banning bills uh they were're working with every Library which is a library advocacy group and penguin Random House is helping to fund a lobbyist for us uh specifically uh we've already met with them several times they've gotten um sponsors for bills and we're moving ahead um a little bit more strongly both those bills ended up in um Ways and Means so they made it all the way through like the sausage making machine got Ways and Means and got stuff there along with you know like 95% of everything else um so we want to get past that this year we've got because we already have a committee approved language we're optimistic we we'll move a little bit ahead in that um and then just uh for for Old Colony right now there's a bunch of stuff going on with the old colony Library Network um we are looking at a new um software for the for Old Colony so it would be new on the patron side new on the staff side we haven't changed in 12 years I think I will say this uh so I'm chairing that task force I was on the previous iteration of it there are other softwares very similar to what ocn uses none of them are necessary neily like way better some are more expensive and a little better but there's also the pain of training hundreds of Library staff and then tens of thousands of patrons um so we got to weigh all of those different things uh we started we had our first meeting last week there's a lot of things we'd like to see improved on the staff side as well as the public side um so that's that's going to happen and they'll have recommendation to by June if it changes it would start a year from July so I'll let you people uh all know about that and the other thing they're looking at is the assessment this is how they determine how much each Library pays to ocn every year for these Services um so we're talking about how we break that up it's complicated formula and also increasing the idea of increasing ocn fees to include some of the things that we all already by ourselves like whether it's a subscription to the online Wall Street Journal or if it's part like hoopla or other things like that if we put them into to a shared uh ocn versus buying them separately as part of that conversation um the director of Hall is leaving that uh Brian defiz but I'm also on that task force and that everything's happening at ocn all at once and that's that's that and then the other thing I want to mention um and it'll check off one of the other agenda items which is the welcome packet um we're moving forward um with a a software called Patron point which is part of the same family that is doing the new calendars libcal the new calendar system for the library uh what this does and we are in the first steps of this and I've met with u members of the friends to talk about part of this as well um this sends out welcome emails to every new library user and you set up it's kind of don't get annoyed by it right away but it's the kind of the same thing that like businesses will you use like if you give them your email so that you'll get an email welcoming you the first day maybe three days later we'll send an email that says hey we also do programs we have online um ebooks and we have a friends of the library so we have to determine how many messages we want to send total not like per week like other companies do um but you it one one a week for the first month and then we let it go we could also see better the the return rate on people um so we're going to start working with that as our initial digital welcome packet um and I just wanted to remind people that Dennis leane is less than a month away February 6th my mother's birthday come out and celebrate with Dennis and then Grace Lynn is coming uh in March uh I can't remember the date now it might also be March 6th but uh Grace Lynn is the children's offer that's coming out and um Grace Lynn's going to be one of the she's going to have a exhibit at the Eric Carl Museum coming up in the spring um she's so that's like that's a big deal for children's authors and illustrators to be at Eric Carl out in uh I that's Amherst or Northampton um and I just wanted to point out if you haven't looked um or seen on social media the last page of your packet should have kind of our year in review I thought that was great so that's good Regan helped put this together um so we've been using it on social media and pushing it out there as our top 10 books and and a bunch of the different statistics for the for the library for the year it's on the homepage of the website right now and we'll keep it there for a little bit longer um that's what I have for that thank you thank you the agenda any questions for will moving on Communications with Library partner one question sorry um did that woman ever call you back or contact you about you know she wanted to do something in memory of no okay no so we've shared with them ideas that um but we have not heard back that's been several months now yeah thank you I didn't I didn't mention the little free libraries but I've been working with um Shannon from the friends on the little fre Library so that's we're behind the scenes on that too we brought the last month any quick update on the foundation Paul yeah I'll set the uh friends sent their Fund Raising letter out in December um we will send ours out the foundation will send um the annual fundraising letter out right after the speaker series to to play on that I get that 60 seconds at the speaker series to remind everybody how to support the foundation um which is of course to go online right there and get out your phones right now a donation please put your names on the list over here so you're on our mailing list and then we we'll hit them uh with the um key um key donors receive uh an actual letter everyone else gets an email uh we received uh 50 Grand from the Copeland our annual donation from the Copeland came through uh and the John Mary um conquer corkrin uh gave their annual $10,000 as well so they're still supporting and very very thankful for all the foundation and the library is doing and so just the remember what the questions was if we tamper damp down uh the foundation will we lose some of the annual uh bid checks we get that has not been the case so all and I should have mentioned Paul should pretty good audience Dennis leane right now we have 400 people registered for it so that's at the high school on Fe February 7 awesome that's great all right we went on to new business and we have some uh action items and uh in your packet was a policy review on Arts rights policy that was one sentence one sentence I hope you had time to review it policy I know when I went to it I was like is this an actual policy yeah any questions on the one sentence take a motion to approve move all in favor oving on to the second policy the safe child policy any questions about that one I'll just say so this the I work on this with the children's department and with teen Services Department we just made some minor updates so it was more in line with the overall Behavior policy too um and we talk to other libraries about some of the age ranges in there but it's um it's a good thing for the staff to have is a as a backup so do you have children here that are too young to be left alone yes all right Chris Mo anybody thank you Jamie all in favor thank you um believe it or not it's time to uh talk about stack pole schs and we have three uh individuals hopefully I can pronounce their name is it Dorian Abraham dor Dorian yep Victoria Linder Lind and then Ronin okor in the past we have given 2,000 each right um I last year we only had one and the year before we had two this year yeah we usually average about two two this year we have three so yeah which will make next year difficult for the circulation and children's departments who've had these three who've been working for them for many years now at the library um and I was talking to Jim earlier today we haven't had as many we've had less people last their whole High School career than we have had in the past so this is a kind of a unique group that we have had three that are graduating this year um and they've been great uh the staff can't say enough about so you believe this comes out the general f there's a stack b f which is getting low but I I think that uh we talked about this in a previous meeting that we used general fund to to fill that void if needed so this would be 28 so it's total of six that's right and we would award we would this is a approving it now I would let the high school know so that on Awards night they're recognized but then we would invite them and give them the checks at a probably our May meeting usually it's the May meeting yes do you know who funded that stack pul it was the family of a former employee none of whom I believe live in town anymore the employee passed away this was let them know the money's yeah I know this was like to this was uh way before my time or any of our time [Music] and I tried to find somebody once upon a time I could talk to Dan again but we more on be able to so it's a small it's it's a it's a significant uh acknowledgement of their time at the library it's kind of a smaller amount to come out of our of our funds yeah discussion or questions if not I'll take a motion moved second thank you in favor awesome is there any other new business seeing none all right future meetings in February's committee meetings our next meeting is March 10th they do leave in this room and then for the March meeting we'll have the building committee the nominating committee the Personnel committee and the treasures corly report anything else oh yeah so um the art department and we haven't done much about it course so it's going to the grounds we're talking about putting up that little buide the building and um nothing has been done about it but people still talk to me about it that they think it's incomplete the library looks incomplete that has run into the revolving door of of um Consolidated facilities directors um because Bill Richie had picked out a vas and then he left and then Chris had picked out of vas and then he left um and I talked to Tom McCarthy about it not too long ago we talked about it in the fall and he had identifi one that matches but the coloring might be off so the idea might be to get two two new ones remove the other one too we'd have to get the DPW in with special equipment um to get up there but because we built the new that should be an easier project now we're talking about ones that are facing yeah yes it does look incomplete agree and and also in the art here have we done any inventory and then lately yeah we have uh we we have an inventory that we did um and we put it up online as well we have is uh in a database format as well um and it lists as much information as we know about it uh it's providance when when it was donated and um where it is currently they being hung or stored and we did do within the last five years maybe within the last three we had a new appraisal done of the entire collection so we could update our insurance on it yes yeah I'll take a motion to ajour Second all in favor happy [Music] he