okay good evening everybody um our president is out today so as vice president I am going to call the meeting to order um uh the statement of compliance with open public meetings act njsa 104
d8x SEC um as revised this meeting has been advertised in the accordance with the New Jersey open public meetings act and is publicly accessible in accordance with law law roll call please Shaka here David cadino
Dr George here sah Marino Maria here Rosemary Z Gina here Maddie here mayor Walker and
Frank Leber okay to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for stands Nation God
indivisible withy and justice for all so our first business is to go to Executive session can I have a motion to go into executive session for matters of personnel for matters of personnel and I will pause the recording
all in favor I one and we have one person in the waiting room okay we are uh out of executive session we are moving on uh to the minutes uh I'm going to move for both A and B can we do that yes okay so I will
take motions for minutes you do them separately please you'd like to do it separately please okay no problem uh so then we will for the approval of the regular meeting minutes from February 12 2025 uh I need a
motion second I'll second all right roll call discuss oh discussion discuss nope roll call all right Raa yes Maddie yes Dr George
Gina yes Frank Weber obain and Maria Iain okay so uh moving on to approval of the executive meeting minutes of February 12th 2025 I need a motion I'll
move it second disc discussion okay roll call Rocco yes Maddie yes Gina yes Frank Weber
obain Dr George yes Maria obain okay moving on to Personnel under Personnel we have an additional item on the agenda Bas on Executive session discussions the
approval of the termination of probationary employee number 1483 effective March 12 2025 in accordance with the probationary employee provisions of the collective bargaining agreement with local 321
3231 supervisory unit I'll move it second I'll second discussion okay roll call please Rocco yes Maddie yes Gina
no Dr George yes Frank Weber yes yes yes okay moving on to finance uh a action on March 12 2025 Bill listing in
the amount of $187,000 681 $17,619.63 [Music] yeah well uh these are three bills two of them are on the same date and they're uh combined on those two
or everything well everything that I I reviewed everything was in order Frank everything okay there was nothing there was nothing out of the ordinary okay
um all right now I I got a question for D were all these uh bills for this is it to the same project the same work it's just different parts of it they're essentially independent
projects um the RFID that's one thing um then the order that was approved last month was for the selfcheck machine and all of the checkout pads the the it was
for equipment to make the RFID work and it was I mean it was the equipment so we've done the RFID project now we start looking individually at each component whether we want to have that what was approved last month was the selfcheck
machine and the equipment needed to check out books with the RFID all right so the uh the invoice of uh February 18th the description of it is virtually the
same um and the dollar amount is the same on each one of those so are I don't know what you're referring to you there's two quotations I'm looking at one is are those
quot are those quotations for the upcoming discussion and vote for tonight or are those quotations from what was approved last month well then what my question is is that there two identical
to me it appears quotes with uh two different us numbers which I assume there and the explanations look uh virtually 100% the same there's it's it's nothing close to
100% on any of the quotes last month two quotes were submitted for the self check machine and for the uh RFID pads that that read the system that was approved that was purchased that was in the bill
listing um if I can the ones that we're going to be discussing tonight are not for a selfcheck machine they are for security gates me back you have these are listed as
quotations so uh rather than bills but the question is these two appear to be exactly the same they're not even closely related all right well do me the then then I'll I wish I could send it to
you but I don't have a sex so the quotes that we have which were not part of the bill listing they haven't been approved those are for security gates all right what was approved last month was a selfcheck machine
I I ask that you review those because the different the is one they have exactly the same quote price a unit price on it and one is $1 4,833 and the other one is $1,858 we're gonna be discussing those
those aren't bills those are proposals yeah that's why I said the word portation I realize that so that's not on this action item on this action right but we're we're going to discuss what the basis for the difference the $2000 difference is when
we get to it all right so Frank that's gonna be under new business item a okay any further discussion um yeah under
Finance uh the movement of the $687,000 to our capital account okay we haven't we haven't U moved on we haven't had a discussion on that yet we're still on a right now Frank okay so we'll save that for that
so uh any other discussion roll call please Rao yes Maddie yes Dr George same Gina yes Frank Weber
yes and Maria yes yes okay uh Finance B approve the transfer of funds from monetary market account to the capital Fund in the amount of 6874 sorry 87,4 I need a motion motion Rocco we'll
have the discussion first hold on we need a second first I'll second okay discussion can I ask a question sure Maria go ahead you go first has I'd like to know if the library books have uh been audited for from for
uh 2024 the audit's not yet been completed well in my discussion um I don't think we should be moving this money until the books are audited by um the auditor okay my question
is what are we going to do with it why are we moving it said something about um services at new locations or something like I don't know what you're talking about so when we've been talking so if you look at what the board did with
moving the 1.5 million over to the town in anticipation of a branch building we've still not seen that so what I was going along with was that the board wanted to to build a branch or have that
there we've also talked about South Oldbridge so if that money is remaining and it's not in excess of the 20% according to state law then The Prudent thing to do is to move it into the
capital fund so that if we do decide to build something or do something the money is already there rather than having to be requested from the town I think that it's being represented as I hear it that some decision has been made
to build a building somewhere it better be done within the next year because that's that doesn't represent me and I'm sitting on the board I don't think we've talked about what we're going to do to provide additional Services my understanding with the capital is you
have to be very careful because it is a place where people put money to for whatever reason and if you put money in there it has to be for the right kind of expenditure it had to be has to be for things that last more than five years and that kind of thing I think this is
just veiled in misery I in mystery I don't know what we're talking about I prepared the capital plan last year and I did so with guidance from the State Library when I'm talking about money that had already been committed for the
facility of the Lawrence Harbor facility that was done prior to my tenure here that the 1.5 million was committed so that was already done I had nothing to do with that I'm not talking about that right I'm talking about now so if you
have 1.5 that was committed and who knows what the discussion was you're now adding money to that because you think the 1.5 will need more money and you I understand your reasoning you'd rather have it there than have to go and vote
for it later all right but I don't know if that's procedure because I think you're putting money there I don't know what it's there for I don't know what the money that's there already may not be enough why okay go ahead yeah uh sorry I already
gave the capital plan last year when we moved other funds over so this was just following in line with that and again it's just a request um that it's The Prudent thing to do otherwise you have money that's just sitting there without
a specific purpose being listed so with the capital plan it includes all kinds of things like the furniture renovation or the new building or doing the last five years yeah I know but you got to be careful what you do with other
people's money and if it's just sitting there and we and that bothers us then give it back to the people you took it from if that bothers you or otherwise it's sitting there waiting for some decisions to be made but make the decision then you pay for it if this is
like putting money in an account then maybe you will want a new coat next winter I know you can buy a coat and pay for it then I don't I just I think it's the understanding and I don't want to rush head long into building another library
in South Oldbridge if that isn't what everybody wants okay and that's we didn't look at different options so if this is a suggestion then we can vote yes or no on it I guess that's you know what the bot
discussion uh going one there $600 plus th000 uh it doesn't show up in our operating account does it um it's what's remaining from end of no no I didn't I didn't ask you that I
asked you is it if if if we have a million dollars in cap in a capital account that is restricted on how it may be spent can we not I don't believe it shows up in I I didn't finish my question thank
you if doar is in capital does the library have the right to uh try to earn interest on it rather than leaving just in our Capital account or is it I'll have to check with the state librarian on that but it doesn't enter
into our annual excess calculation anything that's committed to Capital all right but what but what I'm saying is we can take under the library state laws we take the million dollars and leave it in the money market just to
gain money and just have it have it listed as part of our Capital account which it is we do have funds in our Capital account that are earning interest and this as I said is just my responsibility at the end of the year with cleaning up
from the last expenses we already have a capital plan in place and I was just following along with that I certainly understand what U Maria has said about waiting for an audit and I understand what Dr George is saying that she'd like to look into the capital plan again but
as I said that was something we looked at last year well the question the money is not going to go I mean I'm not going to vote to move it because if it's earning money and we're doing it with other capital accounts I assume it's legal so I don't
see any need to move it you know there was one other thing that we discussed recently and I'd like to revisit it sometime and that's hiring a Financial Consultant somebody outside that can help with the director and committee
with financial things we're not Bankers we these things are very complicated it's kind of like doing all the law and not having Chris here you know we just make it up so I would like to revisit that um and think about it find out if
other libraries have it but it would be we have an auditor that's a consultant we have an attorney that's a consultant I would have somebody that would be a Financial Consultant we will uh consider that um for maybe for new business for next
month okay than roll call please sure Raa no Maddie no Dr George Gina no Frank
Weber no and Maria no what are you gonna do now you have to pay bills yeah I okay moving on to Old business any old
business okay moving on to new business a lot of old business that wasn't followed through on but it you know we've had a lot of discussion tonight but when in in a meeting we've told well you will have that before the next meeting I think that has to go on a list
somewhere somebody and we need to get it there are things that we've been promised that we didn't get and that one is a specifically I was told I would get it before the meeting we didn't get it um at any rate that would be old business
I'm sorry new business should go to Old business it shouldn't disappear may I ask what you were referring to with what you were supposed to get before the meeting well you need to pull out the minutes from the last meeting that we just
approved and the reason why I don't appr I don't vote for minutes is because I don't think that they should consist of the director's uh requests I think it should be actions of the board but oh I'm sorry was in the director's report you
promis L 20 papers yeah that's the pointment need list of committees um at any rate you don't think I can find it when I want it but that was one thing another thing we didn't get the
draft of the budget but I guess that's you did get the draft it's with the committee all right but that's coming I didn't get it I'm not on I don't have no idea who's on the committee so I can't call and ask them but at any rate that's in progress I don't have a problem with
that uh questions buildings and grounds and the uh proposals will be created for the board's consideration was creative Library I'm sorry D I can't find it this
minute but it was committee list was one of the things we were supposed to get but you know we're all busy and so that it didn't come that's all right I think if we made it just a procedure that when we put something in new business we
don't lose it for the last 20 years that I've been on Bo things go into I don't know somewhere but they get lost if it's in new business and we say will blah blah blah blah blah then we automatically stick it in Old
business okay so it's just not lost and uh that's the only thing to add to that at any rate if nobody knows what I'm talking about it's okay because I don't either at this
point right okay okay any other old business yeah okay so uh let's move on to new business uh Envision Weare quote RFID gates in the amount of $1,858 uh can I have a
motion a motion second I'll second it okay discussion the question that I have I think was answered we got those two things in our packet I don't know what you're talking about but at any rate I think I Now understand that those are
additional things that need to be added to our original proposal that was approved last week to make things better each each one of the components is different so at the last meeting
that's a selfcheck machine so people can walk up and check out their own materials and that sort of thing this so I'll explain how this came about I think that's helpful when I spoke to them about the quote from last month
which we approved I said that I thought the installation was a bit high so because I complained they said how can we they help us save money as we move forward so we can absolutely have the
RFID and the self check and have that be that this is an estimate do we want to add the security system and the reason why he gave it to us now is because if we have it installed on the same day as
the self check system we save $2,000 in an installation fee we absolutely don't need to do this right now we had discussed having security for the collection and having the security gates right now there are three non-existent
security or nonfunctional security gates at the entrance to the library they're standing there and they do nothing um this would replace those with a functional system so that if people were walking out with materials an alarm
would go off as I said I'm just bringing this forward because the vendor said that since I had objected to the high installation fee or questioned it he thought that there was an opportunity
for us to save it by doing both projects at the same time there's no need for us to do them at the same time or to ever have security gates but if we want to do them it's helpful to do that at the same time this isn't it depends on whether we
want to have a security system and these are again we get these things and it could be written in Greek for all I understand uh but they gates with radar people counter an extra wide aisle width these are the things to
be placed at the front doors yes so they would remove the three um Gates that are there now they call them Gates but it's not actually a gate it's just like a piece of plastic that's as tall as you are so currently there
are three of them there that don't function they don't do anything other than be an isore so this would be Gates that function for security so that would be
people walking out with a book hidden under their arm or something like that it would pick it up okay yes okay now that's one that's for 14,000 the $112,000 one is another transpar gates with radar same thing
counter wi it's the same piece of equipment but if we purchase it now we save the installation fee that's where the $2,000 is different because we would be doing it on the same day as the other
project I asked them to find ways save us money and this was the suggestion I see Frank's confusion I think so that to get those Gates whatever they're doing the total fee is really I don't know
28,000 something it's these two prices it's the gate and the it's the lowest price only it's 12858 for the gates if we purchase them and have them installed on the same day
if we wait and say months from now we wanted to do it the price would go up to 14,835 oh these are not these are not together these are two separate things we're going to vote on one the lower price is if we get it done now and the
higher price is if they have to come back another time danan I thought they were two different things they they were we're talking about Gates we're buying the gate now or we're we're doing it some other time we're still doing the gates and the service of what the gate
does if we want to have the gates so we already have the selfcheck machine that's what was last month right and so I'm gonna vote to spend 14,000 or 12,000 I'm not spend
26,000 no right okay but that's what was confusing to me understood are you saying were you asking if they were necessary if it's NE necessary to vote so that's a discussion we've had prior to your joining the
board and for Eugene as well so we are known as a library that does not have Security on our physical collection so we have about 150,000 volumes um and because we haven't done inventory or any
of those kind of things we don't know what's missing from this collection this collection's not been inventoried in probably 30 years so if people know if they want a book go to Old Bridge because nobody's going to know if you walk out the door without it so with us
having 150,000 books in the building is it worth it for us to invest this $122,000 now some libraries are getting rid of their systems but that's because they've had them consistently for 50 years people are conditioned not to do
that so here they used to have what they called tattle tape it was a piece of magnetic tape in the book and when you walked out it would go off so we haven't had that here in over 20 years so like I said people know now is it worth it for
us to spend the 12,000 to protect the collection do we do we need to do that that's the choice for the board to make the only reason they gave us these two estimates is because I complained about the installation price so they're trying
to save it so that they don't have to hear me complaining you say we never had an inventory and blah blah blah blah blah we had something done a while ago when we hired the firm that we pay to monitor books that are missing or whatever we had some
kind of an audit or something done so it's not that we never looked at them I also wonder that people who steal library books if they walk out the door with them I think there are a lot of ways to steal library books just don't ever return them or whatever but we
could so the the issue is do you want to spend this extra money and basically save what is it $6,000 or whatever the difference is or do you want to wait and add it at a later date and it will cost you some money that's your
choice yeah I mean I think that the security gates are a good idea that's really the board's decision I think saving $2,000 and the time that it's going to interrupt us is a good idea I think all this makes sense we should I I will be
voting yes on this I think we need to protect our collection anyone yes anyone else want no that's where it's going and that's how it's being stolen and then you have the protection The Proposal is to vote uh the only thing on the agenda is to vote
for the lower price which means you don't get the security gates is that correct on oh no it's just a question of no don't vote for either of these we voted last month for the no my question is what's what's the downside of not
having the security gates you're G to get the security gate for a lower price it it's the the protection of the collection you either choose to protect the collection or you choose not to protect your investment in the collection those are the
choices well simple with there are more variables but at any rate if we didn't vote for either of these tonight we still have what we voted for last week right last month which is whatever you call it the self check
machine books yes we have those that's all in place right I me not yet this is an add-on we either want the add-on to correct walking out the front door or we want to postpone that and maybe do it L
date but it will cost us a couple of thousand dollars okay we're gonna take the vote now roll call okay uh Rocco yes Maddie
yes Dr George no Gina yes Frank Weber I would have lik to have seen a movie how the gates work no and Maria
yes but you did which are you voting for The 12858 the lower price what is on the agenda yes okay moving on director's report okay um I sent out um some additional
numbers um I know that I had said that they were coming um and so we started off with everybody got a comparison chart of our numbers from 2023 to 2024 obviously we picked good ones
they're even better um than is shown here as an as an example in 2023 we had 28576 this year it said 32,000 that's actually a 35,3635 value calculator for the public for them
to see what we're doing with the libraries tax dollars so you can see all that we've been doing with increased staff with uh promotion all of those things it's working um I also sent you the foot traffic totals from
2019 um you have an it's interesting to see all of those years so Pam included them all you can clearly see Co and lockdown and our steady progression towards getting our audience back and I am so impressed that if you look back to
what we were doing in 2019 we've still got um about 45,000 people to recapture and get back in the library so we've made good progress a 133% increase this year from 23 to 24 and we're moving ahead um more
statistics will be coming the state report is due on Monday so I'm finalizing those numbers now um we are hosting the Consortium meeting here next Friday and I am going to have a lot of
questions for them um the Consortium has basically backed away from all of our ebook investment that we've worked so hard on this year and said that they are not tracking the ebooks the the numbers and some of them are not even showing up
in the catalog so we're going to have a really big conversation because I'm going to be asking them to say publicly that they're not going to assist us and they're not giving us full access so I'm I'm on it with that discussion um I do have to ask
um that that meeting every library is supposed to host one per year or whatever it is um we're supposed to buy breakfast is that just put into the um the Stella
fund that's on the budget take it out of the $80,000 we pay them I I don't know I'm just being a smart ass but oh I understand it's just casual with people's money would buy
their breakfast and you're coming for a business meeting you have a business meeting whatever do whatever you makes life comfortable okay um and and we won't be hosting another one for a long time um um more numbers as I said that are
coming in it's really interesting just to give you a taste of what's coming we had a dramatic increase in our nonresident cards like by 300 people and a lot of that is to be attributed to our town employees who are really coming in
and getting their cards and understanding about our services so that's nice to hear and people really like our study rooms so us requiring that you have an Oldbridge card to get a study room is uh is working um next on
to Museum passes we are evaluating and we will be getting rid of things that we don't use um the first example that I have and I'll have a report as we get closer with all the Museum passes we are going to get rid of the Wheaten Glass
Museum which had zero uses but we are going to substitute that for um the Thomas Edis Museum it seems that our people here in Oldbridge are more likely to go north than they are to go south so
as an example we have passes for both the battleship New Jersey and the Intrepid the one that's in Camden no one's going to Battleship New Jersey gets a heavy gets heavy usage so we're we're reviewing that and and looking at
all of those um upcoming conferences I will be attending computer in libraries the last week of March um that's a three-day conference that's going to be focusing heavily on AI so I've um talked to Rocco about if he sees anything for
me to pick up there um we should be prepared um the New Jersey Library Association we will have Librarians going there the Public Library Association is a great conference and it's going to be in Philadelphia so we
should be taking advantage of that that we don't need to pay for cross country airfare um this one is specifically for Frank you asked about the patch and US advertising in the patch the reason why
it's a little bit difficult if you're advertising for free um we would need for Oldbridge to have its own patch is everybody know what the patch is okay so Oldbridge doesn't have a patch so we have to use the the the middle sex one
and it's 25 cents for a posting so we've now started to make sure that we're posting um At the trustees request why don't we have our own patch Matan has one Woodbridge has one I think that's independent like somebody just has to
start it yeah and and that that's some a person's got to come up and do it or is that tap into confus can't be somebody part of somebody's job um here atary I don't think the taxpayer dollars
would support new I I disagree because I read Woodbridge I read miltown I read everybody else's and a lot of time they report old bridges but why isn't Oldbridge included I mean East Brunsell can put all his
stuff going back to the going back to the beginning of when Patrick showed up uh the township decided not to uh pursue it because they were protecting uh the guy at the funeral home who was doing a free thing once a
month talk they get about 30,000 I mean the exposure is phenomenal and it reaches so many places uh I'm on I've been on mwan and the one in East Bic uh religiously and there are libraries that
come on and they put all kind of events on there that uh are going to get you a lot for 25 cents I just wanted you to know that we listened and we got it done so you'll start seeing I think our maker day is
our also yeah all right so are they gonna do oops M are you there Dr George can you hear us still is it tap that you're starting or is something else it's
another we're posting oh our internet connection is unstable um we're just starting to advertise on the patch okay all right good the middle sex County
um so I I'm not quite sure what that means if you give it to Middle sex County do they put it on all the patches in the county there's a middle sex County patch and that's what we're able but there 25 towns in Middle sex East
brn has a separately named patch mwan abine which of course is in mmas next town over has a separate Pat Woodbridge has separate ones so if they tell us that put putting us on the middle sex one I'm not quite sure what they mean
there's a separate one that's I mean I I understand what they say sure it's middle sex town oh maybe it is because I don't think what we looked on there and I saw that the YMCA here in Oldbridge
had advertised there okay so that's where Pam looked into it and that's the solution that she came up with I was just trying that's the YMCA to get all over the county okay um what comes on and then
we'll talk about it if it's not what yeah all right um Lawrence Harbor the we had Spotlight on Oldbridge we had the video um that everybody saw for the library the Lawrence Harbor Edition is going up soon I was just asked to approve that
it's a really nice video that features the branch and talks about um some history um and and uh I'm gonna make that that inter to look at the history of Lawrence Harbor it it
really features um the the books and the artifacts that were donated to the branch not much about Lawrence har but anyway we'll see Place Bank branch what's that where do
where is the thing filmed in the branch the bank okay yeah it's filmed in the branch but Richard Pell donated some things like there used to you used to have to buy Beach passes to go to Lawrence Harbor there used to be a pier with a casino and rides and all those
things so it's all memorabilia from that time period And there's a lot of um I have postcards there's a lot of stuff around I think the uh museum has a lot of stuff but interesting uh are you going
to um indicate that there's a library board that was left off the last one was left off the last one I contacted them and I asked them to make sure that the library board was put into that video I can forward you that email good no I
don't I don't need any publicity I just think that the you know if the people want to know who runs the place you know who to yell at they would have know that is and I sent that you didn't mean to leave it out
last time yeah I sent that correction to them yeah okay okay okay G got bounced back in the waiting somebody got bounced out into the waiting room and we just let them back in okay we're going to move to committee
reports uh nothing from building and grounds wait hold on sorry hold on I did have my plumber come in uh you noticed a few issues with the with one of the bathrooms doesn't have any water so there's a pipe that comes out of the sink and that's supposed to put water
into that there's a like a drain in the center of the bathrooms one of them doesn't have it and what happens is the vapors that are supposed to go out are coming back in So if the Architects or Engineers are going to do something they need to know
that we have some plum issues underneath before we start fixing those bathrooms up so that and I noticed that I don't know do we not have Maintenance Cleaning people here in the evening we do okay well the bedrooms were all of them toilet paper thrown on them so nobody
was cleaning right and so that's the who we sub out to so I will go over that and request it again I've not been successful in doing that since I got here so unless at their contract and and I understand and just so you know I
already did and I already got additional proposals for maintenance contracts and I was told by the town that it was it's 4,000 something a month and that everybody else was at least 8,000 but I already did get the proposals as well as
a proposal for deep cleaning so just to clarify um I understand you're saying so we need I understand the water going down into the drain to keep the vapors from coming up right majority of the bedrooms there is water in there one of them does not
have bedrooms I think it's number 10 does not have it um and then he it looks like somebody deodorized them to m whatever the smell is because I actually there's a lot that go to the library on a regular basis and
they choose not to go into soap and I understand and we've had water poured down with bleach that's not going to solve the problem I'm I'm aware so what all I'm asking is with your suggestion when they come in to finish them is to ask them expressly are you going to
address the issues that are causing odor or is it to have someone else address that well an architect and engineer is going to tell you you know what we should be putting in there I mean you're making the med pable and so forth but we need to have someone physically look at the architect can actually do that look
at the way the piping is gone if for instance if all of like I had to do it at one of my buildings we noticed that we would connecting to a sewer line that we had already had issues with connecting another three bathrooms onto that sewer line was only going to cause
constant back Su in a brand new building so I think we need to find out an obum should have it they should have the layout of all of the directions of our sanitary lines to see what they're connecting to it's very possible that with everything being built we might be having an overload so we may have to
redirect or you know put another yeah and and so I I brought up to the architect at the very getting the smell and that that had to be addressed in the project we wouldn't be adding any lines on and I definitely know replacing bathrooms I replaced nine when I was in
Clark right and that impacted the system because the grade on the pipes and then the the low flush toilets so I'm I'm very cautious about that I just want to know if these are things we want to make sure so the architect that we approved and is moving forward is just um going
through and doing everything to create the bid specs right for for everything and then the board will be able to review that and decide if we want to move ahead with all of that none of that some of that and he can come in and answer any of your questions so I'm
going to make sure that he knows to definitely address that the sanitary what we have to address yeah okay okay uh Finance uh nothing okay Outreach marketing nothing uh Personnel
negotiations nothing nothing than policy technology okay uh so I will open uh the uh open the floor for public comments any public comments going once going
twice okay uh any comments uh last minute comments from the members of the board or I will move to a journ did we vote down the bill list and if we voted down the bill list what happens now the bills get
paid no if you if you don't approve the payment of bills not that I'm recommending that but if we voted the bill list down is that what we voted oted for no we didn't you didn't vote the bill list down bill is passed the bill it passed
the bill is passed yes it has okay okay all right uh I'll make a motion to adjourn I second all in favor I I I all right thank you very