I'm Megan W I'm the director of integrated resources MLD um so we uh we we heard from Amy that the trustees want first of all want to get regular updates on the charging EV charging stations charging data we can
definitely do that but I think the purpose of today is to discuss the potential changes to the parking space so I'm going to you know introduce rmd a little bit for those of you who don't know and then I'm going to explain some of the data Trend the charging trends
that we've seen so far and then I'm going to propose what we could be changing to the parking space but before I say all that I want to say I'm also a reading resident my son and I have enjoyed the all the program activities at the reading library for years so thank you
than so rmod is a local public power utility and where it's kind of special there are 41 of us in Massachusetts we are the probably the only one that serves more than one town so we serve reading North Reading wingon and lynfield Center we have about SE uh
serve about 7,000 residents um we have about 30,000 meters that means we have about 30,000 customers uh about 24,000 of that are residential customers and our mission is to serve our customers
with reliable lowcost and increasingly non-carbon energy and we have two boards because special we have a five person Board of Commissioners that's the official board we also have a uh five person citizens Advisory Board from uh all four
towns and I'm listing here some non-carbon strategies that we're implementing I think the EV charging stations that we have here at the reding library belongs to the first category where we have we work with our customers uh we provide a lot of incentive
programs for them to um improve Energy Efficiency to install he comes EV Chargers um do load management solar and also do demand response programs but we also work with our customers such like uh such as a library that we you know
either the library can own the Chargers or we can own the Chargers in this case we own the Chargers and kind of U the library provided the parking space for these public EV Chargers um we also are working hard on in territory non-carbon
generation that way when we have There Our interor Generation we can uh avoid a lot of the transmission and um uh and capacity cost that we pay to the suppliers so we're trying to build solar and storage projects and also we're
working with quite a few uh B uh business partners to explore new technologies in terms of energy Supply so that's kind of the introduction of rmld I don't know if you have any questions we can move on um so probably know this uh we
installed two uh it's a it's a one station but with two ports so uh two cars can charge at the same time so we installed one two Port level two charging station uh in 2022 and then another one is a two Port that's a dcfc
which means direct current fast charging uh in 2023 so level two chargers they take a little longer for usually take 4 to8 hours to fill up fill up a car and the DCF Chargers are
much faster half an hour it can get get you quite a bit of miles so um this dcfc charger is the first public charger in in our territory um and it is
it has when I show you the data you can see that it's probably the one of the most popular public Chargers in our territory um and we in install these Chargers with the support from the state um funding from the Department of
Environmental Protection so along with the funding there are some requirements so I'm listing a few of the key requirements that's relevant to our discussion today one is it has it needs to have one accessible space that's for
disability um purpose and one one space needs the marking to to say either it's a signage or it's a marking on the on the on the ground which I think we we do it here to say that this is dedicated to EV charging um and but for the dcfc
charging station the grant requirements also includes that the ports have to be compati have to be available for both the it's called a Chad Mo and CCS force is basically two different kinds of connectors the Chad MO is an older
version older technology of EV Chargers and the CCs is a more kind of a more recent uh charger but then just for Equity purpose the grant requires that we have availability for both ports and then the last requirement is these
charging stations have to be maintained and in operation for at least three consecutive years do you have any questions on this okay we going move on to the next one so we started uh around 22 with a
level two and then 2023 with a level three um I want to uh kind of provide the context for so when you see these charts we're we're making it consistent all the yellow bars are the dcfc the level three Chargers I want to explain
that in 2024 unfortunately for about five to six months the charger was out of order and we worked very diligently with the vendors and we actually had three vendors so vendors vendors vendor uh we had to work through jump through a lot of hopes to try to get that
re-energized fixed like change basically replace the the charging cable and and other pieces to make it work again so the 2024 the full year data is not a complete like representation of what the whole year might look like but it
already shows quite a bit of increase just with those few months of being a available and then when you look at the 2025 data that's just one month of data and we already see like if you look at on on the left the number of charging sessions and just in one month we have
over almost 300 charging sessions and compare that for the whole year it's about I can see here it's about yeah so we really expect a lot of growth in charging sessions this year now fingers
crossed the Chargers won't be broken again um um so so on the left that's the number of charging session on the right is um the kind of average time or uh average duration of the charging and um
for the most part it's really fast turnover just like the library users uh it's less than two hours usually one one hour less than one hour or less than two hours so that's that and then the other piece of data I want to
show to you are the I I think there was a question about um when do when do two cars actually charge at the same time um we collected some of these data
and I'm not sure entirely like we we have to make some assumption we are still working with the charging Network companies because some of their data are not self-explanatory so this is what we can glean from the data we have now so the numbers are small but the trend is clear
you still see a growth I'm not going to say it's it's only where we're in like single digit here so I'm not going to say how much growth it is but we can see it you know more people are are using it but it is common that at least for now
all these four ports I think only two of them are in use like one one of the one one of the two ports are in use so but uh you know kind of a simultaneous OCC occupation does exist but you know it's a small number um the other chart that
I'm showing here is yeah the timing of charging and also I think that's kind of coincides with the library visitors as well it's mostly during the day between 9 and 5 and then during uh in the evening hours um that's
the highest I think that's all M yeah yes yeah sorry I'm asking for clarification thank you um the lower left chart is showing the number of times both Chargers are in use and the highest one
we show is in December 12 and three so um where both use both Chargers were being used same okay thank we we kind of moved to the two-digit level late last year and early
this year um so that's all the charging trends that we are seeing I don't know if you have any question on this uh before I move on to our proposal on the parking space yeah sorry about that on the lower left
graph is that saying that basically two parking spaces are occupied or or four uh two so for blue is two for yellow is two got it yeah all right I guess we'll move to the last
slide um I understand there might be some not confusion but uh one wondering like uh it sounds like there was something that was said before and then now this is what happened um so I came to this in the
middle of it too and we did manage to get that fifth space ashed out as the accessible space to in order to complete the grant requirement from from the D
and then um and then I later heard from Amy that originally there were only four spaces planned for it so uh just considering all the equity requirements for the dcfc the level three Chargers but so what I'm proposing is that we
keep what we designed for the dcfc which is on the right with the hashed the accessibility and then two spots and also because the fast Chargers the cable because it's a lot it's 150 kilowatt it's about 100 so it's a huge cable and shorter cable so it's not easy for
people to maneuver that especially for people with disability you want that really closeness to the charger so I'm proposing actually for the level two charger spaces we can um what do you call that WIP out the marking uh for one
space so that if someone's not charging there any Library user can park there just as a regular parking space so it's like a first come first serve kind of thing um that way the accessible the hash one which is not a parking spot can
still qualify for the grant and then we have one dedicated marking for EV EV users um that's also meeting the requirement of the grant so that's our proposal I don't know if you have any thoughts on that so I have a I have a question with
the spot that's hash marked so on the right on the right so if I were driving a um handicap vehicle would I know that I could park there I would handicap SYM anywhere that's why I'm confused yeah that's a
standard um okay so I would know if I had that need we have this thick DP guideline on accessability so we just follow that actually we'll work with the town of reading it's uh the DPW director we we figure out this uh kind of a
design okay and then why are you recommending that spot and not the one right to left of it uh because the access the hashed the other hashed is on at the end see it okay yeah that's on the far left and it was
it was always sort of hashed out not for handicap purposes but rather like don't park here because she'll get it's too tight of a car yeah so that's never been the question is can you do two level two Chargers
simultaneously with the level two the one on the left is it there are two ports oh yeah there are two ports yes yes so we if you look at the chart we had earlier uh in January there were what 11 of them 11 times when both cars
are charging from level two and when um the either go out if that was to happen again like does that get noticed on the device does the library know right away yeah the the the
EV uh vehicle owners they would see that on the app and I think we had like actually had like a bag over it just to say it's out of water yeah it's actually one of the drivers who told us that they couldn't charge that's something wrong
with the connector and one last question would that spot come online right away or in June when the requirement the threee requirement is up um So based on the harder requirement
of the DP one marked marked space is enough so we don't need to if you want to change right now I I have no objection I'm come I'm here to work with you thank you um well if there's no other
questions um are there questions no I'm just wondering um what our Charter is here are we going to make a vote on this this evening or is this something to think about for
v i mean I think out of an abundance of caution I would say that we have the information today and you all pause and think about it and come back with a decision for the March meeting I know that delays it first of all we're not going to be able to paint anything with the snow on the ground so but I think
our practice typically is to to hear information to think about it thank you no further questions thank you very much very thank you thank you um next on the agenda is the technology Plan update for
2025 e um every everyone I'm going to present on the technology plan uh for 2025 um every year I do an update for the technology plan and um it's a way
for us to for me and for me to explain to everybody just what we're doing and keep us on track uh so next okay uh so the rl's technology Mission
follows the library's full mission and strategic plan uh the library is committed to staying current with technology and providing resources for the reading Community to bridge the digital divide uh we've had a very few um a very busy few years and I want to highlight a few of our projects and
accomplishments so these are some of the highlights from 2024 both the conference and in the community rooms have updated microphones and cameras hybrid meetings can be held in both rooms without any additional equipment and the process is relatively
seamless it's wonderful we're super happy with it um obviously there are a few bugs as you all know about but we've overcome them the new library app went live in October our software developer
is communico and they were able to FastTrack the creation of the app so that we didn't have have much um we I don't think we had any um downtime for the app we went right from our former app to communico uh and we are very
happy with it there again there's still some bugs if you do see any please let me know and some of have you have already done that and I really appreciate it uh it's a visually pleasing app and allows users to view their hold their checkouts any events
theyve regist for registered for they can create meeting room reservations through the app um from within it they can also access Libby hoopla the New York Times uh and other databases and streaming services and as of um the end of January
they were currently uh 3,232 uh users our new meet um our new events and meeting room software is also through communico this was part of a package deal that included the app this software um and eventually you'll see it in the
website um these previously these were all different platforms um and we believe this will improve the patron experience and staff experience as well uh we implemented all these changes within the last few years with um the
last year with relativity F bumps and in fact these were all done within I think a space of six months so it was kind of it was a lot now our future state of technology so we
will be um creating a new website well Amy am uh and working with a few other staff members is creating a new website which we're really excited about uh that will be going live uh in the spring um and you'll see again it's
going to be very there will be some very similar um the way that it looks um the look and feel of it is very very similar to the app um and the reservation system um we are also going to be educating we are going to be um implementing a new um
Patron tutorial program so we're not going to be using neck guides what we're going to be doing is more um staff training with technology so they will be doing classes and individual technology training covering everything from the basics to navigating artificial
intelligence tools and other merging techn Oles um because everything is happening so fast um Library staff are being are trying to stay updated on the use of artificial intelligence tools and other emerging Technologies by participating
in conferences webinars and engaging in professional development activities um and things are changing so rapidly there is something that um the Massachusetts library system does so every month on a Friday they do a um um
AI technology hour and she can only do the agenda for the next couple months because the technology is so rapidly changing uh and it's a really helpful um
a webinar that many of us have already attended um and lastly we received a 3D printer um that um a generous Patron donated to us staff are going to be testing its capability and considering how to provide public access to this
service um we never we didn't have we weren't going to get a 3D printer but this one has um it uses plant-based filament um that's renewable and non-toxic there's no odor to it um and so we're really
excited to get that going as well in closing the technology plan is updated every year uh it's useful as a guide for staff to check in and um about what we're doing with our um future technology goals um last year I went over it really in detail and this year
I'm sort of giving a higher view of it and that's it I'm happy to take questions I have a couple questions um on the 3D printer how did that come about that someone just I don't know if they were a college student moving out
but they just donated to us and we went over to um the Andover public library they have that Tech that um 3D printer um and the person who donated it also gave us filament so yeah it was pretty awesome Yep and then a question for Amy
on the website what's the projected timeline that's a moving tline I think we we hope to have like the draft version up by March but um I'd like to run it through it's G to look quite different and we're focusing on
different functionality like we're bringing it I say we're dumbing it down but there's not a lot of BS of so we want to make it very informational so we're not going to be a lot of images or pictures because we just find that goes out of dates so
we're we're working on the copy which is um can be challenging to to stream line that down right so it's mostly just reducing basically 100 pages to about 40 or 50 okay thank you awesome yeah I was nervous because I
was thinking there's some tuck people here I just want to add um as a side note thank you Michelle very much um we do have a document that you know we don't necessarily it's it's a staff working document so it's not really a public document but um if you ever have
questions about anything Michelle is always aaable to answer questions but this is um a relatively new practice this idea of the technology I say new newer to us but when Michelle and I first talked
about it it was just sort of like let's have an inventory of everything that's there and then like oh we should really kind of plan oh we have the Strategic plan and so it's eventually grown and the document has it stands today the work that that that Michelle's done on this is really incredible so I just want to make sure she gets credit for that because it's pulling a lot of different
pieces together and um that's when we noce things like we have three different platforms three different pieces that don't talk to each other so it's pay for this it's pain for that and we don't necessarily see that or take the time to look at that until we take the take the time to go through
the document and and see what needs to be updated and things that are end of life um so it's a it's a great project and thank you to Michelle for daring that thank you um next item on the agenda is the financial
report we will pause briefly while I find it I don't need to go online um yeah so basically the um the budget is doing really well um our salaries are still in good shape will'll definitely be um at this point anticipate turning back some
salary money back to um the town of the end of the year um one thing that um I'd really like to highlight is this report I think everybody I think it's at the pish of the packet did we include it did I not
include it did I not includ oh it's right before that the professional devel yes so this absolutely 100% amazing year-to dat professional development report that Megan has put together for us um it is difficult to
track professional development activities for a learning organization that has this many people um so from memberships to webinars to actually paying for conferences and registrations um the amount of data that
we could have got is is much more and we will dig into it but um we're spoton for professional development we're ready for MLA we have um we think we're going to have one tuition reimbursement which was built into the request which was built
into the this year's budget um we've been leveraging um I think in March we have a group of three or four people taking um taking an ala course which we able to get a
discount because we had more than two people um taking it so we're able to find these online and iners things where we can really leverage um group learning um so I I was very pleased by this data if you ever have any questions like I
you know we I try to give that very brief selected um learn monthly list of learning but I just think when you look at the one page of selected activities um it's pretty amazing the the breadth and depth of what um folks
here take the time to learn about at all at all levels um I think with the exception of pages this is borrow Services asso Associates right up onto the director um so probably a good 30 people taking place taking taking these
classes and webinars um off desk time Etc um and that's pretty much it for the financial report any questions minor one and nothing to do with the financial report but in the top left of the first page where the you
know the tables are it says as of January 31st 58% is that just means 58% through the year through the fiscal year I'm yes yes yes try to put that on the on the spreadsheet just so that we know you
could quickly compare that if we're 56% through the budget then the fifth we're we're below budget um we're 71% through the municipal expenses which is actually normal for this time of year because we have a lot of uput costs
24 expenditures related professional development did were there things that just came on that calendar unexpectedly I understand or are certain yeahp from to 21 yeah um a big
piece of that is the pla um we I try to commit to sending at least one person last year we sent two it's not so much the actual cost of the compens as it is is the flight and the travel and all of that other stuff so that's the that jumps up um it wasn't wholly unexpected but there
were a few things that came in that were opportunistic I think that we took and um that's why I do the supplemental spending I try to do an outside ballpark of what we're going to spend in gifts and state aid to help with um professional development um I think that was the first time in a while that we'd
actually met met the outside goal um and um spending does vary year to year and it based you know is there a tuition reimbursement request we don't get a ton of those but when we do we want to try and honor as best we can I have a I have a question about
library programs 7.9% yes and but I know you're running programs all the time right so this is the municipal um not the friends program money and so that we up to the um and you will start to see that in fact there's probably some bills
right in there for things related to the Martin Luther King Day event there are larger programs and we'll have some for juneth um it's also money that we put aside so that towards the end of the year we're running low we kick off summer reading and sometimes those are bigger expenses but we've we're down at
the end of our fiscal year so that jump in FIS in fy2 went from 4500 to 10,000 plus because we were absorbing all the oesj um programs we're giving that back in FY
26 programming number uh budget will go back down to $4,500 where it was before and that oesj chunk of money just go to the the new OJ budget line okay thank you any other questions uh if not we'll move on to the
director's report we're always thankful for all the gifts that we get and sometimes that's just people dropping a dollar in the basket because they feel guilty that they returned their book so late um but I just you know a call out to a very special donation we had on behalf of um
I spelled her name wrong Joselyn gold there should be know in that um Joselyn worked with a a patron who um just it just it went spectacularly well and and this woman this person Patron was so impressed
by um I think not just joselyn's skill which that was part of it but also the amount of help we were able to give her and the time we were able to dedicate to her um and I I think it's obviously the gift of $1 thousand is great appreciated and I think it speaks to how
much we try to do things in Mass we try to have big programs we try to you know have 25 copies of James Patterson's book but also sometimes when we take time in one-on-one situations or one on two situations they are very beneficial not
just financially but I think they Community needs and connections that you can't necessarily do with holy data driven go with the biggest and the best and the statistics things um the Personal Touch I guess is really really helps I just love to call that
out um moving on to the rest of the director's report there was um January is always a nice month um people are recovering from the holidays we were busy um as busy as as usual um the MLK event went on even though
there was some snow but I have to say it was really amazing to work with to see this program come across with all those other Town departments um DPW facilities and food services from the school of course Albert's office and all the volunteers that came in um the program
itself was great and from the back end of things it was really um we're very lucky to work in in this town and we have some really great staff members and all of our other departments so to see them working together was great I also want to highlight the our
sparkly Story Time which we had on January 25th there were 60 people there um and it again we worked with um the ring Police Department um it was a really big event a really nice event everyone felt safe comfortable everyone had a fantastic time they were dancing
and laughing and um there was a lot of there was some angst obviously coming up to that event but everyone had a great time and the staff work ahead of time really I think paid off and shows that we can run things and have a backup plan even if we
didn't use it um our rooted in Reading Grant um is going gang busters we have they I think I can't remember how many programs they have planned for the spring but they're they have a lot coming up so you'll have a lot to hear from uh Andrea when the
spring um when the spring program update comes along um but for now we're just still trying to keep those indoor plants um we are looking into having a service that can come in um on a monthly basis and help us care for them because some of them are a little bit exotic and
need a little extra help so that might be something the library would absorb into our um from our gifts or state aid um and just make sure that they're healthy and and we retain our retain our
investment than that was just a reg January rooted in Reading thing it mentions a new craft and hobby database what's the yes we have a new craft and on database um we started that in December and it's a it's basically a video
library a library of video tutorials on how to things how to knit how to do this and it's self-paced um it's less overwhelming than just going to you and trying to find you know and getting 7,000 different ways to Pearl in it um it has it has all sorts of I think it
has like yeah it's not just you know I guess hobby it' be yoga so there are some things that are a little more not crafty um so it's it was tested by several of the staff members who highly recommended it we have a few
crafty crafters on our on our on our um stuff but people should be able to get to it from home or from in the library congratulations Michelle 21 years it's 22 dang
it I can't believe it I can't believe I got it wrong so that means desire desire is six those that should say 22 and six not 20 21 and five we will we will correct the minutes for for when that comes through pardon me um any questions on that on
the director's report if not no uh next on the agenda is the discussion for sunsetting or extending the ad hoc Library landscape committee um I'm I'm staring at Cherry but I don't think I told her this was going to be on agenda
so the landscape committee um do you want to say something you don't have to I to you can chime in um you're off the hook the landscape committee as you know um at the last meeting we approved some money to do a to do the next step in
this process I think the landscape committee is sort of wondering you know what next their brief was to investigate what could be done and come up with some recommendations for the trustees which you have they are a public body they are not a fundraising group they are not a
whatever group so I think you don't certainly no decisions have to be made tonight the next meeting should be next week although there's a slim chance it might move to the following week but um they can continue to meet every month on the third Thursday of every month um and talk about stuff I think that I think
they would appreciate some guidance of what would be expected of them um I think unless Cherry has something else to add so I'm not saying you have to S at the I think we just have to think about what their purpose is I think the um I think the group would
like to continue that it's on it's me I I think the group would like to continue is there any decision that needs to be made on that or is this just this is just opening up the floor for discussion and to put your caps on I
will say as an update um I have met with um procurement and engineering and we've talked about some different directions to take the up not to exceed amount that was approved at the LA last meeting and how to move forward with the project um the other thing is
that there are a lot of projects going on and running and this one is great because it's privately funded it's relatively small and um I'm trying to be very I think we all are trying to be very sensitive to the fact that there's a lot of other um people like
procurement and engineering and gpw and facilities are being pulled in a lot of other directions for much bigger projects right now so we're trying to stay on their radar um and move forward but I think we were told if we see any action it'll be later in the spring if not the summer um
perhaps when elections are I think one thing to be maybe passed along to the committee is while the foundation has any final decisions yet on how they're going to approach the
figure um there is ideas of of some targeted fundraising around it or other options and I would think that we would be very interested in the kindness of strangers of people who might want to
come in and join the foundation ever so briefly or or you know in parallel um I think we were probably are going to need the help I think but I think this committee can probably tee up a joint meeting at some
point because good ideas for yeah I think that idea of you know the next goal being Communications marketing advertising to the community getting people excited maybe setting up some
meetings with the neighbors um to go you know especially as we go in and head to the design process and things like that it's I think it my two senses it's great to have a public meeting it doesn't have to be long you
can accomplish a lot in less than an hour and 45 minutes and um but it does increase the transparency and even if you are just getting together to have a public forum
with three people that show up the three people who show up will appreciate having that so I think there's still a role throughout this project to have a public body an appointed body that has minutes and you know takes notes and so that way it never seems like well they
just they just you know decided without asking anybody so that's just another um on the other hand it's another meeting that people have to go to so I mean there's there's um but to think about what it is that this as a public body what that committee would be doing
excellent any questions if not we can move on to the approval of the January 13 2025 meeting minutes are there any questions or comments on them motion to approve the January 13
2025 minutes do we have a second there it is uh All In favor and 60 the motion passes um next item on the agenda or future agenda
items that's Amy so I think the question so these are just the things that I thought about um but obviously we might want to put on our MLD discussion onto next month um what else we have the spring PR uh
programming update we have some changes to the policy regarding minors that you all update you all actually passed I think it was in this winter or spring it wasn't that long ago but it was before we had a tween spot so we just want to relook at the language there it's not a lot of not a lot of Chang it's just in
tweaking of the languages in April um Albert will be giving you an an update on all the work that he's been doing um and then in April we might have some new trustees because the elections beginning
so I'll just mention March is uh March is uh Cherry's last elected trustee meeting although she's welcome to come back and have public comment the reason why the ad hoc is not
being terminated any other questions or comments this evening right second all in favor the February 10th meeting is adjurned at
746 e e e