recording in progress. >> Good evening everyone. Welcome to the December 8th, 2025 board of library trustees meeting for the Reading Public Library. Um, do we have anybody online for public comment or any public comment to go
over? None from the inbox. Excellent. Anyone online? >> Wonderful. >> Kelly. Kelly Bacon. Do you have any public comment? >> No. >> How about you, Manette?
>> Nope. >> Nope. >> Silence. Okay. Uh, excellent. Moving on to the first agenda item after that is the Community Preservation Act Study Committee update. Oh, I think I I think I heard that. >> We don't have to move that, right? We
can just We'll just handle that. Great. >> All right. Next on the >> start at 7:45. >> I know. I'm like, let's go. Uh, winter programming update. happy. >> Yeah. >> Um, we didn't hear what happened with
the Community Preservation Act study. >> Sorry about that. We we tabled it effectively till around 7:30 as one of the parties to present was not here yet. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> Okay. Sorry. Should have been clear. and I I'd like to just make an
introduction as we start sharing. I'd like to introduce you to Olivia McKelane who is the new head of public services division head. um Olivia applied for and has been appointed as the um to fill
some pretty big shoes, but we know she's going to do a great job. And so Olivia is here to present the public services winter 202526 update on programming. >> Congrats, Olivia. >> Thank you. I don't Can you guys hear me? >> Yes.
>> Yeah. >> All right. So, I'm here to share the winter update, but first we'll look back at the fall. So, these are some of our fall highlights. We did have goats come to the library, and that's our library associate, Dena, who was mauled by the
goats. Um, with love, of course. We had 146 people attend. Um, we had a mortality 101 series for adults, which was about preparing for death and dying. Um, that included the programs on the digital afterlife, talking about death openly in a safe
space, and planning for your end of life needs and cares. And we had 53 attendees across three programs for that. Our teen book club is new as of the fall. We had 14 attendees across three sessions which is an amazing amount of teens for programming. Uh we had our puzzle and
game swap which had 121 enthusiastic attendees. Uh we had nine tech help appointments and nine genealogy 101 appointments and that's just a highlight. But then we also had Halloween and we had a trick-or- treat story time which had 141 attendees. A Halloween
concert with Marco with 105 attendees. We had another concert that was Halloween themed with 163 attendees. We did Halloween trivia for adults which was aimed at 20s and 30s. Um, and that had 22 attendees. I think there were like six or seven teams. Um, we had Halloween crafts for adults with 12
attendees. And our children's costume swap also had 163 attendees. So, very busy Halloween time. And these pictures are from the trivia. That really long line is our trick-or- treat line from Trick-or- Treat Story Time. And that's Martin MCO at the bottom.
And then this is upcoming. So we have for childrens and teens we have Zen and Mind Over Muscle. We have this thing called the selfie project which is for tween to reflect on who they are. So we already had Zenen and that was self-care and that was came out of the book the anxious generation to get off the screen
and get to know your adult better in a very safe and warm welcoming place. Um so we had yoga and they made body scrub and then mind over muscle where we partnered with a karate studio and they're going to learn self-defense. Uh, we have Baby Snowball and Mini Rave, which are two different dance parties.
One's a rave, one's a prom for babies. Uh, we have Dungeons and Dragons for grades three to five, which is um a very low age for that type of program, but we have a very enthusiastic library associate who is graduating with their MLS, uh, Lucy. They're graduating this December. and they wanted to bring a
very high level program down for um grades three to five and they're going to make their characters and do a very short campaign. We have pizza tasting for teens um which is just what it sounds like. They're going to learn about different pizzas and taste them and vote on them. Uh we have doodling
secret messages for teens with carb bean which is I wrote it down on February 12th. It's an art workshop for teens to create small little love notes just in time for Valentine's Day with a very um reputable graphic novel author. And then for February break, we have um mystical
magical mayhem, which is based off of Benson Boon, but it's all programming surrounding fantasy um things. So, we were making their own fairy doors, they're making their own dragons, they're making amulets, and they're building uh castles throughout the children's room. And then for adults, we
have tired of renting or buying or tired of renting. should you buy? And that's with CFA Boston. Um it's the pros and cons of renting and buying right now. They give tips on finances, how to find the best solution for the right person. It's um a great way to start the new year because it's on January 7th. We
have Songs of the Revolution, which is just in time for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. And that one is on January 31st. Um we have Betrayal and its Aftermath: Learning to Respond and Heal. Also a great one for the new year. um think deep they can think
deeply about the lies they've told and the lies they've received at this program. Uh it's with author Elaine Eisenman and it's about her book betrayed a survivor's guide to lying. And then we have the Forensic Science Road Show which will be taught by a Massachusetts state police crime expert.
Um if you love like any of the NCIS shows or anything like that, you definitely want to come to that one. Um, it's you're going to learn about crime scene investigations, what technology they use, what they look for, and how it can help solve cases. One of our strategic plans is to try to
get 20s and 30s to the library. Um, so millennials and Gen Z. So, we have programming designed specifically for that group. We have become a suit master, which is in December, and it's already full, um, with a wait list. and our local history librarian has started doing board game nights, which is to get
people off their phones and get to know their neighbors and play um retro board games or new to them board games. Uh trivia is calling and I must go is a nature-based trivia to go with our rooted and reading grant. Um we have our community clothing swap in January which will um I think we're accepting
donations January 18th until January 23rd at the reference desk. Um so it won't be at the front of the library like the costume swap was. And then we have a beat the librarians at the trivia. We have five librarians who have signed up for this. One of them was on Jeopardy and you have to beat them at
trivia. So, and then we have hyperfocus at PowerPoint party which is you it's basically like a five-minute standup routine and you have you have five minutes to present on a topic that you hyperfocused on which could range from like the American Girl dolls in their star signs, Anastasia Romangh and how
she died, the history of the rock and roller coaster at Disney World. Anything like that you hyperfocus on for five minutes. give a history of it and you what do you mean how long you make you bring the PowerPoint so
you're just presenting your PowerPoint [laughter] and then these are some repeats that are coming back from the fall we have teen book group between time which is for twins Pokemon club and plant lab conversation groups and the majong meetups and these are our next friend speaker
series events. We have um the very popular The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. She's going to be the first one um in December. And then two in February. We have Dr. Lindsay Stewart on 400 Years of Black Women's Magic and High Seas Heroins and Adventures with author Vanessa Riley.
And these are our current partnerships. We have North Suburban Family Resource Network. They do two story times on Mondays. The Pleasant Street Center, we do a book club with them. Peter Sandborn Place. Metco just had their holiday party here and we pres we gave them um or we made them a photo booth so that
they could use um LI we partner with Liv all the time on blood pressure screenings uh hands only CPR or H hands off CPR [laughter] yeah handonly CPR and flu clinics and we partner with the
writing neighbors network and finally we are starting to partner with the multi- language department at RPS which is also in our strategic plan we plan to have story times starting in March that are uh Portuguese in Portuguese. >> Any questions? >> That's awesome.
>> Are you going to somehow handicap Miss Bailey so she is not um >> he's not the Jeopardy person? Oh, >> it's Desiree who's our communication specialist. >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> there's two that have been on Jeopardy in this >> that is a pretty high percentage. Somebody's got a little delay in the
button. >> You got to add that to the noble stats. Not only the rog that is a high stat. >> It's amazing. So, next up, um, because we're still waiting on the CPA is, um, our librarian
to senior librarian for adults and teens, Sarah Kelso. She also was the, um, project manager for our Rooted and Reading grant, which ended September 30th. And I say it's ended, but that just means the period of the grant has
ended. Many of the things Sarah's going to talk about um are continuing on and are now part of our core mission and uh services. Take Sarah. >> Hi, thank you. So, um I just want to uh give a recap of the awesome grant we
just completed. Um, this was uh funding that we received through the Mass Board of uh Library Commissioners uh through the Library Services Technology Act and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Um, we were awarded this grant in October of 2024. We uh got started on
it in April of 2024 and it just concluded at the end of September uh with a $20,000 amount awarded to us and uh almost $38,000 in total uh inind funds uh from various sources including the friends of the Reading Public
Library uh being contributed. So uh we formed a grant management team of staff from all departments to determine how we would accomplish our goals for the year. And this was a great project because almost everyone on staff had an opportunity to participate from planning
to purchasing, marketing, cataloging, presenting programs, planting things, uh shaping the collection, the library of things and uh many other tasks. We also held a staffwide training and a discussion of Robin Wall Kimmeer's the
service berry as part of our uh development. So, the library set out to increase access to nature and sustainability for the community while building connections with partner organizations like town committees, garden clubs, and other local organizations. We wanted to highlight
the health and wellness benefits of nature and the ways in which hands-on participation can help people grow together. Sorry, we can't see the bottom, but I'll share it. Um, we set out with four goals in the project. So improving community health meant offering resources and
education about sustainability, healthy living, gardening, and connecting with others. We improved access to nature by adding green spaces both inside and outside the library and worked on off-site events like Arbor Day tree planting in the town forest. We built
sustainability by greening our approach to things like composting, recycling, upycling, and no-by swaps. And uh we help to create social connections by bringing people together in all ages, community programs and initiatives from family outings to plant swaps and
volunteer programs. Uh this grant allowed us uh to add a variety of print and digital resources to our collections that focus on green living, sustainability, and wellness through shared goals. We engaged in new programs and partnerships to highlight new ways to engage with nature and
sustainability through information like gardening workshops and partnerships that brought people together for broader common causes like beautifying town spaces. Collaborations led to impactful programming with 85% of attendees saying they learned something new.
We added green spaces to the library, of course, inside and outside, to increase access and engagement with nature while providing learning opportunities and healing spaces where people could enjoy the health and wellness benefits of nature. We also purchased over 60 print books on
various topics including gardening, sustainability, climate change, etc. We supplemented this with digital resources on our website and added fun technology for learning opportunities like our bird camera. We also expanded our library of
things to include gardening focused items like tools, seed planters, weeders, soil testers, and more. We expanded and relocated our seed library to the main floor next to many other rooted and reading resources. And it has been incredibly popular. and Megan, one
of our resident expert gardeners and grant management team members uh and plant educators, has helped keep it stocked through generous donations from seed companies. Our programs and partnerships spann all ages
and a variety of topics from a garden party highlighting local organizations doing work in sustainability to a plant swap, teen education programs, children's plant lab learning, gardening workshops, town forest tree plantings, and a host of other programs. We worked
with the town forest committee, DPW, reading neighbors network, local scouts, and a number of other organizations throughout the year. Our green spaces got started right away at the end of October 2024 with both indoor and outdoor plantings including a sensory
garden, a native pollinator garden, raised garden beds for educational planting programs, patio furniture, and indoor plants for air quality improvement. Teens and adults generously volunteered to maintain the new spaces, and we were delighted to see these areas flourish when spring and summer came
around. So, what's next? Our next steps uh to continue progress include creating sustainability committee of staff here at the library to identify ongoing opportunities for improvement. We will continue offering recurring topics about gardening, healthy living, and working
with local experts, town committees, nonprofits, and other eco-conscious organizations. We plan to make some of these events like the town forest tree planting a recurring annual event. We will continue growing and maintaining green spaces through the support of
volunteers in our busy bees program. And finally, we hope to obtain sustainable library certification, which is an internationally recognized program that helps libraries pursue long-term sustainability through a variety of support tools.
Any questions? >> Thank you. >> None. That's great. Thank you. meaty updates tonight. >> Yeah, I I just >> want to know the racing me.
>> It was an amazing um opportunity. Um I'll just you have in front of you also an email that I believe all of you may have gotten. I just wanted to touch base on this before as we continue waiting a few more minutes from the CPA. Um there
was an email sent out uh Friday um from Celeste Bruno on behalf of um Moren from the MBLC, the federal IMLS update. I encourage you all to read through this. Um she talks um very much about um how the courts at this point have
said that the Institute of Museum and Library Services needs to reinstated. They need to go back to work. We need to have the funding. Um grants such as the one that you just heard about which was Let me just reiterate, $20,000, which is
not really a large sum of money, um, in the big scheme of things, was able to do all that for our community. Um, and grants like that are so important to libraries. I mean, Reading is lucky. We have a very um we have a a lovely
supportive community and we're very lucky to have that. But these grants really also impact small rural libraries, big urban libraries. So, um, please stay on I encourage you to stay on top of what's happening with the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It deeply impacts the
Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the services they're able to offer us. Um, we are a small state um, but we have a long history of libraries and we work well together. Um, one of the poignant pieces to this email
is to say that um, while the MBLC and all of the libraries and communities in Massachusetts have survived and are surviving this um, these tumultuous times, it's not sustainable and it's not and and we need
to have these funds and we need to have um, organization or agencies such as the IMLS in order to support these community hubs and um, make the work that we do really impactful. It It really does help us. And so, anything you can do if
you're into advocacy, if you want to speak to our representatives and senators, obviously, um I believe all our Massachusetts senators and representatives are all for this. Um but anything you can do that you can think of, whether it's any type
of campaigning or just spreading the word, honestly, most of it is spreading the word. Um the cuts don't necessarily impact the Reading Public Library individually per se, but it does impact us as part of a community of libraries in Massachusetts and then public libraries across the nation and
everything that we work to together. So I just wanted to share this. I did send a print out. You don't have to take it, but um if you're not on the trustee mailing list from the MBLC, I would encourage you um to join that. There is a special one for trustees. And does anyone have any questions about the IMLS
or BLC? >> Do they have any I know it says there's no timeline for an update. Um when they have more details, they'll announce it. >> Yeah. >> Um the back would that be the best place to get it? >> Yeah. Yeah. And the MBLC site is very good. Um and they always will answer
questions. Um Alli Doubts who used to work here is at the MBLC. Um and they are working very very hard to try and restore services. Many of the services that were taken away actually specifically had to do with reaching um
communities that are um considered marginalized and those for whatever reason were cut and now they're getting them back. So they're restarting some of them. It does create an immense amount of work for that staff. So, um,
you know, my heart goes out to the people that work at NBLC who it's one thing to have the rug pulled out from under you, but then when you have to put the rug back, it actually takes a lot more work sometimes to get all those things back and working to get people to
trust you again, that you will have the services that that you said that you will and provide access to to content. Um, so I don't envy them the job that they have and they do an amazing job particularly with building trust among
the community members that they serve. >> Any questions on that? Any comments online? Ellie on that you guys? I >> think actually I have one question. any ideas as to the timeline or uh
whether or not there will be an appeal or just who knows? >> No, I I don't think they do know when there uh I think if you ask a different person, you're going to get a different answer. Um it depends on the level of cynicism or um perhaps doom scrolling
that they've gotten into. So it could be tomorrow. Um, I think there's a lot of other things going on at the court in the courts right now. So, even if they do file the appeal, um, I believe this was a district court, so they'd have to go to the federal appeals court and
depending on whether they took that up, they might actually boot it right up to the Supreme Court. I don't know. So, it's it's kind of a hazy timeline >> and I think the government has additional appeals generally the first circuit.
It was late November. Normally most people would be 30 days, but I think they have um excellent. Thank you very much. Um I assume will you share an update if you get one? I mean we'll see it too, I suppose.
>> Yeah, I can absolutely do that. Um, next on the agenda is an update on the library terrace project and the ad hoc library landscape committee status. >> Sure. Um, very quickly, it's outside. [laughter]
Um, I we actually have the uh invoice to pay. Um, we pay a certain amount and then um we hold a certain amount back has to go through the winter and summer and spring. So, um um I can't express enough the support that we got through
both Activitas, who's our um uh manager for this, our our contractor for this, our designer for this, and Ryan Perl of the town engineers office who has really worked through that, and we've had people from DPW here checking everything
out. Um the installation took went very very quickly. They did install the plants. Um, they did however extend the warranty on the plants because they know that this is an iffy time of year. If they'd been able to get it two weeks earlier, they would have felt more comfortable. But they did get the plants
in. One of the trees is a service berry tree and super excited about that. The other is native. They are um all native. It either true natives or cultivar cultiv cultivar natives. The seating looks really great. Um, and they
actually have this great patio area. It's I think s surpassed any of the expectations or visual things that I had in mind and I've been staring at those plans for a long time. Um but we're very very pleased with the results. It's very accessible. The grade to get up to the
space is well within the ADA um requirements and then you basically take a turn and that whole area is still also paved and smooth. So you can sit strollers or wheelchairs right there without having to move up and onto one of the seated areas. And then of course
there's the tiered terrace se seating going back. Um um from the last meeting that we had of the ad hoc committee I believe they would like to stay active until a launch party or opening ceremony
could be held probably in the springtime. Not that there'll be that much action for them to do between now and then, but um they have put a lot of time and work and effort into this project. And I think they'd like to see through it some sort of ribbon cutting where the trustees and the foundation
and all the other people that have contributed to this could be present to maybe have an event, maybe some music or um just a general party and have people sit around um on the seating. So that's something that they would like to do. Is this something we need to have a vote
on today or should we can we do it on the should we put that on the agenda for the next meeting? >> Yeah, we can put it on the agenda. You don't have to vote on it today. It does not have a specific sunset date, but it might be nice to have something in on the record to say that you've spoken about it. >> We can vote.
>> Okay. It's up to you. >> We have a motion. Do we need a motion for this or should we just vote? Do I have a motion for voting or for continuing the ad hoc library landscape committee? >> Move that we continue the ad hoc library
landscape committee until spring of 2026. >> I have a second. >> Second. >> Um we have two people online. So it's going to be a roll call vote. Um Kelly from Kelly >> and Monette. >> Yes. Thank you.
>> Yes. Thank you. Um, Andrew, >> yes. >> Andrew, >> yes. >> Pat, >> yes. >> And I'm a yes. The motion carries 6. Thank you very much. And it's beautiful. Can't believe how fast it went in.
Um, next on the agenda, discussion and vote on the updates to the gift policy. This was presented to you at the last meeting. I think there were very small minimal changes and it was just let me see if I can share it. Move to approve the changes to the gift
policy as presented and discussed in our previous meetings. >> Second uh roll call vote. I will start online with you. Kelly, >> yes. >> Monette, >> yes. >> Andrew, >> yes. Andrew,
>> yes. >> Yes. >> I'm a yes. The motion carries 6. >> Um, excellent. Thank you. And then we will circle back. >> Yes. >> To the um community preservation act study committee update. Is that okay? Are you
guys ready? >> Thank you very much. Actually, could you just make sure when you're speaking you're speaking into a microphone? >> It's okay. Our goal was to meet with any and all uh committee that we felt would
benefit from community preservation act funding. >> So my name is Martha Moore. I am the conservation commission member that's on the um CPA study committee and Sarah is representing the historical
committee >> commission >> commission. Um right you can go to the next slide. Um so the CPA act was passed in the very
early 2000s and it provides money for open space preservation which is both conservation and recreation and historical preservation and affordable housing. And um the state contributes a percentage match that varies each year
because that state percentage comes from the uh fees that the real estate transactions pay. So depending on how many real estate transactions there are, there's a bigger or smaller pool to be divided among the towns. >> Registry of deeds.
>> Yes. At the registry of deeds. Um yeah, why don't you scooch in so you can talk too. >> Okay. And so far, 201 of the Massachusetts towns have passed this um to have a CPA in their town. Um and
Reading has not yet adopted it. We tried back in about 2003 and it was competing with the high school renovation for funding and the high school renovation passed and CPA just barely didn't pass. And this is the first time we will be
trying again if all goes well. >> Was it by 10 or something? >> Oh, it was a very small very small. Okay, next slide. >> Okay. Uh we start our first meeting was in May of 2024. Um um I'm the historical like Margaret said, I'm the historical
person. We have people from all of these different committees here including the housing committee and the finance committee. And I think it's been really u informative for all of us. I I really didn't know anything about uh the low-inccome housing situation and so I really appreciate knowing all that. So we were tasked to study the merits of
the CPA and we've had um many people come and speak to us from other cities and towns that have the CPA and how it's been going for them and we've had the person from the community preservation commission coalition um I can't remember his name but he came and talked to us at
length. He gave us a lot of really good information. And so ultimately our our task is to recommend to the select board whether or not we believe that um the um town meeting that the question of we if we should put CPA on the ballot goes to
town meeting. >> Excellent. So CPA provides benefits for all of these various um things, open space, trails, and um invasive species control.
Um recreation, if we had had CPA, those birch meadow phase one and phase two could have been paid for through CPA. Um affordable housing can be paid for through CPA. and historic preservation, which is where the library comes in
because I believe you are a historic building. So, you could use CPA funds for projects at the library and perhaps your um your thing you just presented about could have been paid for with open space money
and um the uh the money from the CPA can be reading's piece that goes to um match other grants that we might be able to apply for. often the grant says if you put in so much the grant will provide so
much and that piece that reading contributes could come from CPA. I I just wanted to add to that that one of the things that I didn't know about this that community preservation act prior is the leverage portion and it's really important that people understand
that and in all the categories if a if a town comes up with community preservation act funds they can in many cases be leveraged by other state and federal programs um for housing for recreation and for historical. So, it's
a really good tool. Um, we're often and in many cases the the CPA money is smaller. It's it's smaller than what is matched. Um, so it's quite it's it's quite a um popular tool that other towns and cities use. Next slide. Um, we considered a range of
um prices for what we would put as the search charge on the property tax to pay for this CPA pro. um uh vote. When we vote, we can vote for any
range of prices up to 3%. And um we immediately ruled out the upper end of that, though many towns have passed 3%, but we looked at 1.5, 1, and.5. And at our most recent meeting, we voted that
we thought one made the most sense. And some background about that is that over the past 10 years, on average, the town has spent a million dollars on what would have been CPA eligible projects
each year. And 1% would raise about a million dollars. And this shows sort of the math of how it works. If the local search charges collected were 790,000 and the um state match goes in there,
that brings that 790,000 up to about a million dollars. So it gets us different year, different amount, but about $200,000 of state money before you even make those matching grants that you can
use that money toward. So, um, we've been spending money out of our regular budget that we could have been spending with CPA money and getting $200,000 a year from the state. And the next one is, what would it cost
a homeowner? And the average homeowner, if we do this 1% search charge, would be paying about $100 a year extra because the average homeowner pays taxes around $10,0001,000.
There are some exemptions that we put in. The first $100,000 of your house value gets exempted. Um there are senior and lowincome um exemptions for low and moderate
income seniors and lowincome residents would not pay this searchcharge at all. And um I think we also voted that the commercial real estate would not pay this search charge. So it would only be searchcharged to residents and we just voted that at our last meeting.
>> I think that's our last one. This is just the >> Oh, the time frame. >> The time frame, which is kind of important because next year at this time, um, we'll we'll we'll be we'll find out if this is going to be on the ballot or not. So, we have a few more
steps to go through. We give our report um we're a little behind on that. We're going to give our report very soon to and to to the select board. And then in April, town meeting will vote on whether to put it on the next ballot in November.
So by this time we'll know whether more thing I just wanted to say because I thought it was on the slide is that um when the funds come in um if we did get a million dollars 10% of the funds go into each of the accounts no matter what
and then the other 70% the CPA committee which is formed of people that the town would you know that for different areas people can be on the committee and work with the town. Um the other 70% is decided through applications and applications can come from the town.
They can come from committees and they can also come from residents. For instance, I couldn't help but think of the splash pad. That was such a big issue last year when we had the reading open house here. Someone I think somebody had a petition going around wanting a splash pad. So like for instance, a splash pad could be
something that somebody would ask the CPA project to fund. Um, and so that 70% is the is the variable amount. You could put more of it towards affordable housing some years. You could put more of it towards something else, but there'll be this baseline of 10% that
goes to those three categories that will make an enormous difference in being able to keep up with um what the quality of the outdoor recreation services, the tennis courts, the pickleball courts, and new things we could have been used towards Birch Meadow. um in historical
it could have been used to re- roof um the Parker Middle School which Parker Middle School is in Reading's historic inventory just like this building is in the historic inventory um and what what's the third and uh affordable housing which I think we all feel like
we need to do so much more for affordable housing in this way I don't think the affordable housing trust has had any major funding additions in a long time and with the CPA act there would be a steady amount of funding coming in to give them more um well the
power to do more and in many communities during COVID as I was researching CPA funds were used to help out with uh low-inccome rent renters. So that was kind of an interesting thing. And in final I'll say that if you're on Facebook the Community Preservation Coalition has a Facebook page and pretty
much every week they'll update you with the newest CPA projects in Massachusetts. They also have a website. What is it again, Margaret? I always say >> CPC >> CPC.org. Is that what it is? >> Community preservation coalition. >> Yeah. The website has all of the data
since the inception of the um community preservation act. And for every town, including when every town voted it in, what were the percentages of yes and no? What did they decide to do? And the percentage can be changed, but it can't
be changed for fi for five years. it has to be changed by a town meeting vote. Um I mean the the website is very thorough and just so you know the the committee that will be formed in April if this
passes presents possible projects that they recommend to town meeting and ultimately town meeting votes on whether or not to fund those projects. So somebody wants a splash pad, they come to the committee, the committee recommends it to town meeting.
Town meeting ultimately decides whether they can um build their splash pad or not. So if you have any questions, I think we have about two minutes left in our 15 minutes we roll audited. >> So I have a question. I'm just curious when you talk about the committee
reviewing the applications, is it the current committee stays on? Are there term limits on the committee? How does that work? The committee that reviews the applications has to have somebody from each of the various categories. Somebody from conservation, somebody
from housing, somebody from historical. I think it has to have a select board member. Um, and those members get appointed. And I don't know if there are term limits on that, but there are definitely categories that have to be represented. So it would it's not
as of right now it's not something that this committee is planning to segue into but who knows what will happen. We don't know that but and that doesn't get decided until after the town approves that they want to do the CPA then that committee gets formed.
>> Okay. Thank you for explaining. >> Can I just add really quickly? I did make up this quick little cheat sheet uh from the um community u preservation coalition website of specific ways that the library could benefit from the funds such as we know you have already done a
lot of repairs on this beautiful building, the outdoor gardening project. um working on ADA accessibility which I think you you already have that but also um you can do um and if you needed to do any studies about the historical
nature of the building um well I would just say you you can read all this but I'll just read this last bit that says it's a powerful tool um supporting historic preservation facility rehabilitation land acquisition outdoor community spaces preservation related
studies helps to safeguard the building increase community value reduce strain on the local budget and aligning with the trustes mission to steward the library as a community resource. So our um I guess we we sort of end with saying we
hope that you would uh would vote to bring this to town meeting to for them to vote on >> just your support for the select board to pres push this along. That's what we're asking for from you.
>> Any other questions or comments? >> Yeah, a quick question and I I know I've asked this at a different presentation. I can't remember the match which is obviously a big factor of this. Uh you have two examples up there from 21 and 24. They're obviously different. Was the
21 higher than normal because of like the COVID spending or what is like the state is is there any averages? Um it looks to me like in the last 10 years it's been somewhere around 20 to 25
usually. So that 39% was higher than many. >> It had been 100% when they started out because there were very few towns and a big pool of money. So the early adopters got 100% matches. And you know I think
we can expect more in the 20 to 25% range. But that's still a good chunk of money. It is and I just want to add to uh the annual report from the CPA coalition says that they are they are investigating new avenues to generate you know funding for the program and
also for any of the towns that are 3% they get a second round of funding. So it's just something interesting. I don't think we ever get >> Yeah. Um the the ones that get the second round of funding also have to have a higher need. Yeah.
>> So, there's a small town in western Massachusetts that just last year adopted CPA at 3%. Because they would get that extra round of funding and it would make a big difference for them. But we were looking at the numbers and
didn't expect that reading would qualify for the extra round of funding. So it was not worth risking >> not having it pass by trying to bite too big a bite out of the apple. >> So that's where we settled on the 1%.
>> Other questions? >> Do you remember what the percentage was that we asked for in the first time in 2004? Was it 1%. >> I think so. Might have been 1.5. >> 1.5. >> Yeah. >> It was not three. The other part of that election was that
the CPA question was on the back side of the ballot all by itself and there was some question as to whether people need to flip it over and vote. I'd share that because I think that might have been my case. So anyway, anything else you want?
>> Thank you much very much for your time. >> Thank you very much. Really appreciate it. Um, next item on the agenda is the financial report. I'm going to take a big deep breath now. Um, so, um, I'm presenting to you what I
will be presenting to the select board tomorrow night which then eventually goes to the finance committee. Um just very briefly um something came through last Thursday and we were going to change the whole budget. So I changed a bunch of numbers and I gave Megan an
update and and then I heard out I heard today again at four o'clock. That was four o'clock. Last Thursday I heard there was a change and then today at four o'clock I heard never mind, ignore that change, go back to what you originally had. [sighs and gasps] So what you have [laughter]
is what should have been what was in your packet. Uh we were actually prepared to hand out something completely different. Um but um Sharon the town accountant and various other department heads and and Matt and we've
all worked together and um we're very pleased to be able to offer this budget recommendation of $2,320,000 which is a 2.7% increase. We were really striving for 2.5 or less but 80% of our
80% of our budget are salaries. So with the 3% I'm sorry with the step plus 1.25% cola that brings our um salary increase to 2.9%. So we basically have to have no expense budget at all. So
very briefly um this budget I believe is for 6.755 million in free cash. That is more than what um the town is over generally um comfortable with. So we do expect to have an override at some point in the very soon. Um the non-union salaries
will be a step plus 1.25% cola. Um this will bring the librarywide salaries to 2.9%. We um have that divided up um to administration, collection services and
public services. they are all sort of on average changing about the same. Um, a lot of what you see has to do with basically where people are in their steps and then some staffing changes that we're having the expense which is the trickier thing.
Um, and just what I want to point out to you is that we fully expend our expenses every year at least 23 24 and 25. So, we use every penny. And as you know, I also work very hard to or we work very hard
to um wisely steward our gifts and trusts and um state aid. We supplement that where we can. We have to maintain our library materials requirement. So, that will
also that will go up by 2.6%. And software licenses and support is going up 7.4%. And it is to address some general vendor pricing as you know software things like that go up they can go up not very much
and then all of a sudden they can jump. There are al also a couple licenses that we renew every three years and next year will be one of the three years that we need to uh renew a certain licensing that goes per computer for our public computers.
So um in order to keep that number below 2% uh to 1.8 eight. Um, we are I am recommending cutting our technology supplies. Those are the actual physical computers that we rotate
in and out. Um, our general supplies coming down a little bit. Our professional development um, which you know for a year or two we can probably afford a cut in that before we need to see uh, that rebound a little bit. And then library programs. As you know,
we're very lucky to have the have the um friends of the Reading Public Library supplement our programming or actually in this case, we're supplementing that programming. So, it's a it's a small budget line, but something that we use for community projects and and large or
community activities that aren't necessarily built into the children's programming line or the teen programming line that the friends um support. Um, by doing that, we've been able to keep that to um
to keep that to 1.8%. If I'd had if we if it if we weren't in this current financial tight spot, I think an average 3% increase in your expense budget would be very typical.
Um, and that would represent what I would consider full funding. I think this is definitely a cut in funding to provide pretty much level services with some limitations. Um
it's only a $7,500 difference in the long scheme of in the big scheme of things. So, um I think we can figure out how to cover $7,500 next year. Um I'd like to have the $7,500 back if we can get an override. I think we'd want to
regain our expense budget back to where it should be, but it would be very small money. Um, and I, like I said, I think we can um with very minimal disruption continue to offer the services we have with these particular cuts.
And that's all I have. >> Um, just quick question. Something like a library program, what does $500 mean in terms of a program? Is that cutting one, five, 10? I have no idea. >> It's in the larger programs. It's things like things I can think of right off the top of my head that cost $500 is what
we've done in the past is we've had an ASL interpreter for a community program that's 500 bucks. Um it might be the difference between having one vendor at a, you know, instead of having three speakers, we have, you know, one speaker or something like that. So it's scaling
down um some of the um things that make some of our programs very special, but it doesn't eliminate them. >> Thank you. um a uh well the presentation materials for the board packet tomorrow I think are very good the data points I always
like when you lay out those data points so I just want to comment on that >> um then a practical question are we noticed for tomorrow night and if not >> you're not noticed for >> who's thinking of going is anyone else just to make sure we don't run into
quorum issues As long as you have less than four, you're good. Okay. If you see four of you, then someone needs to leave the room. And it's been if if you if you just have a few hours to spare, you can go back
and watch last week's presentation. And the questions will all be, is there any way you can squeeze out any more money? And um I you know obviously you can always squeeze out money but then it results in the loss of
services or loss of being able to do things. And um in general I think we're very um we're pretty conservative with most of the um especially the you know obviously we have gift funds or we have someone like the foundation who's able
to pay for a large um capital project and we have not asked for any capital funds since this building was renovated. Um, usually $10,000 every year is put into the capital plan for the library, but I had requested that the town
accountant take that out until further notice because we are able to supplement through because we have our support groups. Um, other departments don't have the support, you know, they don't have a PTO for the fire department ask, you know, paying for a new fire truck. So,
we are fortunate to have that. And so, um, we don't ask for much. We're 1.6% of the total budget and percent of the total budget. And I think we take very good care of the town's uh, the municipal operations budget. But in this
case, I feel like reducing our, for lack of a better word, cutting our expense budget by $7,500 and bringing our budget down to 2.7% is is reasonable and something we can do for FY27. I don't need to tell you this obviously,
but I think continuing to educate people on what's required for like the library materials and state certification that there's there's limits um that what can be done and that can't be paid for with outside
sources. I just think it's important to remind people because I don't >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Anything else on the FY27 budget? >> Does anybody have any questions?
>> Okay. Um FY26, we are um we're doing really well. Um, as you know, we've had some staffing changes. I'll get into that in a little bit. Um, and we had a few gifts in November. So, that finishes out the
financial report. Um, as for the director's report, our usual statistics are there. Um, I will say I'm very pleased we still continue to see an increase on our volunteer hours. Volunteers are really important to us, but we also don't want to hide the value
of what we do. So, we don't want to have nor can we legally have volunteers do things that paid people should do. But a lot of the volunteer work that we're doing now are also with teens to help them get leadership hours. There are they're relaunching the um book is it
called book buddies, reading buddies, book buddies where a a young adult will read with a a younger child and it's really good at reinforcing the fun of reading. Um so it's we try to come up with volunteer programs where people who
are helping um Albert has some volunteers that work with him in the office of equity and they are very enthusiastic and they really want to you know help. He has a student volunteer. He has someone who helps out with some of his um graphic design and publication
and social media. So we try to make that very um engaging for the volunteers that we have. Um we after COVID we during COVID we had no volunteers. So um we we would it's a it's a program we'd like to build up again but also make sure that
it's meaningful to the volunteer not just busy work. So um I'm just very pleased to see that continuing to grow. See here um every once in a while I I throw in I like to throw in the breadth of the folks that we work with. Uh
Olivia mentioned some of the partnerships we have. Um and I want to be clear, there are groups that we support and there are group groups that we sponsor and then there are groups with whom we partner. Um you know those are three very distinct ways that we can be involved with the community. The
support might just be like yay go to the go to this such and such thing. We're not really involved with it but it sounds good. Or we advertise for it or we post somebody's um flyer. Uh sponsorship might be um uh letting a letting a nonprofit that's
aligned with our core values have the room for free for a certain number of times. And then a partnership is something where we really work with uh the group. U we have a seat at the table. We talk about what types of programs and what types of content will be um will be there. And some of the
partners we worked with just in November is the Chabat of Wakefield Kilum Elementary School. Mystic Valley Over Services, the Northeast Arc Resource Group, um the Parker Middle School, Peter Sanborn Place, Pleasant Street Center, Reading Garden Club, Reading
Health Department, um and the RPS um multi- language team, which um Olivia has mentioned several of those and I didn't even list all of them. So, um, one of the things that's great about those types of partnerships, including Reading Neighbors Network, um, and, um,
a couple of the other ones that we work with the children's one that we just the children's cabinet through the schools, um, is that it's they're really collaborative and it's not about one
particular group owning or taking um, center stage. It's really about a whole bunch of people working together. One of the biggest things I've learned from this and I think a lot of our staff have done is that you realize you don't have to run the whole program alone
and that you don't have to be the expert on something that you're not the expert in, but somebody comes to you and says, "Oh, there's this health thing." And you're like, "Ah, we have a public health department. Ah, we have uh the writing coalition for prevention and support. Let's get all three of those groups in the room and we can talk about
resources and we can talk about clinical help and we can talk about um blue clinics or something. We can put them all together and all those people in the same room and we're not each reinventing the wheel. So, I do like to highlight this the partnerships particularly that we have.
Um moving on to personnel, as you know, we've had quite a few changes. Elizabeth left in October and uh we said goodbye to um Andrea last month. Um we are um we
have hired um Olivia to be our new public services division head. We will have an internal posting to see if any of our internal we have internal candidates to be to head up the children's team. Um we also have a retirement coming up at the end of December which is uh Luis Heatherington
who's our meeting room coordinator. We have posted that position. We already have seven candidates, seven applications for that position in less than a week. So, we're very excited about that. So, we have a lot of transitions. And of course, Susan Bogard is retiring in um January. So, then
we'll be posting for her position at the beginning of the year. So, we have very busy hiring season in front of us. And um Rebecca Bailey will have been here for eight years. You may not see Rebecca very much. She works a couple mornings a week and she works Wednesday
evenings. So, but she's been here for eight years and she's writing resident. She was on Jeopardy [laughter] among other in addition to Desiree and um um so if you see her say happy anniversary. I will also note that of the people who left Elizabeth was only
with us for about two years but Andrea was here for 14 years. Louise has been with us for 16 years and Susan will have been with us for 32 years. So much of our transition, many of our transitions are people who have given over a decade of their careers to working here. So I
don't feel like it's a you know mass rats leaving a sinking ship. I really feel it's people moving on to to better better particularly retirement um more relaxing jobs. >> And that's all I have for the director's report.
Thank you very much. Uh, does anyone have any questions or comments? Online? Okay, moving on. I think is the approval of meeting minutes from last month's meeting. It is approval of the November
12th, 2025 meeting minutes. Do you have any questions, comments, or motion? >> I move to approve the meeting minutes from November 12th. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. Roll call vote. Um, I think everyone was
here last time, right? Anybody have to Kelly. >> Monette, >> yes. >> Andrew, >> yes. >> Andrew, >> yes. >> Pat, >> yes. >> And I'm a yes. The motion carries 6.
>> Um, next we have future agenda items. January, the community outreach engagement update. I think you mentioned that last month, Michelle, right? Somebody did uh update on spending February technology plan update and the patron selfservice report. We have
anything else to add to that? No, because we voted on the ad hoc library. Good. Uh anything else? Anybody questions, comments or guess a motion to adjourn? Move to a journ. Secondbody
>> second. >> Uh roll call vote. Kelly, >> yes. Lynette, >> yes. >> Andrew, >> yep. >> Andrew, >> yes. >> Pat, >> yes. >> And I am a yes. We are officially adjourned at 802. >> Bye everybody.
>> Thank you.