okay call the meeting to order at 6 pm and uh first item of uh business on the agenda is to approve the approve the minutes of December 11th 2024 and if you just could have a little looksy at them and accept any comments on agenda or errors of omission or commission or whatever yeah I had a I had a comment on the uh discussion of the the fire alarm
pull boxes I guess I made the comment that I thought uh the uh fire chief said if we put one in The Duda room and not the back room that we could do it hard wire there and I guess I made that comment and I think somebody said they were gonna follow up with the fire chief to see that
was acceptable place to do that or not where is this under old business or new business wherever it was on the old business agenda I don't okay I don't have that up now uh post station has been installed by the front door there isn't a strong enough Wi-Fi signal to install a wireless post station in the basement by the exit door and that's all I have yeah I didn't
feel comfortable no hang on I didn't feel comfortable um with your suggestion Fred because I wanted Bob who was there um and he wasn't at our last meeting to be able to comment on your suggestion so we can bring that up again under old business so I'm not I'm not making any change to the meeting minutes at at this point I don't think it's necessary we can it'll be in this this month you w if
you want to talk about during today's meeting fine okay yeah okay uh anything else on the on the minutes themselves if not I'll entertain a motion to accept the minutes as written I'll make a motion anyone okay Deborah moved and is there a second second okay there's like five seconds we'll take Fred's and um is there any further discussion if not we'll move to a
vote Deborah Yes except Fred yes Bob yes George yes and ginger you're muted okay okay yes Ginger says yes so they are they are approved as written and uh Cindy we're GNA start this month with uh you making a a copy for me to
sign when they're finalized and then we'll scan them and send them to town offices correct yes so I can have a final copy available and ready for you on Tuesday when you come in to sign my time sheet got it okay because yeah we we received an update on open meeting laws um and that's one other thing that has to be done by the chair now you have to sign um if you're the chair like Deborah you have to sign the the minutes of the
um zoning meeting yeah okay so we'll move on Bob financial report sure um my apologies for sending them out as late as I did uh everybody everybody should have gotten them about 15 minutes ago oh I need to go check yeah my apologies on that um I got him out I got him out late um I was just happy to get them out
oh yes I they're here they're here I I I didn't get them Bob you didn't get them hold on they came at 5:46 no didn't get them okay hold on I I got them the the January ones are just partial right yeah the January's partial hold on so you didn't oh I wonder okay Bob I'll send it hopefully I didn't send it to
uh the wrong email address and I've got mine okay I'm resending them Bob oh you know what is um Bob K you instead of Bowen it you started it as hom ah okay now I got it now I got it thank you okay so again my apologies um I get if we want to start with the uh the special Revenue accounts um I still have
a bunch of questions on these um we had a bunch of the Expendable accounts up near the top um had new Revenue um and it appeared to be about half of what it was from last year uh all the way down through so we get Revenue off of um the first how do we want to describe these the expendable um fees
General donations state aid well we don't get any money off of state aid that just is given to us um but you can see there's a beginning balance and then there's Revenue uh and I believe the revenue is reported twice a year is what it it appeared because all of the revenue that came in um if you go down in the second one Expendable um item
821 the Robinson Trust right it's just for books it had a beginning balance of 44542 uh it added another $18.36 in Revenue so last month it was $18 in revenue for the first half of the year and then this year it was another $18.36 which took it to um 3636 so I'm still learning what all of
these mean uh we can tap into the Expendable accounts as we see fit we just need to vote for them uh the ones at the bottom the non-expendable so Damon for 10,000 Dickinson library for 75,000 those feed up into so if you see um number 854 Damon which has a beginning balance of 10,000 that feeds into
the bottom of the very top 824 oh so that is the answer to your question Fred of why those zeros are there right so we will we will never see revenue on 8 on Damon Dickinson Library uh some of these other ones we will never see Revenue in the bottom because
the revenue is car carried over up top so if you look at Damon we've earned $1 13757 on a $10,000 investment okay if you look at Dickinson we've earned $970 on I'm sorry 97.05 on $75,000 now
what I don't understand is why Philip at the bottom shows $17.65 I think darra made a mistake I think that should get kicked up to 816 in the Expendable books you see there's a Philip Kowski there yeah so I think I think that 1765 was entered in the wrong spot but in in general um we we don't
touch anything on the very bottom Damon Dickinson Danforth meeski field Robinson Dickinson age Philip Kowski we don't touch any of those those just sit there and constantly generate income they we are uh directed very specifically by the uh state where those monies and I I believe we don't do anything
the town invests those for us because it's very controlled on how that money needs to be invested okay okay does that answer your question Fred from last month it does right yes yes so I'm I'm still learning on all of these I need to meet back with Cindy and make sure my understanding of everything is correct um at some point in the future I would I would like to look into if you look on the second one we have Lions
Club for books for $109 and there's no income we have summer reading for $ 843 uh I want to work with Cindy I want to work with darra I want to begin to understand is is there a way that we can begin to maybe combine some of these the the last thing I'd want to do is uh is have anybody who gave any money to the library um feel like we weren't honoring their wishes but is is there
some way to sort of streamline what we have and I I don't know if there is um but later on this spring beginning of this summer um that's my plan is to to meet with and dar so well what one way for those those small ones is to spend them out on books right I think I think we could zero out Zer we zero them out and and I
can communicate to Dara that uh we do not want you know those are zeroed and they're not going to be replenished yeah okay any questions on that for Bob I I have a very general and probably ignorant question Bob and that is so the difference between the Expendable and the sub the non-expendable so just to take Damon or the Dickinson thing is the the large sums in the non-expendable
uh those are different than the smaller sums in the Expendable presumably the the $3,041 in the Damon Expendable is revenue from the larger sum and then in the revenue column is the recent revenue from it is that correct that is correct so so if you and I can send it out if people want me to if you want to look back to take Damon right beginning balance
at of this calendar year so um July 1st using the town calendar year the beginning balance was 3,418 to and in the last 6 months we saw um I don't know take half of 137 so you're looking at 68 approximately and change um in the
first six months and then well here we can click on it if you just click on it you'll see it is no of course you won't because I had typed over it because I was in a hurry so half of that we realized in the first six months of the fiscal year for the town and then there was another half so roughly another 68 and change into that which brought it up to 137 the total
is 3,179 39 once we get to June 31st the balance becomes the beginning balance okay now we can spend as trustees we can spend all of The Expendables we we cannot touch the non-expendable yep thank you that's that's very clear I appreciate it yeah so that's fine I'm still I'm still learning myself so if I say things twice it's just cuz
I'm trying to make sure I understand okay okay then into the town account um flip over to that one let me get to it here the municipal budget um everything's pretty straight forward except for the collection development uh there is an error in there and I couldn't fig I couldn't find it um and I kept going back through it uh Cindy knows
um it's a it's it's a lot of items that need to be I enter each one um if you go and click on it you'll see them I just do equals and then I add everything up from the town um for some reason the number at the end the 8,116 is uh is off by about $490 and I couldn't find it so I will chase that down um and send out updated ones but every everything else is good
except for that um everything appears to be tracking as you would look for it too halfway through the year um you will see and I'll just point this out um because I know it's going to come up um Cindy you had mentioned that we got oil in December interesting I'm not seeing an
oil that's because kir did not actually I tried to submit the delivery ticket for payment because it said um like delivery invoice on it Dar did not accept that as a proper invoice so I had to wait until Kiera submitted or sent me a proper invoice so it just got submitted with the last bill schedule so it will show up on the next report yep no that this is all going to come
out when we talk about the furnace um I'll just point everybody towards uh eversource utilities um we were at 7436 for December which was a a big jump and that had a lot to do with the uh the issues with the furnace that we'll get to Cindy don't don't we have even a further bill from ever Source yes
and it's uh it's $1,000 yeah it is $1,987 cents to be exact even after this okay 15.3% increase in our usage from last year at this time or from the last billing cycle yeah to this billing cycle I cried when I saw the bill well I mean we have to keep
the library warm for our patrons and for our workers yeah and we can we can discuss I I think a lot of this is going to come out in the um I think a lot of this is going to come out in the in the this discussion maintenance stuff the maintenance discussion I just wanted to make sure while we were here um that people noticed even so I guess December is even before we had uh the issues with the furnace we jumped to
700 um so this this billing cycle does it tell me when the billing cycle is um well this billing cycle ended on well the statement date was six so I guess the billing cycle is sometime in there December December why doesn't you give you a billing cycle like every other
Bill giv you a building cycle Myst of ever source so what are we looking at for Kish oil like what $700 for what Kish oil no Kish oil was2 200 and something about $250 that's all tank well was it was that about a quarter of a tank so that filled it up full oh okay and we're on autom delivery
so they sort of guess when we're getting low and they automatically come and fill it okay it's not actually a guess they do it with Degree Days and stuff it's a calculation yeah yes okay uh any other questions for Bob on the budget thanks for doing all that Bob you're welcome like I said I'll update I'll I'll find out the the error in the collection and then I'll send out the
updated it's possible that some of the some of the invoices got submitted and they haven't they weren't recorded yet no I go off of it it should all tie out because what I have is directly what Dar has closed she what I get is what she has closed for the month and so if her numbers tie out and I take her numbers and I put them
in then my numbers should tie out to her numbers if my numbers don't tie out to her numbers um I made a mistake somewhere and then I just have to go back through all the different lines and find it but somehow I'm off I I don't know how I'm off 4 something dollars but I am so but I'll I'll dig back through and find it it's just I I wanted to get this out to everybody um tonight even with one mistake um I felt it was important it important to
get it to people yep that's good okay we move we move now to director's report okay I am starting out my thank you Mr chair I'm starting out my director's Report with some announcements Keith wanted me to let all of you know that he's retiring right pretty much everybody in town knew that June 30th is his last official day well he wasn't sure if everyone knew so he wanted me to
pass it on to the board they're working on getting the job descriptions all tweaked and so they can get posted um we have the town appointed at last night's uh selman's meeting a new another member to the historical commission so this historical commission is fully um has a full membership now of Mary Stewart who was across the street from the library was appointed as the newest member to the hisor commission
and I got a letter yesterday that our first we are we have been approved and certified for state aid and our first deposit should be coming through by the end of January for $2,872 64 cents um which so our total for the year that comes out in two deposits one in January and then one again in May so our total state aid for the year is $574 28 which
is a $761 64 increase from last year great okay that that um I heard back from James phasi over at the tech school and they are willing to make a suggestion box for us wanted to know what I was looking for so I sent them some measurements and some pictures for some ideas and I'm just waiting to hear back from them um we got iug applied
for the library through the library I applied for three cultural Council grants from the weightly cultural Council and all three of them were approved there were two performers who applied for the cultural Council grants and I wrote the letters of supports for the to and both their events were approved um and then of course I after getting this last light bill I spoke with Pete and I increased
for FY 26 I increased the electricity it was originally supposed to be 6,000 I asked if we could increase it to 6,500 just to make sure we have enough to cover us for electricity for the year because don't know where the rates and how cold it's going to be through the winter want to make sure we have enough so as a result of doing that our collection development budget increased slightly because of the 20% you need to spend from the municipal
budget to cover cover um your book cover your um buying Library materials and then I attended a um over Zoom I attended a professional development Workshop called supercharge your story time which was sort of gave was um sort of different approaches of how to do a story time and how to approach it and um different ways of doing it so I was really I learned a lot from that so I was really glad I got to go so and then the
only other thing I have is for later on is the draft of the hotspot policy did I miss the Surplus items thing oh Surplus items sorry yes so we used to have the white bulletin board that we would have as you walked in um before we had the lift put in since the lift has been put in we've been we have repurposed the bulletin board for something else so in the library office are three rules of
bulletin board paper and I was hoping the board would be okay with saying their Surplus so that I could reach out to the elementary school to see if that's something they would be interested in yeah so we just need to um have a motion to declare those as Surplus so would someone move to declare those three roles of I move that we declare the three roles of bullet board paper as Surplus
second is there a second second second any discussion we need a roll call vote Deborah yes Fred yes Ginger yes Bob yes George yes you got it Cindy thank you so much you're welcome is all I have circulation numbers policy yes they do yep up almost a 100 from December of
23 yes it's good it is how now total Library visits in the month of December 272 do you keep track of year-to-year total number of visits per month yes is was that was that December number good that was a good December number considering we were close two days in a row for the holidays okay okay I have a question all right yes go ahead George jindy would you ever consider putting the uh the previous year's Library visits the way uh you do with the circulation just so
we would have a contra the comparison I could start doing that with next month's report that would be great that would be great I would like okay any other questions for Cindy okay you want just the previous year's statistics well previous five sort of the way you've done it with the [Music] circulation all right we're on to um old business
and we got quite a bit of it um some of it will come under other um but we'll just we'll start with update on Environmental Testing I don't think we've moved anywhere from where we were last month um and update on roof replacement project February 22nd um I guess Bob and I or I anyway will appear at a a public hearing um which usually are very poorly attended and there's very little discussion um but maybe this one will generate
discussion so on February 22nd I believe um we'll meet for that public hearing uh funny requests from CPC cap improvements nothing new from last month we have two requests into Capital Improvements as I told you last month and we still have the roof requests from CPC and that's February 22nd okay um we did uh uh stop discussion of the friends because Ginger wasn't in a last mon
and I'm sure that you you've taken a look at the minutes so that you understand the the general um way we were going the bottom line is uh Ginger that it appears as though neither Sheila nor anyone else really wants to um has the energy I guess you'd say to do friends and we um thought that perhaps we should we should form a committee subcommittee that would outline what it is we would like to see from the
and then outline a path of how to get there so we wanted we wanted your input on uh issues of friends based on what you see from the minutes um if you'd like to make any comments um well in general um friends are totally separate from the trustees uh with what they do and what they are you know trying to they they are really basic Ally as friends
they're supporting the library not only with projects that make money but projects that bring people in and children in that then will facilitate you know having projects or doing programs or having musical events or any other type of thing that in some ways can make money down to small items which was in the old Library where I I
was a li you know I was a library trustee for over 20 years but I was also started off as a friend of the library and I think that the essence is to really have um some kind of coordination and I don't have the background here in town but I would be glad to talk to other people in town or have some of the trustees tell me some
other people the best way is to go to your Elementary School you've got young people you've got young mothers most people do work but they still love their Library they want to give to it they can give time and I think that a coordination between the grade school and our library would also bring in other people that could be Library trustees that are you know engaging into do more things with their children more events with their children which also
leads up then into other events whether they're for young adults or the elderly or whatever for programming that are possibly that build on to each other um so I would be happy to help with that but I really you know and go to the elementary school talk to you know maybe a meeting with the teachers or a meeting with a principle to begin
with that we would like to do some kind of coordination with them which is I think a very opening and meaningful that could develop into something very positive for the library and build on that that that's one of my that that's the way that we first did it years ago when I when I worked on it then and um it it was a really positive experience I think it's it's
pretty clear that unless the trustees start this no one else is going no one else is going to right well it's it's like you know I don't mind going out and and and you know like I said going to the school or other people but maybe some people you know some trustees also have friends that they know that really like the library that maybe have a daughter or had you know younger or people that are in invested in
the library to a certain degree that maybe are not going to be spending a whole lot of time on it but that would spend time saying here's some other people that would be good to help like a building tool to that and I would be happy you know to do that to start so uh do we do we want to form a subcommittee or do we want to uh let Ginger loose and and she
could work she could work with Cindy I don't know how you want to proceed and well I think that if any of the the trustees have you know if you have the names of two or three people like through friends of you know people most trustees have lived here for quite a period of time that know people that are interested in the library that maybe either have friends or friends of friends that that you know if you're
looking at an age group we're talking 30s to 40 year olds that really have children that we want to build on children's programs too and then you can go to the other end of it my age the older people that love the library and maybe just go and get books but there could be programs that they would be interested in or even helping out with which we did there were great grandmothers that helped out and did
special programs or events learn how to knit I'm going to give a class in decapage for different ages of children and they volunteered their time so that you know you C you can you can build on it and I really think that if you have a variety of people that are between like 30 and 75 you can have various programs that they can help do that really are not
costing money or making money but in the long run that become involved in the library where then we can really have programs that are diverse and music programs or art programs that we can then pay for because of the the involvement of the people Ginger I have somebody for you who who would be very good to talk to who I know you know and that's Julia Burman who yeah she started
the first weightly friends group and she is a friend of mine and I talked to her about this and she said she very happy to share her experience okay that would be great and I can I can do you have her contact information I can email it to you yeah I do I've got her number and anything yes okay okay I will do that that'll be great because she knows a lot of people she does and she did start the first friends group and she said she doesn't want
to be a friend right now right put on to another Committee in town but she'd be happy to share her experience right yeah I mean it's just networking we should you know if we could just get a core of six people even and then they each get two people I mean it just grows and it can work so I will be happy to do that you know and if anybody else has a name or two or anybody else wants to just you know give send me suggestions you know call me up we can meet and
you know go over some themes or ideas or people that could be contacted that be great okay okay well thanks for taking that on Ginger well I'm and then I have one other old the 75th Anniversary I sort of right I was gonna I was gonna hit that up next um I just wanted to make sure that everybody's okay with the way we're going to proceed with the friends if any of you has a name um
to give Ginger yes um let her know okay right okay all right now we can go on to the 75th because that was old business go ahead Ginger okay well I wanted to sort of volunteer but I don't know how much time I have um I just think that it's the 75th and let me ask this the 75th really starts next December is what we're saying for the year of the 75th itself
December 17 2025 marks the actual 75th Like official first opening day of the library so that's now yeah well December of this year yes right December of 25 yes so so that's next year that's next December next December because we just finished December 24 yeah it's December 2025
right yes so we have basically a year to decide and plan on I mean I would love to see special events um artists writers musicians that are from around here it doesn't have to be just weightly we are small but that are connected and to find you know families that have been here for a long time that could maybe even just give
casual talks about the Heritage and the founding of weightly and I think I would love to see like once a month so that would only be 12 and we have 12 months to get it together once a month like a historic event or a historic um you know even starting with how the library was built how the funds were donated that would be one it
would be um not an event that would necessarily be like music or art or all that but would be an hour of someone talking about the history of weighty or the history of the library and all the people involved in it and do that and once a month we would have that put it in the newspaper put it out there to you know the elementary school to the high school are there kids there that have you know families that were here Generations ago that maybe they could come it would be something really
special little special once a month and then besides that I think it would be good to do special children's programming that talked about the history of the area the history of weightly why their library is there have either games special books little art projects things that are like you could even Xerox little pictures of like the library just a little black outline of the
library hand them out to the kids to to paint or color I mean there are a lot of things you could do that would and it's another thing that would get people involved in the library and know the library and what they could come there and do that's a great idea okay so so I'd like to help with that in my spare time well Cindy you have things planned as well don't you I have a few I have
a few things planned not like I don't have an exhaustive list of things planned but got right yeah last yes and I also have the guest book from the 50th um oh that's great celebration so I don't know when you have time Ginger if you wanted to stop in and maybe there's names in there that we could reach out to oh that'd be great yeah because I figure we have a year to
get it together I think that we could really do some really nice things I'd like to find the minutes of the meeting where they decided it was a good idea to paint the library white that's I'd really like to that's actually one of the history parts of the history um that I found when I was going sorting through things that went back to the to the 50th celebration of the library and explains why the library was painted white that's great it's
because it it's because the library is in the historic district so it was agreed that the library should be painted white to fit in with the historic district oh there you have it Bob no I mean I think I I I know that but I just wondered if anybody who made that decision said well gee I wonder if it'll look good over brick and you
know I mean just just wondering that's all just wondering okay one thing that is going to be happening next year Countrywide and I don't know if it's going to impact what we do is the 250th celebration of the what Constitution or whatever or of the US 2026 is the 26 yeah and I assume there's going to be some kind
of celebrations going on of that whether it's state or national or whatever and I guess we maybe need to be aware of it so we don't have our events the same days or whatever that is going on I don't know the library is coordinating in partnership with the historical commission and the Historical Society so we will make sure there is no overlap with any of our programs but it's also an opportunity for all of us to cross poost our events Yeah by okay that's great
okay uh and I also put uh Bob I put the bench on there um but you already spoke about that Bob's taking run through I I can run through all the maintenance stuff real quick if you want me to uh we got that under new business because there's so many different things okay all right so under new business uh we have a policy from a proposal from uh Cindy about without the hot hot use to the
hotpots yes and this is merely a draft y um I don't know if I'm being too critical on myself that it seems to be too much and we could cut some of this out or if it's just right I don't know well I I think it it covers the things that need to be covered when you take one of those you need to know that there's totally responsible you're totally
responsible for it the battery the the um the plugs uh you know all that stuff and all you got to do is just you know anytime you look on an Apple um and find out that everything is at least 39.95 and up um you got to know that when you when you take it out and you also got to know that that it's going to stop working if you keep it Beyond when you're supposed to um which I think is great thought you I thought you covered
it pretty well oh thank you Cindy I thought I thought it was very well done I had a question do they have to sign a release and if so do you want to put that I I was wondering that similar to how we do the telescope that you you agree that you're borrowing this and that you're it's not a secure you understand that you're taking your privacy and your own risk because it's not going to be secured Network you agree to return I mean I can certainly
draft up a sample borrowing policy and I think that's something that would not totally be unreasonable similar to how when you borrow the telescope we have you sign the borrowers agreement saying we understand we're responsible and this is what's gonna happen if we don't return it or we return it damaged I think that's important I think that's a good idea all right I will get one together to send out to the board okay and then when we have the whole thing in front of us we can vote it as part of the
policy to go in the book okay sounds good I will go I will make myself a note to write up a borrows agreement for the hotpots okay and I would also like to say I think that this should be with every time they take it out a copy of this should be with it so no one says oh well I didn't read it or I didn't I think that it should be when they take it out it's it's in there with it and we will put it on
colored paper so that it's highlighted that it's not like just a plain piece of white paper can be like a nice yellow or yeah something that's great ideas perfect okay um just the uh the second item under new business was that um Pete Pete uh arranged to have sent out a whole update on open meeting bylaws and um if you'd like I can forward you unless you all got that email but I think only
like chairs got it I can forward you the whole thing um it's it's it's worth reading over but um it's it's just really important that we are transparent and conduct we never take a vote outside of an open meeting a public meeting and uh it further defined like when I put other uh under new business for example uh we can bring things up but we can't vote uh
if we didn't make clear to the public that we were going to take a vote on a particular issue we W wouldn't be able to vote we could bring up under new business this this and this and then next month we would talk about it under old business but we can't um vote on under things that are brought up under other um so anyways I'll I'll send that all out to you I'll find that email and I'll push it out um to you just so that you know um and also uh not to conduct business over email okay
we don't we don't do that we used to do we used to kind of really kind of push the envelope there long time ago on the Board of Trustees but we don't do that anymore okay uh Cindy uh you don't have any funding requests oh you're muted s you're muted I do not I asked the friends and they agreed to pay for the Magic Wings pass and the Botanical
Gardens at Tower Hill so I've mailed out those two applications for those two passes and our Museum passes are coming up for Renewal next month in February but I was going to ask the friends first if they would be willing to pay for those passes if not I potentially could have funding requests in the future okay so I kind of put that under new business every month and I guess what I'll do under new business is or I'll keep the 75th on
the agenda every month as well hopefully I remember to do that I wrote myself a note but that doesn't guarantee anything um okay uh Bob uh the show is now yours for the um multitude of of um updates we have okay I'll go as fast as I can um still have an internet problem so if I drop out bear with me um along the lines of forgetting things uh there's two things I left off the maintenance uh subcommittee um
items and I'm looking forward here and I can't find there we go um so the two things uh the floor in the Dole room I have not I've emailed I have not heard back from uh the company so I will reach back out to them again and then there was also um some work that uh I was doing Bob Smith and I and and uh Jim Ginger's husband
uh when we were down with Peter we asked about getting the building plans for the library digitized and so I'll add those to my Tickler file and make sure I follow up on those um the wooden bench is going to get refinished uh I'm going to take that up on Friday um we talked about the CPA funding request we talked about environmental testing um I'm going to jump ahead to the handicap bathroom door opener Keith is managing that he's going to take care
of it uh Cindy there should be very little that you have to do um I will ask Keith that he just give you a heads up when he knows that they're coming but they are going to install a push button handicap door opener on the handicap basement handicap bathroom in the basement um and then back to the big one the furnace um everybody can read through it uh we had an issue um the
best guess I have is it kicked on that one really cold night and it did not kick off so um Cindy I'm going to come in um when I have a minute the end of this week because we used some oil uh I think we used about a quarter of a tank that one night um when it was on because CU it was down which would make sense depending on the burn rate if it kicked on at about 11:00 mid midnight and it didn't get kicked off until you
know 8 9 10:00 the next morning um you know running for however many hours uh would use about a quarter of a tank so uh the other thing Cindy is I think we need to go through you and I had talked about trying to minimize the the use of the Mini Splits or the use of the Furnace so you bumped up the temperatures on the mini splits and if what we're hearing is the furnace is working then my vote is
to turn the Mini Splits back down and let the furnace take the load and we'll see we'll see what's happening and hopefully we we can knock down that $1,000 a month electric bill to something a little more reasonable I mean my electric bill went up I have a a new Mini Split in my house in it it went up U I don't think that electricity rates are
ever coming down again and it's because it's it's a kind of Monopoly but I won't even go there um that and cable television in my opinion there's a reason why the electric companies give you uh incentives and pay you to install Mini Splits yeah because what did what did you do with the did you adjust the temperatures for the Mini Splits could you explain a little more what what you do sure I asked I asked Cindy to
turn the mini split temperatures up so for example if the Mini Splits were set at 68 or 69 uh I in say they were set at 69 I instructed her to set them at 71 and the reason for that was to keep the building temperature up so the furnace wouldn't kick on when we were unsure of what was going on with the furnace after that initial episode uh the consensus was the less we
ask of the Furnace if there is a problem the better now that Cirus has come back and said seems to be running Keith has looked at it and says it it seems to be running then I think we ought to turn the temperatures on the mini splits back down and let the furnace take the load but do we need that temperature I mean is what what does the guidance say for temperatures you know we we talked about it before in the summer what's it
say in the winter we should be doing our guidance for temperature has been customers and well staff and customers to put it in that order um and so that's where we've left it and that's how I believe Cindy I don't want to speak for you but I believe that's how you've set the temperatures is based on your you and your staff's comfort level but also the Comfort level of the customers the patrons but
isn't there guidance of what ranges is acceptable for temperatures because I thought that came up for when we talking about a summer use for air conditioning is there one for winter uh I don't I'm not aware of one I believe the temperatures were set somewhere around like I said high 60s low 70s but well I would just like to know who could create such a
guide because the temperature in Buckland is 10 degrees colder than it is in Whitley sometimes and the temperature in Hartford is 10 degrees warmer than it is in weightly sometimes I don't know how in the world there could be a recommendation for what temperature I think that the going with the Patron's needs and the needs of our staff when we're open um is is is an important way to go when we're open yeah that's great but
when we're not open does the temperature change the many splits are not programmable and there's I reached out to uh Med Wellington Medford who took over for Rich strong and with the types of units we have there's no way we can get a programmable mini uh programmer with thermostat for the Mini Splits the thermostat when the new fous that was installed by the Cur technician he programmed
it so that it kicks on at 68 1 hour before we open and then when we close at 8 if say we close at 8 O we close at 8 o'clock tonight it's going to drop down to I believe about 58 and stay that temperature held at that temperature until 9 o'clock on Saturday morning when it will go back up to 68 so that the furnace can come on to
start to circulate to get the heat flowing through the building um along with the mini split so when we're not there the mini splits are still set at 72 until I go back in and floor them back down to 68 and no one touches the thermostat for the furnace because it's all programmed and that does fluctuate for a certain temperature when we're open and a different temperature when we're
closed okay well that's not good that goes goes back to I guess something I I've said uh months ago that we need to look at upgrading the mini splits that are uh more compatible with what we want and our ability to change automatically change temperatures and settings and all that uh remotely what what's now hardwire is is old
technology and they're what 10 15 years old that's something look at we have had those mini splits for eight for nine years the date on 2014 the date they were no they were not installed in 2014 they were installed throughout 2015 we started using them in 2016 okay but the the specifications for them go back to when they were made and what I'm saying say is the current specifications have a
different philosophy different different mechanisms of how they work there's inverter technology that came about in I don't know 2017 2018 that works differently and they're all remote not hardwired like for controls so well I think that the maintenance committee is going to need to put the heating system on its list of priorities
and uh right now we're we're focusing on the roof and we're focusing on getting the downstairs painted if we can um and after and we're also focusing on the um monies that we've applied for for the comprehensive analysis of um the library environment um and once we get past that I mean we just we have to put it on our list of priorities but we also have to figure out away how we're going to
pay for that does it qualify for anything does it qualify for a grant is the new grant writer capable of of um you know writing a grant for such a thing uh because that's not going to be an inexpensive proposition right okay I just ask I know we we're using electricity we're using oil and everything like that what we have Works to at least keep the building from freezing and keep our our employees and customers at a certain Comfort level and then we
just we can't do everything at once we can't fix this 75 year old building everything about it all at once we're making progress and it's going to take time and um we just need to elevate the heating system up the list of priorities a little bit I guess we also need to be mindful of our collection and what impacts having you know making sure that we are out of com a level so that if it gets too hot
in the library it's going to dry out the glue that holds the books together and then a patient will go to open a book and it's gonna fall apart because it's too dry so I think we're where the temperatures we're at now are comfortable I have had patients come in and say well it's really nice and warm in here it's comfortable my staff and I are comfortable when we work so as a of right now I think it's fine just in
general Cindy I I just Googled and found that uh the suggested temperature it's certainly not a law or a rule for a library in winter is between 68 and 70 for the health of the patrons and the health of the books which is what we've been sort of keeping it at right yeah yeah we were we were a little warmer recently in order to just take easy on the furnace I think we I think Cindy if you can back
that down to where it was before um that's that's my vote okay can I just kind of as a refresher for the for the trustees who's on the maintenance the main subcommittee that's what we call it who is on there now I it's you me and Larry Ashman I believe okay well we've changed trustees so we haven't we haven't updated the main committee so we
can we can do that uh I'd be happy to serve on the maintenance committee and if three of us I don't I can but if three of us meet then it's open meeting law requirements uh if if we have a a subcommittee per se if it's called a subcommittee per se uh and the subcommittee meets it has to uh record its its meeting which is what we did um during the summer two summers
ago two summo yeah right and we have not had a meeting we have not had a meeting since right right okay I'm just wondering who's on there in case I miss something or what but if anybody else wants to volunteer to be H it perfectly okay raise your hand all right well I have I have one more one more thing on the on the furnace um and that is the
alarm and the alarm in that room um is currently battery powered uh thank you for the for the note today Cindy it's currently battery powered it's required by our insurance company it is carbon monoxide and is it also a heat detector or is no it's carbon monoxide and smoke smoke yes just carbon monoxide and smoke so so what JP is asking for is a hardwired carbon
monoxide side and heat detector in there uh he did not specify what temperature heat detector um he asked me he he's I talked with him earlier today he got me this information I told him we would discuss it at tonight's meeting um and if it was decided that we would move forward on this at least looking at it um I would let him know what the um fire alarm company recommended for a
temperature for the heat detector the the biggest concern everybody has is false alarms um because if that alarm goes off everybody's going to be there the world's going to show up and they'll probably call for Mutual Aid would be my guess but you know if that fire alarm in that room goes off there that means so he's just wants to make sure we minimize false alarms so
see that that's getting into the one of the problems we had when we were looking at fire the the pool boxes for the rest of the library one in the front door which we did hard wire and the other one uh location in a DOA room or the back exit room and our the electrician that that did all the wiring work said he could do a hard wire in to The Duda room because there was enough
uh line hard line hiide or whatever me whatever the the term is for the wires to be hidden and and and routed to the control box for the fire alarm but he was not either capable or didn't want to touch the control box and said you'd have to go with the control box company to do that and his cost he says he could do it for for a certain price but by the time you got done the
control box company would do the whole thing for for less than doing it for two contractors so that's where we stood with that and I don't know now whether just putting a hardwire in the doter room is is all we need and I think the fire chief was there when we talked about it I remember him talking about it and I don't remember electrician was there or not or who else was there but there was other trustees there and I I was left the impression that you
could hardwire it for the dudle room and that would be an acceptable location so Fred Fred to follow up to follow up on the previous because I I wasn't part of I wasn't part of last month um when I talk to JP I will ask him about that question so I will I will carry that forward and see if hardwiring a pool station as you exit the DOA room through the the uh
storage if that is acceptable for him and then I can get numbers on hard wirring the pool station and then also hardwiring a uh carbon monoxide and then also a heat DET right so right yeah we should do both at once yeah you're right so so what I'm thinking if it's okay with everybody is um I'll just keep driving forward on this and I'll get numbers for next month's meeting
and then sound sounds good sounds good sounds good and then I'll just report back because we're according to my clock we're at 7:03 so I'm I'm trying to keep this as close to an hour as I can right and I really do want to hear the president's Farewell Address tonight too um okay so Bob I think we've covered about 19 different things there um any any questions for Bob on of those things thank you there's there's a lot of work
that goes on um that you don't know about and I do think I I I agree with your concern Fred um I agree with Bob um Cindy and I have talked about this it's an old system um what we are trying to do as or at least what I'm trying to do and organize from the maintenance standpoint is bring everybody in the town up to speed with the issues we're
having so that we don't have to carry replacement on our own and we're not upping our budget which then has the Cascade effect of us then needing to spend more money in order to qualify for state aid so my ultimate goal for this is um you know is the new grant writer in I have not had a chance to go to go introduce myself see what grants might be available see what opportunities might have available might be available
um but certainly let Peter and Keith know um we're going to need some financial help uh so the town is aware of this and whether it gets you know is it obviously not this fiscal year but next fiscal year or the following um and then the question is what you know how do we do this right what and and and I'll still put out there I know I'm probably going to lose this battle but
I'd love to find a local photovoltaic solar power company that would do solar power solar panels in that backyard that would feed our building and then do a whole thing of what it means to be a solar panel and what all of that involves from Silicon chips and how they're made because they're they're getting to be I mean there's not far away from us now where they're making silicon Wafers um it's happening over in New
York state you know talk about how transistors work everything within the solar panels the efficiency use it as an opportunity for education I know we're going to have an uphill battle with um the historical commission okay Bob we we did look at that one time at the at the Town Hall when we were remodeling that putting solar panels and yeah we had the same issue of the the site looking at
them there is is but I'm thinking on the library has a flat roof is there is there a way of putting solar panels that don't that aren't angled up at 45 degrees putting a lower lower degree so they would be hidden on the roof itself I don't know ultimately we want them facing south much possible and I don't know East yeah yeah we're so we
out in the field somewhere I but then we're getting there's a lot of questions this is just one of the one of the areas that I would love to see move forward if we do some type of pollinator field could we have some type of solar array out there um I don't know what happened with Steve Kai's property down there
on chestnut plane but I see he has that electrical he has the solar um flower that's still sitting down there I don't know if he ever got that thing hooked up yeah okay I don't know that's anyway suddenly I don't wantan to I don't want to drag this on but I I think there's interesting things at the library that that in the future um I just want to mention to people people uh I'm going to do everything I can for
the next couple of months um and I'll take care of all the maintenance stuff and I'll take care of all the financials I just don't have a lot of bandwidth for anything extra till after April May time frame okay I'm getting slammed okay so folks is there any anything else that we ought to uh discuss tonight I think that covers a pretty good meeting and we take a look
at the month of February uh for some reason on my calendar the the 12th of February is that a holiday it's Lincoln's birthday but I mean no they combined his and George Washington's birthdays together for President's Day okay yeah because weirdly on my calendar it's in bold numbers do do you want to shoot for the 12th of February sure okay all right so
we'll go for 2:12 6: p.m okay folks uh time for adjournment uh is there a motion to adjourn motion motion to adjourn and a second second and I guess we can do this by a claim if there's anybody who doesn't want to adjourn you're welcome to stay good night everyone for rning meeting thank you all