##VIDEO ID:esVLZqKQBCM## call the meeting to order at 6 PM um Bob I'm prepared to sort of uh put the agenda aside and allow you to introduce Evan and Evan can um speak first if if no one has an objection to me changing the order this is actually other under old business terrific um I went to I'm pulling it up right now um I went to the event on November 7 which was the kickoff event that Evan had uh for the future looks like weightly and it is I'll let Evan talk about it I'm not the expert um I thought it was fantastic I think the library has a role to play we've already discussed part of this but uh Evan said he might be able to make it so it's great that he can and I'm gonna stop talking and let him talk all right uh well thanks for adjusting the schedule um yeah so um the town of weightly received an MVP action Grant um there is a slight um typo on the poster that it said MVP 2.0 It's actually an action Grant which means that the grant is to build off of the previous MVP plan that weight Le did in 2021 with the furog essentially to identify um places in town where um pollinator habitat designs could be um created that would um address climate change impacts in the community and ALS sites or case study sites for private land owners and um you know businesses to hopefully be inspired by and consider adopting on their own properties so we have to pick three sites that are owned by the they cannot be private prop property and the library has repeatedly been mentioned and identified by different stakeholders as a high priority location so I guess um in the meeting itself there was a community mapping exercise we had about 10 participants in the meeting from the town including Town staff and citizens and I think there were three different groups each group picked the library the Town Administrator has also mentioned Sylvie also who is no longer with the town thebr and and site so I guess we're just trying to see what your what your interest is as trustees library and you know the idea that the library could be one of the site locations you would receive a free design and it would be basically be wrapped into the project as a as a case study site okay um is there anybody that wants to ask Evan any questions but I'd like to say it's wonderful yeah Evan can you tell us a little bit more um re receiving a design and then do we car it out or what what happens after that if that goes ahead yeah so the way that the the MVP program works is that there's type one and two and three projects so type three projects are projects where you get funding from the state to basically or install you know the designs but you need to do the design we've lost Evan feel badly when he's driving yeah you can hear me now um I can definitely log in from my computer in about five minutes um okay can you hear me now yes yes we can I don't know if you hear we can hear you can you hear us well he's gone so when as soon as he returns we can go right back so if I can if I can jump in if you if you look at that page that I submitted to everybody or I sent to Bob to send out to everybody um there's basic questions there for the library the questions are um let me get to him here and understand none of this the timeline is 2026 for final designs um the question is for us do we want to participate in the program um if yes how do we want plannings around the building um do we want to turn more of the east side of the property which is currently a Hayfield into a pollinator Meadow with a walking path that was one of the things that was put forward by Evan um do we want to do both so those are in a in a nutshell sorry I'm trying to get back to zoom here in a nutshell what do we want to do money for this would come from a followon grant after this grant is done so I personally I can't imagine we'd be doing anything until 2027 and I don't see any downside in being part of this I think it does a lot for the library right but but in answering George's question do we do we do this or does the town conduct the getting of the second Grant and all that the town the town conducts the getting of the second Grant okay and his comment if we wanted to do a meadow it's actually easier because then what you do is you'd mow the whole Meadow down you'd mow that hay field down and then you'd wheel Harrow it three or four times and then you'd plant the wild flowers and then you'd brush hog it and that's not it's it's actually not an expensive in this case the bigger you go the less expensive it gets because you have equipment that could do a lot of this and are there expenses beyond that I mean people who who I know have Meadows you know you sort of brush hog it every so often is that something that we would then take on over the next 10 20 years or how does that work or is that not been discussed and that's that hasn't that far out hasn't been discussed um I can't speak for everybody in town but I I know the town and I don't want to speak for the last person I want to speak for is uh um Keith Bardwell but I know they have a brush hog yeah and I know if a lot of people do um including me and so as long as I'm around I'd be happy to come down and do it yeah um but I I can't you know I'm not 100% sure what my future holds but it's a piece of equipment that it it we're not talking tens of thousands of dollars to have this thing brush hogged we're we're talking a couple hundred bucks to have somebody come and brush hog that whole meow well I I love the the notion of the it being a meadow with a walking path um who who currently Haze it and how will it will it affect that person that is Bob belder firm belder firm yeah okay um and Keith is already checked in with them um the current relationship and they're and when Keith checked in with them just to say hey this may be coming in a few years they said okay okay great it it's a currently it's a very symbiotic relationship um there is no contract there is no agreement between us and the farmer the farmer comes and cuts the hay and Haze it you know bailes it for themselves uh and takes it it helps us because if they wouldn't do that then Keith and DPW would be in there on a yearly basis mowing it anyway so it it kind of works for everybody okay are there any other questions we can uh um we can wait until Evan gets home and gets on his home computer and we can continue on with the agenda if that um meets with your approval okay and then we'll just we'll come back to this as soon as he gets home okay so we're looking at the minutes from October 23rd Cindy put a comma in put a comma in after the after the 23rd October 23 comma 2024 please thank you other comments George were you well under the library director report the fourth item that begins reached out and had there's a an extra in the second to last line there's a f that shouldn't be there DFO and just yeah and then a couple of items below that future looks like weightly Community input meeting I think it's great that the future looks like a weightly community input meeting but I'm not sure what that sentence meant is there a that was the name of the of the meeting my bad so that's there should be parentheses around future looks like weightly that's a great idea quot quotation marks I'm sorry yeah what did I say parentheses excuse me quotation marks yeah and both L's should be capitalized then if it's the title of the evening Cindy did you get that yes okie dokie anything else well new business on page two um this maybe P Nik but uh about seven lines down Cindy um maybe discussion of the maintenance discussion whether the maintenance amount requested would be enough might be a fic change so just take that out no just change the word if to WEA okay you know that's good and then just finally uh as long as we're on commas on the meeting adjourned on page three uh I'd love a comma after my name not that I don't wish to be paired up with Deborah even more closely but it be good to have the Cera too sorry George that's okay I didn't even catch that and a period after Deborah okay sorry everybody about that why we do this Evan has rejoined us yeah sorry guys I can wait you know as long as you guys need me to I'm okay well let's just uh uh finish with the with the minutes and and then we can get back to Evan so I get it I know what it's like yeah is there anything else that you'd like changed or uh omissions Corrections if not I'll accept a a motion to accept the minutes of October 23rd I motion to accept the minutes is there a second second okay so now we have a roll call vote Deborah yes accept uh Fred you're muted Bob yes George yes Fred okay yeah uh we can't hear you Fred oh okay you're you're you're it's again you gota you're gonna have to log out and log back in I'll vote Yes so we have a a four people um and we'll call Fred's an exstension okay uh and so the minutes are approved and we will now go back to Evan thank you Evan if I can just jump in real quick while you were transitioning um we discussed the options for the library do we just do plantings around the building do we do something in the field that runs from the East uh where it's currently hay do we do both um how is that paid for is that something that in the in one of the questions that came up was the initial implementation phase would come from a grant but what happens for brush hogging 10 years down the road if we did the field and sort of the consensus was that that would have to come from the town um but brush hogging is not at least in my feeling brush hogging is not a very expensive Endeavor yeah so um this project is a is a planning and design Grant so it will not cover the cost associated with any plants seeds or labor but we want the town to apply for that funding as a followup and that's simply the way that this program works is that you know for those of you that are familiar with the MVP program it's basically a you know it's like a threep process you do the planning Grant then that opens the town up to funding for the action Grant we received the action Grant we're doing it now the kickoff meeting was last week and then you can apply for a a what they would call a type three Grant like like an implementation Grant so I feel fully confident that you will get that funding because the T the the the state has already supported you now the second out of three times and I don't believe there's even a limit to how many times Town towns can apply for these projects so um like the town might decide in a couple of years that they want to do an MVP because a bridge gets washed out by a flood or a culvert a major Culvert needs to be brought up to standards so I mean it's just like continuous funding um for a number of reasons mostly because we need to build climate resiliency and the you know the governor has earmarked money for that so the way that this project is going to work is that there needs to be consensus from the community regarding the selection of the sites I cannot say yes we're definitely going to do the library I have to bring it forward in a follow-up public meeting which will occur in January but I feel strongly that it's definitely the best location because of all the reasons I already stated um so let's assume that the public agrees at our next meeting in January to move forward with the library as one of the three sites then I will step into the role of working with you or some of you to design something that works for you so we won't do what you don't want you know the design has to meet the goals of the library as an institution but um based on what I've observed it seems like certainly looking at that field as an opportunity for a meadow is good it's one of the only large public sites that's highly visible where a meadow would be feasible you know like our other sites are tiny sites and some of them are not even visible visible to the public they're like buried off of some road where people don't even go um we could also consider doing more garden-like plantings around the building and we could do one or the other or both it's really up to you so I would say the design will be what you guys want or what the library as a entity wants and that will be like sort of a follow-up conversation after we determine what our three sites are going to be um you're you're muted sorry about that if I can jump in having gone to the meeting one of the things that really was impressed by and liked with what Evan said was he will give plants he will give planting he will give Concepts to the town he'll make them public and I think if we as a library have plantings around the building that and in beds that people could then replicate on their own I think that helped the library become integral in the community somebody says I want to be more pollinator friendly how do I do this we're leading by example and we have documentation and we can say to them here is what we have done at the library and and obviously give Evan gr Evan props and the whole program and everything else but this is these are the plants these are where you can buy them these are or how you do this if you want to go crazy and do a Whole Meadow we've also done that and maybe crazy is the wrong way to describe it excuse me but I think it gives I think the more we're involved the more it gives a broader range of possibilities and perspectives to the entire Community that's a very good point I agree wholeheartedly okay so Evan do you do you need a vote from us or um I mean if you want to that would be great you know that way I won't have to come back to another meeting in the in the next two months but if I could step away from this meeting at least and say that the library I just want to know if the library is interested because like for example if if if you know if we had this meeting and for whatever reason there there wasn't the interest I would want to know that so that at the next community meeting in January when we present our sort of more developed recommendations for final approval um I would say let's pull the library out you know let's not consider it so if you do vote tonight and you say that you are in support then I can come forward at the next MVP meeting and say that that you are in support of this and that is really important okay it's not it's not needed but at some point I will need to know it could in the future so uh uh would somebody be willing to make a motion that the library uh is would definitely the trustees want to be involved in this project and use the um libraryies property um for design is that good enough Evan yeah yeah yeah I'll I'll put forward a motion that the library would like to be involved in this Grant um in all aspects of it in plantings around the buildings uh and also with regards to a bigger Meadow area on the east side um okay anything there we go second is there a second second George second okay is there a further discussion if not we'll proceed to a vote Deborah yes please Fred do hear me now yes I guess I'll abstain since I didn't hear the whole discussion and I'm not comfortable voting on something I'm not familiar with ginger yes I think it's great yes Bob George yes and I vote Yes there you have it thank you okay um one other thing is that um we did put in the grant proposal that we would do an event at the library in June during pollinator week I believe that Sylvie the former Community Development liaison reached out about that to maybe Cindy or someone and so that would have been me yeah if we could just so pollinator week is usually the second week of June I'm looking on the calendar now to see if they've announced the dates for the 2025 it looks like it's going to be June it might be June 23rd to the 29th oh oh wait no here I'm saying June 16th to the 22nd let me see um let's let's yeah that's there's there's definitely two different gosh somewhere here I'm seeing June 6 I don't know but it's okay the last full week in June 23rd through okay so let's say it's the 23rd to the 29th um we would just if that's okay with you we would do an event at the library I it would probably be something along the lines let me just pull up um I can I have a PowerPoint where I put this in it at the meeting I could just if you just wait a second um Wait no that's the PowerPoint well anyway it we didn't stipulate the activity in detail other than there would be some sort of craft activity for kids which we would lead and provide support for like we would provide the materials if you need them markers paper whatever we could create like pre preload the design of The Craft materials so that the kids just maybe cut them out or you know have a menu of options but essentially it would be a way to get a a wider group of people aware of the project because as you know nighttime Community meetings are limited in attendance it tends to be adults it tends to be a small subset of the population of the Town we're hoping that with a library event we can reach younger families and kids and maybe young adults so I would just like to mention that that I'm still hoping we can do that yes Evan whoever is in charge of coordinating that have them get in touch with me so we can start working out a plan please yeah so for now it'll be me but eventually the town is going to hire or they did hire a new um Community Development person to replace Sylvie and I believe they're starting in about three weeks so I'll I'll be working through them starting in December okay but yeah you can you can basically just pick a day you can pick a day in a time during that week if you want it to be like a midm morning or a weekend or afternoon and I'll just work around your schedule all right Evan I will look at my calendar when I'm back in the library and get in touch with you okay sounds great that's all I've got right now okay um I appreciate you guys taking the time I don't want to hold up your further you know needs to for the meeting so if you want I can go now okay thank you very much Evan for coming appreciate all right well it's nice meeting you all I'll talk to you later bye good night bye bye bye okay uh now we're on to uh financial report Bob uh Financial reports um so the municipal budget where did it go hold on there it is uh the municipal budget um I'm getting more comfortable with the numbers there's still a couple of questions um for example if you look at phone where did the 7235 that Dar had come from um that I have an answer to that okay excellent it was two bills added together there you go okay so that was probably July and September huh or some version you know that we didn't have a bill in July we didn't have a bill in September so it was some version of catchup yes okay okay if I may ask how did you find that did you just figure that out or yeah I remembered that Dar had asked me if there had been um there's some mix up with the Verizon invoices so she asked me if I had had one from I think it was July and I said yes but because of the way it had been sent I wasn't sure if I had submitted it in June or if it was due in July so that one got submitted along with the September one with the last bill schedule so when you add the two of those together that's the 73 or 74 yep with a with a rounding okay um and then the special re unless anybody has any questions with those um and that is just me taking the info from Dar uh the town accountant and transferring it onto the spreadsheet um moving over to the special Revenue accounts these are now updated as of the end of last year so they are updated as of um the end of June it's the faric is still misspelled at uh line 266 okay what should f a f a r r okay okay I will make that change thank you yeah I apologize Bob sorry about that no um just I don't want people to be angry no no no I I couldn't remember I thought I had made the change and I couldn't remember um okay so um I made a couple of changes to this where I moved things around just a little bit um I moved uh hold on hold on I'm getting confused on which one I'm looking at here let me just jump to if anybody has any questions um here we are November yeah I moved the Damon the non-expendable um 854 and [Music] 855 um from what I can tell and I still haven't met with Cindy on this so I apologize um the Damon and the K non-expendable those are solely able to be used for books but I don't quite understand what means because that money that for example the $10,000 spins off um last year it spun off the 3851 that went into 824 I don't know if people can see that if if everybody understands exactly what happens here but the 10 so for example in uh line 854 the account name is Damon it's a non-expendable account to be used for books and it has $10,000 in the account we can't my understanding is we can't touch that we can touch it when it goes into 824 up top which is an Expendable account and you can see that the $10,000 spun off $385 last year and that gets added to the 3418 to okay now does therefore does that Damon 824 have to be used for books that's what I'm in the process of trying to figure out I don't think so because it's never been listed as books only the non-expendable was listed but that's what I'm going to meet with Dara about as I try to understand exactly what all the accounts are and what they have to be because you see the the far um Lions Club summer reading Philip Kowski Annie Danforth J&J masasi Robinson en aain those all have to be used for books yep okay so trying to trying to understand better what everything is and what it all means Bob I I I know that trustees really appreciate um what you're doing and I know this is kind of challenging I'm sure because I I wonder um if if the original um grants themselves or whatever you want to call them if paperwork on them actually exists somewhere in that building I have been told that exists Dara found some I asked specifically about um for example when you look at the Dickinson Library non-expendable the $75,000 um cuz my concern there is that and this is what I don't understand for everybody um some of these accounts generate income and some of these accounts don't and I I I don't understand what generates income and what doesn't um that's one of the things that I'm going to be trying to understand with a combination of Dar and the um town clerk is understand what what these accounts are um what's happening to them I understand there are limits as far as how the money can be invested and I completely agree with that for example if you look at line 856 Dickinson Library that's a $75,000 account and if you go up that generated $271 8 cents last year um I haven't I need to sit down and run the numbers again but um it's not a lot of interest but at least we're getting money at least our money is making some money for us um the question is 27 $271 on 75 grand yeah that's what it says here I'll run them I'll run it real quick sounds like my bank yeah um wow 36 percent is what I get probably like stocks or bonds they made a um the mass changed can everybody hear me yes yes oh um I don't know how many years ago way back when when I was a trustee in my other small town um something happened and I'm sure it was over 20 years ago but some Library took a lot of their funds and said oh we're going to do the stock market and this guy thought he was going to make a lot of money and he lost all of the the money from the library wow so what the state came back and did was they said you can maybe buy some stocks and bonds but we're going to give you a list of safe ones that we know you won't be able to lose the money so it it was really extreme and I know that our library at the time had a a stock broker on our board and he was careful but he he knew how to to do the stock market so we made a lot of money for about 15 years before the law went into effect and then we had to go back and we ended up making about 3% he did a small amount in stock but you know very very stocks but we had we we did really well for about 15 years but there's not a big choice now on that because of the state well I mean which is I mean it should be you don't want to lose your money that was the indication from Dar she said you're you're very limited she had the fund manager and all the information that she had she had her fingers on in less than a minute and a half two minutes um yeah her office so my plan is to my my plan with this just to let everybody know is first off to understand what we have and to understand like 284 summer reading $843 um I don't want to piss anybody off who gave to Sumer I don't want to piss anybody off from the Lions Club but do we really need you know do we really need to keep those accounts is it possible to read through um some of these accounts and understand what gifts were given and can we combine so that there's less work for us less work for the town and and but I don't have any answers um I'm still very early on because everybody the town clerk is busy Dar is busy busy I'm busy so we're all trying to piece together a couple hours a week and just try to figure this out um as best we can so that's right now it's just understanding what the dollars are what we have where they are and where they are and then as we get a better understanding of of that uh what are the possibilities moving forward thanks Bob any other questions for Bob all right if not we move on to director's report Cindy director's report yes sorry I had to let Jack know it's my turn to talk so he need to use an inside voice sorry okay all right so lion club that funds those funds are given to buy to purchase audio books or CD books summer reading that funds would be to cover like materal or anything needed for the summer reading programs so those are those two yep and Cindy I will meet with you at some point I apologize it's just been a little crazy okay so I'm hoping everyone got draft number four of the Strategic plan that I sent out after we added in the new information um Ginger the Chromebook working out for you good well actually I all of a sudden my old iPad worked oh thank you my husband was setting up the other one and I was having a heart attack here but all of a sudden it came up all right so thank you very much though oh so Ginger is actually borrowing one of the Chromebooks that we purchased with our computer upgrade funds so that she could have video for tonight's meeting yeah and I was just curious how it was working so um I did for at last month's meeting it was mentioned that the SE South County seni Center had purchased some iPads so I did follow up with Jennifer they received a grant and purchased 47 iPads they raffled off 44 to members of the senior center and the three remaining are for them to use at or for the senior center to use at the senior center either for seniors to use or for staff to use why they're there um the conserve marching is going really well I'm really happy with the readings we've been getting um the humidity level downstairs is within normal range of where it's supposed to be um for humidity level so that's really good um then we also had a question about polish books and I'm really very proud of this because this is part of our library history those books were actually circulating through our library back in the 1950s in fact in 1951 119 of the 5,000 books in our collection that circulated were polish so this makes me very proud because this means that as a public library we were being inclusive to all residents of weightly even back then before inclusiveness became a buzzword for everyone to to focus on and two Janss from the storical society came over and helped translate the titles of the books for me so some of the PO books have a sticky note on the front card with what the English title of the book would be and I really enjoyed their coming over and helping with that because I got to talk with them and I learned a little bit about their family histories and I learned a little bit about polish history and polish last names and why some names would end have like maybe a German name and some would have a Russian name and why that I and the spellings and how that all came to be so I really enjoyed having them come over and do that I reach the FY 26 budget request I haven't changed anything on it yet because last month we just kind of started with a brief discussion of it and Steve came over and did a temporary fix on the handrail until such time as the he was hoping to have an actual rail piece to replace it with but it wasn't the right rail so he just did a temporary fix for now the bracket underneath the cross piece that would have been screwed that the railing would have been screwed to was missing so that's why it rotted the way it did because it was just resting on the metal so the bracket piece would have to be replaced when the whole rail would get replaced and then I've been asked by the mass Board of Library Commissioners to participate in their um diversity Equity inclusion audits around how do we make Library careers more inclusive and that's all that I have Mr chair until we get to new business questions on the report I'm sorry what does anybody have any questions on Cindy's report okay then we will move on to Old business and the first piece of old business is to um look at the final version of the Strategic plan and to vote on it tonight and I do have one question on that Bob when I inserted peoples do I put an apost after the s for peoples I'm not sure if I did or not on I think it's page five under the description of um [Music] freshwater it it wouldn't have an apostrophe it wouldn't no no okay it's a simple plural okay so uh anybody on the Strategic plan committee um wish to I think the best way to do this is to put a motion forward to accept it and then go to discussion afterwards that's technically the way we should do it so if we could have a motion to accept the new strategic plan in a second then we can have discussion is there such a motion I make the motion that we accept the plan okay is there a second plan is there a second I will second okay is there discussion okay I just want to thank the three of you for working so hard on it and uh thanks for the input from other members of the Board of Trustees I think it looks very good and um I think it's going to be a document that we can use um which is first and foremost when you're um when you're required to make documents if they're useful that's the best part so thank you all for your hard work any other comments s yeah any other comments or questions BR is is this going to be put on a town website or or how are people going to know about it or do do people in town need to know about it what's happening with it other than it's going to sit on a shelf and we're the trustees will use it but is anybody else going to see it Cindy where does it go all right so a copy a pdf version will be sent to Boston tvlc for their approval a hard cover a hard copy goes into a three- ring binder that we will keep at the library a pdf version goes onto our the library website under the town you are part of the town's Library uh town website where the previous strategic plan was there's still a tab that says strategic plan I just would have to upload this one into there so it will be on our website it'll be a heart a copy would be mvlc which I believe you can find on their website as well and we'll have a hard copy in the library office and Bob you also asked me to send a cop once the final one has been approved you also asked me to send a copy to each member of the board so you'd have one for your own records you can send probably to everybody electronically and then they can decide whether they want to print it out or or keep it in a in a file so that would be fine I'll send as a PDF so that there won't be any formatting issues okay okay any further discussion if not I'll call for a vote um Deborah yes accept the plan Fred yes Ginger yes George yes Bob yes and I vote Yes it's anony I mean unanimous okay um update on environmental testing I'm sorry no let me uh let me get I'm jumping around on six different screens here um okay so environmental um testing I called um I called the uh Atlas that was a name that was given to us by Alpine um I also called back to uh abide I called Atlas and they said oh everybody there will be multiple people who will reach out to you this is fantastic and I haven't heard from anybody no they have short arms that's why they're reaching out so slowly right um and so then uh at the same time I called out to I called aide which was the company that Keith recommended um they said we don't do any testing we just remediation uh they gave me some contacts but it's all going to be peac mail I've reached out um and I've heard anyway I'm just I'm slowly putting together a list of people who can do this yeah I'm I'm not sure if um when we met um with the guy from Alpine whether you were all aware of of that Ginger Ginger's husband um set us up with a um a representative from a company that specializes in remediating uh mold situations lead etc etc and so he came to the library and we and so did um Jim and we um discussed our issues and he gave us some recommendations to follow and Bob and I also met with um Pete and Keith at the Town Offices to discuss um what our steps should be and we all agreed that the first step is to um attempt to find a company that can test for the multiple things we want tested uh and then we need to define the scope of that testing and have them do it and then if there's a problem uh there but Pete is is is very certain that this would would fall under um a capital Improvement expense um so that's where we're going and it's just it it takes a while to get there so that's what we've been doing in the past month since the last meeting and Bob Bob is the telephone expert because I have watched him work with um when we were doing the lift um I would hate to negotiate with Bob I really would I'm I'm just trying I'm glad I'm glad he's doing it for us I I have to I I I have to admit I'm I'm struggling to find large the recommendation was was that we try to find large companies who understand all the regulations um National and state um who have the capacity to do this we it may end up costing the town a little more but in the long run it will be One-Stop shopping and I'm struggling to find those companies where we don't have to hono the whole thing ourself with six different Subs yeah that's that's where I am right now and I'm right going to reach back out to Atlas um if I don't hear from them by the end of this week so the bottom line that we made clear with Pete and Keith is that um we're done kicking the can down the road we want to move forward with an analysis of the building inside and out um and find out what we have so that no other Board of Trustees in the future ever has to worry about whether there's lead paint underneath the paint or whether there's lead paint on the outside or whether there's mold in the air or whatever um we want to be the the Board of Trustees that finally has the gets the answers so we're going to work to do this and do it correctly um as Bob suggested in the last couple of meetings we're not slow walking any of this we're trying to do it absolutely the best way possible so that we have finally ultimately the answers about our building so we're working on it folks any questions no just you're working so hard on it thank you yeah okay keep going okay all right so then we move on to the update on holiday season Gathering did you all get my um uh proposed invite I know there's a formatting error one line popped out too far to the left and I will fix that sorry about that but um is that an okay one for Cindy and I to start sending out yes I I had one thing Bob um and it there's the there a space between the second and third items 3 to four four to five five okay there's also a um a a a space between the word friends and the comma okay those were magic fingers magic fingers those were the two things I saw all right I will I will clean it up um I I'll address those issues right first thing and I'll clean it up do you you want it sent out plain like it is or do you want me to best of it up with a canva backdrop yeah I think that it's okay to do some canva work on it all right do you want me to send you some drafts before we send it out sure if the if the trustees trust me and you for with doing that okay yeah okay when do we want to send it out Bob yeah am my splitting hairs cordially invite you to a holiday Community celebration or should it be a community holiday celebration or am I splitting hairs I don't know I I think that's a very good point Bob and and where at me I would make that change and change it to a community holiday celebration because it is a holiday celebration probably be with the community you know so I think it would be better as community holiday celebration but okay I'll do that too I'll work on that tomorrow and or the next just a question on the order of things um three to four the conversation and recognition and then four to five light refreshment serve um I can't remember how it went last year but um will people be happy to be there for an hour I know PE people come late too without a drink in hand or cookie in it's a long time for people to talk amongst themselves without libation yeah we didn't we didn't stick to this agenda last year we we kind of didn't really do a presentation and just sort of dove into eating which people were per perfectly happy with so well it might it it might um you know a lot of parties would people would arrive and they would immediately be allowed to eat cookies and and and drink stuff and then maybe later the the wonderful weightly in hot ordures are there but then at some point after people have a glass in hand and a cookie in hand then welcome and remarks can be made okay sure it just might be a way to do it yep I can fix that too I I suggestion I don't exactly remember last year how we did this but uh maybe I don't know if your remarks or introductions or whatever you're going to do Bob uh whether we should highlight some of the improvements that the people there have helped us do during the year to make the building better or more useful I mean anywhere from the lighting to the front steps to whatever else uh we've done just to to tell people that we making improvements making it better for you and some of you have been here to to help us do that otherwise maybe some of the people that go there don't know what's different from last year what did you do last year that I'm not aware of okay but that but that doesn't get included on this sheet that we're gonna send out it doesn't on the sheet whether you or whoever's gonna be the uh moderator of of of the meeting do that or even hand out a quick one page thing here's stuff that we've been all actively working on Just for people to see there's another option if you wanted to hand something out okay okay so if I make these changes um and if there's anyone that you can think of that should get invited um Cindy is going to use last year's list of town um Representatives I would um I would think that we should invite Jim Ross and Larry um who have always been instrumental and um Cindy do we do we have the um the man who's in charge Roger um do we have his email the guy who's in charge of the transfer station because he he does things like painting for us no but I can stop over and hand deliver him an invitation I know he'd be happy to see me yep super that would be fine um and if there's anybody Deborah you already sent the list of of um with some suggestions to me um and and we can certainly follow through on those and send them out we're going to start sending them out I would assume next week um because the clock is ticking okay if you can next we if when this goes out if you can just make sure that we as trustees are included on the invite list and then for example I have a couple of people that I'll just take that and forward it to oh okay perfect all right so um you need to get me if you have any um people that you'd like me to um and Cindy to send these out to you get me those emails um as soon as possible that would be great and not just the name but if you could do the the leg work to look up the email for us um that would be super too um okay um Bob when when um uh do we want to decorate the tree we need to put the lights up uh you tell me um I'll I'll meet I'm happy to I'm around so let's get them let's get them going um I was it before you buy colored lights I was at Home Depot and I picked up some oh colored lights oh yeah you said you wanted colored lights so I picked some up well I I like the colored lights I mean my wife my wife and I always argue about what should be on the tree but it should be all white or should and I grew up with colored lights oh like what about all the lights that are down in the basement already we'll use it well we'll use we'll we'll decorate the hell out of the tree we we yeah we have some extra outdoor lights actually somebody gave us they're colored lights so okay well um Bob I think maybe um we're running out of time aren't we you and I can figure unless somebody else wants to be involved you and I can figure this out and I can read Ginger gy their lights and we'll we'll figure this out and a couple of Step ladders and we'll get this thing all decorated okay okay all right so very good you and I I'll talk and we'll get it get decorated and up and running is there anybody else that has a question or anything about the holiday um I I would you know I know and I have mentioned before about making a donation but I don't have a sense Bob Clinger how how I have to believe that what your um if it's fairly pricey the weightly in and we'd love to contribute yes um is there a can you give us a sense of of and I know Bob and maryi Ellen have done the desserts and if you can give us a sense of what you're all paying that would help us I'll I'll reach out I'll go back to Chip and ask him um and just get a number from him and then I will reach out to both you and George and just let you know Bob Bob Smith can you put in what you and Mary Ellen are also spending as well and sure but it's it's it's we got it we we we got it covered we got it covered okay yeah I'm happy to I'm happy to do this if we want the library to be integral in the town then I'm I'm happy to help make this part of the but we can keep talking yes I I I know I would like to also help in that way too uh okay okay you send that to all the trustees because we may also want to contribute even though we haven't spoken up yet so okay okay all right great um I put I put Painting projects update um everything's kind of on hold until exactly that's on hold until we get the environmental testing done yep so I just wanted to to to put a a sort of a punctuation mark on that um for us um and then Cindy uh the resent the proposed budget is there any other discussion that you I mean uh we still have have you heard yet when um you have to have that budget in Cindy no I have not and I just was hoping to be prepared even if it means we have a couple of discussions before Pete says oh by the way your budgets due your budget requests is due this day this time okay all right um so um we can we're gonna meet we're gonna meet in December yes as far as I know we are yeah okay and so maybe um if you you probably won't have to present it in December will you you it used to be February but then with everything that went on kind of got pushed to April so I'm thinking somewhere between February and April all right so we have time okay um I'll put that on the agenda again next month uh update on roof replacement project I have applied to the CPC for uh $9,800 we have a a bid from Florence Roff not a bid an an estimate for the work from Florence Roofing um for um I think it's $8,900 and I packed on 10% for a um contingency fund because as you know from our experiences in U municipal buildings something always goes wrong and that's not a lot of money um and I submitted it and uh Judy marklin has been in in touch with um me about it and we apparently have uh done a good job in in um uh being able to actually do the replacement uh according to the Department of interior standards and now just a matter of going on Monday Bob and I are meeting at 5:00 pm online with the um historical commission to get their uh impure on the project and then it will get sent to the CPC and it will be on the um annual town meeting I would assume um and that's that's about the size of where we are on on the roof roof replacement project any any questions for us I think the thing that we have going for us is that you can't see that roof you it's so historic building notwithstanding you can't see that roof even if you were the only way is if you had a drone um so it it it you certainly can't see it from the street and you can't even see it if you're standing next to the library um or in the parking lot so and I the the department of interior said that we have to replace it with this the same the same or a similar material well you know the material that's on there now is from the 19 who knows when and 20th Century technology for um flat roofs is a lot improved so I think we've got a good solution um plus I did some research on the the material that they're going to use and it's uh one of the greenest um uh materials for uh flat Roofing possible and can save as much as three three and a half% uh per anom on um heating costs for the for the part of the building that it covers so I think that's um we're being very responsible with with how we're approaching this any questions okay is there other old business I have a question under old business maintenance regarded back in September 2023 Rich Cooper sent out a an estimate for sealing the basement or the seller stairs is that something that the board is still looking into doing or is that sort of on hold for now because I still have the estimate hanging out in my office you want me to address that I'm happy sure so the basement stairs um when he did the front steps it would be a similar type application I think it would be great to do but I also think that building has a lot of other issues that needs to be addressed need to be addressed first um that the basement stairs can be addressed with a pressure washer and away we go I can file away that estimate for now that's what I would recommend yeah yeah I thought Larry Ashman came and did some that work he did he did he did that's why we don't have to worry about it right now and yeah no it was fantastic what Larry did um and he did it just for that reason because then I mean would it be great to do would it be helpful on 70y old concrete yeah um is it the utmost urgency no not in my opinion um another old agenda item uh excuse me the bench um I reached out to uh the Franklin County Tech School uh their wood shop as as a nope I think we lost Bob just stepped away it looks like while he's away Bob um I was very grateful for your um putting the uh maintenance committee updates all on one page very helpful I was just trying to to keep it as short and concise as possible and this is item number one right um I checked back with my contact there yesterday uh he said was kind of cryptic he said you should hear in a couple of days let me know if you don't but his his comment when I reached out to him was this is the kind of stuff that they look for um helping towns in Franklin County out um and so he thought this was right up their alley he thought this would be perfect um I haven't heard anything but I'm just going to keep proding so and then lastly the fire alarm pool station installation update uh they are coming this Friday uh I'm going to let the technician in I'm also going to make sure I reach out to JP beforehand thank you for this Cindy um reach out to JP because when they put it in test mode uh JP gets an alert J to viy as well I was gonna let JP handle that I was going to let him because isn't Jim isn't Jim James JP's second in command now he's the chief of police yeah oh okay okay so okay I'll reach out to both of them okay that's all I have all right and so now um on new business um Capital funding requests I we sort of um uh nowhere until we figure out um what we have what situation we have in terms of uh environment mental testing um funding requests Cindy do you have anything this month not really but um a few months ago the board did vote that we would get the um Magic Wings butterfly museum pass Bo and they are being challenging to work with they will not send me like an invoice that I can then submit to the town to get paid they want someone to physically go in with a check write out the check to them to get the pass and then somehow magically will get reimbursed with our Che from our check well do you want me to reach out to Sheila to see if the friends would be willing to write out a check and do it that way sure but do you know what she's gonna say I know but I will reach out and maybe if I explain the situation and say you know they're not going to do it the only way they're going to do it is they need check in hand in order for us to get the pass that maybe and and no no one's going to give you a town of weightly check in hand unless you have an invoice exactly and I certainly don't have an extra $140 laying around that I can use my own personal money okay all right so that was all I really have for funding request right now okay now um uh the next one was procedures for submitting agenda items I used to um sort of put out a just a blanked call if you have an agenda item something that you want to discuss I mean legitimately the um number six the number six is of our agenda is really for something that is is totally unexpected that needs immediate action um we've been kind of using it as a catchall for if we did we think of something at the meeting but if you have anything you want to submit um two weeks from the the so right in the middle between our two meetings the one we've had and the one we're going to have if you could just send that to me um I usually try to get um the agenda out way in advance so that people have plenty of time to take a look at it but if you have an agenda item just send it to me um and I can um I'd be happy to put it on the agenda under new business or wherever it it belongs but I would appreciate I think it's it's better that we don't get close to the end of the meeting and then uh dive into some piece of new business which is remarkably complex um at least we have time to think about it okay and then the last thing comes from me as the chair um all of us are part of a single operating unit which is the Board of Trustees and you have elected me to be chair which is the person who's the spokesperson for the group um we need to be careful about conducting Library business outside of the trustees knowing about the business that you intend to conduct um when we send Bob off on missions calling 15 different companies we've agreed that that's what he should do but for anybody to go to other boards in the town or other um entities in the town and off offer parts of the library or things in the library to them or conducts what seems to be some sort of transactional agreement with them um is totally wrong it needs to be always done in a public meeting and the chair needs to be aware of these things so that I don't run into someone on the street who says to me oh by the way soand so says you were going to do X Y and Z with these things and I go what I never heard of this um so if you don't want me to continue as chair because I'm uncomfortable with that particular scenario just let me know and I'd be happy to pass the Baton um to anybody else but I think that we need to be um Under the Tent working together and that's why I put that on there and I would really appreciate it um if if you just uh we talked about these things in open public meetings transparency is very very important and we're Bound by the law to do that okay thank you for your for doing that the one last item that doesn't appear there is the um we are approaching our 75th year of existence December 15 December 17th 1950 the library officially opened to the residents and patrons of weight Le so we technically have a whole year till we get to December 15th um for the actual 70th so so it doesn't hurt to start planning early I have found some really neat historical information about the library that we can update to use from the 50th um anniversary and I believe also from the 60th I think one of the first things we should discuss is swag what do we want to sell for swag do we want to have a conversation with the friends and say hey here's a great way for you to do a passive yet success uccessful fundraiser we're having a 75th Anniversary people patients are asking us about Library bags again for the 60th they did a 60th anniversary they had a really nice bag with a picture of the library on the front celebrating 60 years and the dates um is that something we want to start looking into and something that we could even start selling before December um I do H I do know what my first I do know exactly what I want my first event to be I'm just trying to figure out which day I want it to be okay um I think that we should really do it up because we missed our 70th because came in the middle came in the middle of of uh the covid express it did it really did so we we really kind of missed that and then you know Deborah maybe you or George or someone knows the answer to this I was looking up what you call a 75th anniversary of something well I thought it was Diamond Jubilee well it's not diamond is actually for the 60th and I thought I thought that when Queen Elizabeth celebrated her 75th year on the throne was the Diamond Jubilee I thought it was called The Diamond Jubilee so I did further research that says that sometimes it's used so I'm at a loss as to what we're going to call this so if you have any ideas um is this our Diamond Jubilee or not I don't know so I do not know but I will think about it yeah okay because I thought it was Diamond Jubilee and I looked at said no it's the 60th anniversary is the Diamond Jubilee and I said to myself I never heard of that I always thought it was 75th you know this paper is the first year and golden is platinum I don't know I think the 25th is aluminum I think that the 75th might indeed be platinum okay oh yeah Platinum yeah like a platinum car but I would just hate to like you know use that as a logo and then find out that we're etymologically incorrect you know so so board as a whole will work on this like we all work on this together as a whole board asbe maybe next year's holiday celebration we can wrap it into the holiday celebration maybe we could find out where the cake went from the 250th and just remove all the extra candles no no no we're not doing that it's just a thought the birthday cake yeah I'm I'm not sure I think that originated in Westfield went to then went to Hatfield then it went to weighty then it went to Deerfield then now it's in Northfield you go to Northfield yeah and I think Bern's gonna get it next see I think that's you know sort of exclusively for towns but um yeah okay um anyways uh we got a lot to do uh between now and our next meeting and everybody take a look at your calendar I don't know I want to kind of stay away from you know the holiday is the 11th of December Wednesday night um I could just do double duty for a little bit that night because weightly is part of the digital Equity plan for Cog is having a meeting around the digital Equity plan that starts at 5 and it goes to 6:30 but I'll just multitask and like have that meeting up and going and then come over here and start the library TR meeting and when that meeting's done I'll just okay so we're going to try to shoot for the 11th then okay and I'm going to be traveling but I will get the financials and I will will get um a maintenance committee update like I did this week if if I can't make it I can't make it but I'll try yeah and um uh I'm still waiting for my for the trustees we.org um that still hasn't still don't have that hello look Steve has joined us for our meeting hi Steve how are you good thank you for your work on the um railing appreciate that I paid him in a cheeseburger good okay well folks uh I guess we'll um need a motion to adjourn motion to is there a second a second and I don't think there's probably any reason to ask but all those in favor say I okay any opposed okay good night everyone thank you for again thank you good night I'm glad I made it yes good to see you bye thank you