Bryan-Bennett Library

Regular Board Meeting Minutes

August 18, 2020

Call to order

President Jane Gaston called the regular monthly board meeting to order at 6:32 PM with the following trustees present: Tom Champion, Ed Dolbeare, Jane Gaston, Joyce Raver and Gayla Wilkerson. Also in attendance were Library Director Kim Keller and Assistant Library Director Kim Baldridge. There were no visitors. Trustees Lynn Larimer, Jack McGuire and Ann Wilzbach were absent.

Secretary’s Report

The minutes of the July 21, 2020 meeting were approved as presented on a motion by Trustee Champion with a second by Trustee Raver. All present approved.

Treasurer’s Report

755. Payment of August 2020 bills-The bills for August 2020 totaling $20,755.67 were examined and approved on a motion by Trustee Wilkerson with a second by Trustee Champion. All present voted “yes” on roll call.
756. Financial Report for August 2020-The treasurer’s report for August 2020 was presented. A motion to approve the treasurer’s report as presented was made by Trustee Champion with a second by Trustee Dolbeare. All present voted “yes” on roll call.

Committee Reports

No committee reports at this time. Policy Committee Chairman Champion did request a copy of the Personnel Policy in order to review it and Policy Committee Member Wilkerson requested a copy of the By-laws for review. Director Keller will make these available to them.

New Business

1. Property Tax Request for taxes payable in 2021-A motion to approve the Request for Property Tax Levy as presented by Director Keller was made by Trustee Champion with a second by Trustee Wilkerson. All present voted “yes” on roll call.
2. Library Holiday 2021-A motion to approve the holidays listed below was made by Trustee Raver with a second by Trustee Champion. All present approved.
   • New Years Day, Friday, January 1
   • President’s Day, Monday, February 15
   • Good Friday, Friday, April 2
   • Memorial Day, Monday, May 31
   • Independence Holiday, Saturday, July 3
   • Labor Day, Monday, September 6
   • Veterans’ Day, Thursday, November 11
   • Thanksgiving Holiday, Thursday, November 25 and Friday, November 26
   • Christmas Holiday, Friday, December 24; Saturday, December 25; and Monday, December 27
   • The library will close early on the day before Thanksgiving, Wednesday, November 24, at 5 PM.

Unfinished Business

1. Change in Assistant Director’s raise-Personnel Chairwoman Raver explained that the Assistant Director’s raise voted on last month was incorrect. It was given at the salaried employee rate and the assistant director is not salaried. It should have been the same amount as the other long-term part-time employee. A motion to correct this oversite was made by Trustee Champion with a second by Trustee Wilkerson. All present voted “yes” on roll call.
2. Proposed Fiscal Year 2021 Budget-A motion to approve the proposed the Fiscal Year 2021 budget as presented by Director Keller was made by Trustee Wilkerson with a second by Trustee Champion. All present voted “yes” on roll call.

Director’s Report

Superior Fire Protection serviced the fire extinguishers and will be replacing several emergency lights that have burned out. They also quoted a price to test the fire alarm panel and signals. Trustee Raver will check with Security Alarm and get a quote from them on testing the fire alarm panel and signals.

DAR has requested to use the gym and boardroom for an event in February. They were told they may have the rooms but pandemic concerns may cancel it out. They will sign a rental agreement. Director Keller requested that the board give her guidance on the waiving of the rental fee. After a brief discussion, she was told that the usual rental fee applies.

Some of the deleted books were donated to a local teacher for the upcoming school year.

The Summer Reading Program has 52 children’s entries, 22 adult entries, and 9 non-resident card entries in the drawing. Gift cards were given as prizes sponsored by Friends of the Bryan-Bennett Library, Salem IGA, and Wal-Mart.

Program Director Shanafelt has been holding a virtual county fair for the Friday story times. Last Friday’s episode reached nearly 400 users and featured Margaret Carr, Jennifer Dice and Jennifer’s children showing some of their hobbies and collections. Other virtual county fair episodes are being planned.

Former State Representative Cavaletto did a story time on Abraham Lincoln. It had 883 views. The United Medical Response ambulance story time tour of an ambulance reached 466 views.

Director Keller and Program Director Shanafelt along with Marion County Genealogical and Historical Society President Wyatt Colclasure are on the planning committee for the Voices and Votes exhibition that will arrive at BBL on September 11, 2021. Program Director Shanafelt has secured a donation of services from Ed Lewis Trucking Company to transport the exhibit to BBL. This donation is approximately $40,000.00 worth of services.

Programs in the planning stages (pandemic permitting) are: “A Look at Your Eyes” with Salem Eye Clinic doctors providing information about eye health is being planned for September 26 at 10-11 A.M., a display to be put up for V-J Day in September and a display that went up today in celebration of the anniversary of women’s suffrage.

Following up on an inquiry from the last board meeting, Bob Kane of Kane Insurance said that he checked with 2 underwriters for the City. There is coverage in the event that the City and/or the Library were to be involved in a suit regarding COVID-19 and the use of the Library meeting rooms. He stated that any guidelines established by the Governor’s orders must be followed, such as social distancing and percentage of room occupancy.

Director Keller will look into the process of issuing Electronic Library Cards. These cards would differ from a regular library card in that the patron would only have access to electronic resources. These could be issued to children who for whatever reason do not have a regular library card.

BBL has been keeping the rest room doors locked since re-opening for better control on the cleaning of the rooms after each use due to the pandemic. Many libraries have closed their rest rooms completely to the public. A patron casually mentioned to the circulation clerks last week that we were “not allowed by changes in law passed this year” to keep the doors locked. Director Keller can find no “law” that prohibits this, but she will check with the Health Department about this subject.

The City is putting together a reimbursement grant packet for COVID-19 supplies. They will include the Library receipts in this.

Director Keller has filed the proper forms for the E-Rate Funding Year 2020.

Director Keller has filed the reimbursement form for the E-Rate Year 2019 and has been in touch with Wabash regarding that form. This grant should be for $537.60.

Grants that Director Keller will be working on include: Personal Protective Equipment CARES act grant through the State Library, Digital Network Access for Illinois Libraries grant, and Back to Books Grant.

BBL has 733 active library cards with 102 of these cards classified as non-resident. Books, movies and other materials have been checked out to patrons 5,296 times from June 1 to August 1. BBL has loaned items to other libraries 4,339 times since the start of the fiscal year (May 1).

A few patrons are claiming they did not know the library was reopened. Library fees were waived in June through the June board meeting. Director Keller inquired if the board would like to continue to waive fees. After a brief discussion, the board decided not to waive fees. They felt that ample notice was given through several forms of media before and shortly after re-opening and the excuses about not “doing” those various forms of media were not a valid excuse.

Director Keller will take some vacation days at the end of August.

Board Members’ Reports

President Gaston inquired if more than one craft package per take-out story time kit be possible. She had talked to a mother of 3, who stated that one craft kit was causing problems as only one child could do the craft. Director Keller said she will talk with Program Director Shanafelt to make additional craft packages available for patrons who have more than one child, but the patron would have to request these upon check out.

Trustee Raver suggested that the computers be opened up to the public again. After a brief discussion, the board decided to open the computer for public use for the purposes of printing out necessary information but follow all the COVID-19 precautions and strict time limits.

Trustee Dolbeare would like some more stats on how many times items were checked out last year compared to this year. Director Keller will make this information available at the next meeting.

Adjournment

A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Trustee Champion with a second by Trustee Dolbeare. All present agreed. The meeting adjourned at 7:56 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Kim Baldridge                                                                                                                                                             BBL Assistant Directory