##VIDEO ID:daJkJ81ORpw## e e e yeah yeah I got see if can we're good okay good grand daughter good evening and welcome to the September 10th uh Library board meeting um let the minutes reflect that it is 7:02 p.m. please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge ALG to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all as required by the the open public meetings Act of 1975 adequate notice of this scheduled meeting has been provided to the public by notices given to the home News Tribune Star Ledger and Sentinel posted on the library bulletin boards and website and given to the township clerk's office roll call please miss me here miss O'Neal present Miss prous excuse absence Miss Pam here Mr Patel excused absence miss Larry here Mr Romano here Mr D Pasqual here and Miss Massi [Music] here all right so we have a quorum we're all set um hopefully everyone has had an opportunity to review the minutes from August 13 2024 do we have a motion to approve motion thank you do we have a second second are there any questions or comments regarding the minutes all right hearing done and they are approved by unanimous consent um and in terms of my report I'm just really really happy to uh let everybody know if you haven't heard already that the asbest remediation at Maine was done in a very timely fashion as promised and they are back uh with Recon with the construction project now uh I really would like to thank the staff um for all of their uh all of their help in getting this done were really very uh very flexible uh and they really had a very positive attitude so thank you uh to all the staff the space looks great I did see it um and I think they'll be off to a to a quick start now that uh August 19th courtesy review of uh with the planning board that we had for the North Branch uh construction project unfortunately did not take place because the planning board did not have a Quorum uh it has been rescheduled for this Monday uh September 16th and we have been told that we'll be first on the agenda so I do hope that um trustees if you're able to attend that you will attend uh I attended the Edison uh friends of the library meeting uh along with Allen on um September 4th and they voted to donate $500 to the to a th000 books before for kindergarten program which is really pretty neat it seems like a lot of books but if you start early and if you read a book every day you'll you'll get there um I'd like to thank the friends for supporting Literacy for our young community members and some of the friends um events upcoming events they will be along with the um Library will be attending the fall family spectacular Street Fair on September 28th and that's from 1:00 to 9900 p.m. on Amboy Avenue and I just want to make sure that you realize that the national friends um National friends of libraries week is going to be held uh October 20th to the 26th and the Edison friends uh book in Bak sale will be taking place on at the end of that week uh so September is Library card sign up month so if you don't have a library card I certainly encourage you to go out and get one go to the library and get one or I believe the schools uh have made it a little bit easier with their website that students can get library cards as well um and that is my report so let's move on to financial reports hopefully everyone had an opportunity to review the financial reports rep s are there any questions just about the report all right hearing none let's go to the bill list do we have a motion to approve the bill list dated September 10th 2024 so moved do we have a second second all right do we have any questions or comments about the bill list pretty straightforward so all right hearing none could we have a roll call vote please sorry there was nothing unusual on the bill last night to apologize well oh please you know I would have found it you would have right uh miss me yes Miss O'Neal yes Miss Krauss is excuse Miss Pam yesel is Excuse miss liry yes Mr Romano yes Mr D Pasqual yes uh Miss Massie yes motion carries thank you all right and now we're we're up to the director's report and assistant director's report um I will keep it uh brief uh since Miss Massie did mention some of the highlights of this past month already um I also want to start by uh thanking uh the staff they've been uh very helpful in these moves back and forth and uh working under um more than ideal conditions uh and I do want to single out our um uh it Department Kevin and pretty who without we would not have had our computers uh at the different branches uh as well as our buildings and ground staff um who basically did the schlepping of the stuff back and forth back and forth uh multiple times so I think um we want to and I did um uh say have a meeting today with buildings and grounds and thank them uh personally for the for the hard work that they've been doing um Miss Mass he already mentioned the the friends of the library um and the North Edison Branch the main library um uh nothing new uh really at this point uh with Clara Barton uh the bookmobile is on the road um we uh did attend Saturday the pride festival with the bookmobile we had a a great time and I want to thank Edison for providing us with Edison fried shirts which we wore very proudly thank you very much we thank uh everyone for helping us do that um the uh main library remediation uh was done uh in the time allotted um the logo rebranding project uh is on going uh we only had um one staff change this past month uh Emily uh L Monica um resigned from our library um uh children's librarian and so we will be U posting that uh position shortly and Miss Massie already mentioned that uh September is National Library card sign up month um so that basically uh are the Highlight short and sweet um I I have one question I have one question Alan um is the bookmobile going to be at the Italian Festival this weekend um we I don't think so um because of Staffing we did the did last weekend and they work on a rotating basis so what we're trying to do now is to come up with a list of what the potential weekends are so we know farther in advance so the staff can schedule so we know we're doing full Festival we just did the pride um we're going to go back to doing the um uh Farmers Market um so we really um uh with one kind of with basically two full-time people and two part-time people that we pull from the branches um we we want to work a little uh closer with W so we can get like a list six months in advance and stuff so it's it's getting better so we're missing the Italian Festival but we'll be there at the PO Festival um so this is something now that we'll have on next year's radar so that we can have all of these things and uh cat's been very helpful and so is p foil and and helping us be haison uh to the rec department and the other departments and mintion that have been doing this so um we want to thank them as well Alan I just wanted to point out that on Wednesday September 25th the jazz festival the middle sex jazz festival is coming is going to be at papani Park and that's from 5:45 to 8:30 or something like that I don't know if that's something an opportunity that you might be able to want to use the bookmobile for but it is that is definitely happening Wednesday the 25th well the bookmobile would have a schedule stop on Wednesday night but if I can pull the other two staff uh in the Sprinter van then they can do the Sprinter van um and do the festival so I'll I'll talk to them about that if any and just I'll talk to you offline who we have to talk to to make sure they know we're coming okay so you know our goal is to be everywhere we're asked basically you ask us we're gonna we'll try our best to be there yeah that's excellent thank you Deborah did you want to add anything to your report well everywhere that wreck is and maybe some more places um um no just that we have some new part- Tim coming in Deborah the sound is not working it's it's very strange oh never mind just hold on a second sound like bu bu I don't think we've ever quite heard anything like this in his yeah almost like a chipmunk right Alvin and a chipmunk uh we'll see yeah your report was very extensive so thank you I don't have anything else to add no okay um where are we with logo and Rebrand project I'm sorry the number eight logo and rebranding did we have any progress on that we discuss people next me thank you any other questions all right well thank you Deborah for making an attempt to give a report um but that quite was that was amazing um in terms of our committees uh we have not had we have only had a Personnel committee meeting um Sue do you want to mention that the one that we had on the 28th yeah we just we just met to go um strategize you know amongst ourselves about the contract Union negotiations we went over some changes that were proposed we went over some things that we accept or don't accept and the usual kind of things without getting into it too much so we're moving along we just need to get a few more dates we were hoping to have it done by the end of the year but we'll have to see at this point right yes thank you thank you and I would say Miss Massie usually in October um we get the information from the State library on next year's budget so I would probably say in October and November we'll be meeting with the finance committee at least once if not twice uh for a proposed budget for 2025 uh in the next two months excellent thank you okay the only thing that remains on our um unfinished business is the shared services agreement um and I don't know whether we should I I don't know I don't think we have anything to report on that at this time from my end no no maybe we should ask one more time uh maybe get in touch and see if we can get some real numbers regarding Insurance costs this has been going on and where are why we are not getting any response or we just needed numbers of the insurance what are we looking for exactly for the Shar Services well I mean the issue we currently have with insurance is that we get U one figure one lumpsum figure that we're given so if tomorrow half my staff retired or resign um we're still paying exactly the same so it isn't per se per cost and it isn't adjusted Up and Down based on the number of Staff we have at this point so I mean that that's a floor the formulas and we're still not 100% sure about we did get some uh clarification about building Insurance um but we're not even sure what other kinds of insurances we have per se and how they're covered so um it would be great to to get that clarified as part of a shared services agreement um so that we would we would have some clarity if uh we we decide to go any direction thank you any other questions uh ma'am yes I promise to behave I sits next to you I'm the only one uh in the shared services agreement if uh someone retires do they have their own policy or is it going under a blanket policy so if there's people in the town uh that work for the township that when they retire they retire and they have their own retirement package the what I'm asking is do you have that type of policy for each individual associate or is it a giant policy that covers all of our Associates it's a it's a giant policy the the township self-insured so it's a giant policy and if when we ever a retire it just goes into that pool as part of that um um policy that that um it's been a long day um the um not shared services the um self-insured it's a self-insured um so there it's not like um perhaps what the Board of Ed has it just goes into the self-insured that person gets changed from the current and gets moved to the retirees and they get all the same benefits that they had when they were employees at this point um that is something that the board has been uh with Personnel committee um has been looking at um uh how we move with that uh further because it's not sustainable the associates uh will they be notified upon any changes to the uh Insurance such as uh benefits benefits uh are they do they have benefits for Life uh there benefits after 25 years it benefits after 30 years uh how was that broken up as far as I know our staff needs to be here needs to have the 25 years um and then they the way the current contracts are written um they basically get the same health insurance that the township does um those are written in our Union contracts so um that's something the board is currently looking at um so if someone has um husband and wife now when they retire they get the h hband and wife if they were single when they worked for the library they get single when they retire and and they get the exact same policy if there's a husband and wife and they have uh co- Insurance in other words the wife has insurance and the husband has Insurance uh is there a benefit to stay with ours or to split it we we actually don't get involved with that it's all done by the township H Char F all we do is say someone's retired and that's it so we we don't manage that we are using the health insurance from the town as if it is a service if if you understand what I'm saying so there I I I I understand all I'm saying is is that if we're paying for uh we're paying for two people as an example uh and one of the persons has insurance through another carrier or through another employer how do we how do we uh how do we navigate that actually you know um Joe if you don't mind um the way it usually works is would depend on whether you know say the husband worked for it like you said for the township and the wife works somewhere else um if would depend on whether the husband chose to put his wife on his on the insurance policy if he was on had her on the insurance policy as a husband and wife team that would continue whether she has her own insurance or not you don't know if that was going to continue after she retired too so that's actually would be their choice if they wanted to pay more as a husband and wife going on the policy and not just a husband okay no I'm just that's usually how it works okay just checking up I was good thank you any other questions or comments all right I don't believe we have any new business we will just happy fall yes just happy fall the summer ended even though I wouldn't put out put away my summer decorations it came fall came anyway so I guess I maybe not yet uh let's move to public comment yes please good evening everyone my name is Sarah Nasser and I'm here as the president of the friends of the Edison Public Library um first there's 11 more days of summer left I'm going to you know establish off right but my pool closed I'm going to hold on to it for J life I I really enjoy that um there are a few things that I did want to say thank you to for um Miss Massie to go over as well so I'm going to reiterate a few of those things but also call out some some new things um first we now have a full board um so I'm very grateful for the folks that have volunteered um we have saata parashta uh Phyllis Walsh uh Kisha baller and Jean Martin who are going to be the vice chairs um and we are splitting ourselves into having different kinds of or um different kinds of committees so that we make this organization a lot more substantial to to support the Edison Library um one of the things that Miss Massie called out is that we are doing our first uh give back to Edison and that is going to be the Thousand books uh till kindergarten and I'm looking forward to working with Allan and Deborah I don't know if she's still there uh to put this into effect this year and see how many you know little kids that we can uh support with uh with all these books that we're coming through there so the there's quite a few different events that are coming up um with the fall spectacular that's going to be on September 28th we will be there with Allan um so if you have any questions for the friends just come out and uh say hello we'll be there I think it's Alan I think it's the same table the next table that's next to you all right so if you find him you'll find us um the other portion is that the week of October 20th through October 26th is National friends week um and we're trying to do kind of like a first birthday for the friends I know it's been a little over a year now but I think the the fact that we are finally kind of substantiated it makes sense to kind of Kick this off um as a as a first birthday so more news to come but it'll be that week in October 20th um and as Miss Massie had also noted there's a bake sale and a book sale that's happening so Friday the 25th Saturday the 26th of October is when that's going to be but we're actually doing a special Thursday October 24th like a pre-sale for any of the folks that are just friends um so if you like to get your pick of the books from the book sale come out and uh join us on Thursday when can you drop the books off the 29th of September to October 5th and it can be dropped off at any of the libraries we will take any type of book as long as it's in good condition we will not be taking audiob books and we will not be taking DVDs um okay I've got plenty I just got to get them together and put them in a suitcase I can't carry them I don't know if he's going to accept the suitcase we might just oh no I want the suitcase back I'm just bringing the books um but like I said we're we're it's a lot of Engagement that's coming up a lot of these events that are happening um we're getting the word out our goal was 150 members by the end of the year we are at 120 right now um so hoping with the spectacular and um with the book sale and the big sale coming up we'll get to our 150 so I'm really excited I mean the fact that we started as you know kind of a a protest group last year and now we've formed into this give back to Edison Group and I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do here so thank you for all of your support um especially Miss Massi attending all of our meetings and and giving all the feedback that you do we truly appreciate the support that's happening thank you thank you for all you're doing all the time that you're putting into it um and we really appreciate that now you have a a full group leadership group that's great all right well thank you for the time and again looking forward to hopefully seeing all of you guys at the book sale and the Bak sale um we always have really good baked goods so come out for the goods that's true's the book sale where is the oh sorry North Branch it will be on October 25th and October 26th at the North Branch uh starting at 10: a.m. all right thank you for the time all right thank you y all right all right we don't have any other members of the public so that portion is closed uh I think we have not I'm looking to see ah here we go okay here we go we don't need a Clos portion I have to go around the other side um I knew that we had this on the on the um on the agenda yeah it seems to be easier to add it so that we don't forget um but do you have any um announcements that you would like to make as Council the aison just that uh the current issues that came up in yesterday's combined meeting which was a long one were first of all first and foremost and this is this is very controversial the ordinance to move the speaking public speaking time down from six minutes to four minutes I am vehemently against this I think it's a kind of a a half-baked idea it came up two years ago it didn't pass and yet here it is again so um that is going to be on the agenda for Wednesday the 25th I'm I'm sure we're going to get a lot of public comment about that uh the other item is the ordinance of of the changing the ordinance about Amboy Avenue with the stories and so the ordinance is for 3.5 stories and there are various uh uh permutations of whether it's for Combined space whether it's retail whether it's um whether it's residential and uh but 3.5 stories that 0.5 story could be used I suppose as a deck it could be you but not that would not involve any more tenants there uh it could be used as a restaurant uh that would involve people it would involve traffic and so the infrastructure remains to be the problem it Remains the traffic on Amboy and the parking which is as we all know for CLA Barton is a real real problem but that's on the agenda also and that would be it thank you thank you thank you is there a height to the half story there there is and I think it goes some I think are 35 feet and some are not sure if it's width or height no uh 35 or 40 and again it depends on the kind of structure that's going to be there uh that that that's something that I would urge you to look at the minutes to uh to assertain that information right thank you sure um cat do you have any please uh first I just want to say thank you to the library for coming out to Pride thank you for you know coming out to our events it means a lot to us you know we'd like to have this Library presence you know I'm hoping you guys are coming back to the farmers market soon awesome so you know that that's just been really great and I love to see that engagement and connection um we can also get you the list of events for the year so you can plan in advance I can send that over to you um we have a number of other events coming up one will will be um tomorrow we have our annual 911 ceremony in papani park by the 911 memorial fountain at 6 PM Italian Festival is this Saturday fall family festival September 28th and we have a number of different health events coming up actually so we have a just list them off really quickly but reach out to our health department if you want specifics we have a blood drive we have a health fair we have uh walk the beat is an event for people to kind of meet community members staff who work in town hall um and just kind of socialize with others the black poster project which is to remember those who have lost their lives from mental illness and uh substance use uh we have a flu shot clinic coming up and uh there's some events over at the Edison Tower coming up as well for you know the Halloween time and all that so we have a lot coming up and I hope again the library can come out to as much as they possibly can and you know again thank you for your support yeah no thank you I've attended some of the some of the events and and and they've been quite entertaining uh especially the one that I went to what was it the the bands um with two little grandchildren that was that was very very interesting um Mr Romano do you have any anything that you would like to sh yes uh the uh the Edison Board of education's proud to start uh a prek uh system uh it will be uh it's actually up and running now we have a couple hiccups in it but I'm quite sure uh it's going to work out just fine it's being operated uh by the Board of Ed and the assistant superintendent of special services Mr Tom Tui uh he's in charge uh if there's anyone that needs any information uh the website is up and Mr tu's email is there uh number two uh our projects at Herbert Hoover Thomas Jefferson John Adams uh wer Wilson are ongoing uh Hoover is actually almost done we have a ribbon cutting I believe in two weeks uh we have projects that are on the drawing board uh for John Marshall and for jmi uh James Madison intermediate uh the uh issues we have uh some some concerns we have H we have continue doing all of the projects there's one little project over at John Adams that we're working on right now uh something with concrete like that's all I can say right now but everything else is on ongoing uh we we continued and uh we've opened up something called The Edison uh Success Academy and that is where any student that would normally be sent out of District uh for additional training additional education uh we opened up the facility across the street from the middle uh from Meno Park uh we're going to realize $1.8 million in the budget uh from the money that we're going to save instead of sending these students out we'll be saving that 1.8 million uh there's plan on making that facility bigger uh in the process we're hoping that we make it big enough that we can bring other students in from other districts and continue to bring money back into the district once again that's all done by grants it wasn't taken out of the it wasn't taken out of our our budget it it's a grant uh our school system is up and running uh I wanted to just acknowledge the Edison Edison High School eagles they won uh I'd like to acknowledge the Edison Hawks uh the football team hadn't won a game in 41 years uh 41 Seasons they were in a dry spell they won the other night uh thank thank them they did a great job uh and the Edison Jets that's the peee leaks uh their uh their fields are being renovated and they're using the school at Edison High uh they had a great time a great turnout uh they'll be there next Sunday then a Sunday off at a different at different facility but then the next three weeks they'll be there so if you want to see some good kids some really young kids playing football and uh anxious to learn that's what the education system is for so it's completely volunteer uh please come out and have fun thank you oh that's excellent thank you yeah I do like having this on the agenda I think this is very helpful and Mr Romano I do want to congratulate the the Board of Ed um for the wonderful new website that's up and running because I've made use of it already um it's it's really beautiful um so um Heather um Daniels and the team of communications did a really wonderful job they're working hard yeah no it does look good it does look good thank you very much I'll let them all know yeah no it does looks very very good um do we have any other announcements at all yes the next meeting date is Thursday keep that in mind October 17th here in council chambers at 7 o'clock do we have a motion to adjourn motion all right do we have a second second all right all those in favor I all right the meeting is adjourned at 7:37 I think so about the Jazz e e e e