##VIDEO ID:9LAOjINuFgs## great motion and a second all those in favor and so I guess um we have no let me back up just a sec because technology um we have no one taking the minutes tonight would you tell me first and second and then it was the unanimous vote I think yeah I Mo NC second okay and thank you very um okay great so we'll go right to there sour we want to approve the payment of bills uh that isn't that included in approving the consent depends on if you did agenda agenda okay right okay do we have a motion to approve the payment of bills so moved second oh third great covered all those in favor those bills great thank you and now we can talk about oh no no no libraries Library director report then we then we do all business I want to put it right there but okay I don't know you're you're you're the boss so we we'll go wherever you want to go abely I'm in sure right what he said we're gonna put it after the reports super yeah so I have a few items for us tonight the first is that I received information from um kin vanbeck I don't know if you know this Kim Dunmore is um married and is now vanbeck and she let us know that the insurance rates for the new year decreased about 4% for singles and 2.4% for families um open enrollment ends November 15th so it would be after that date that we would hear anything from them about how it would affect our budget that's awesome health insurance okay Library friends of Cook County uh provided us a grant award in the amount of 4,400 $ for 202's winter reading program and our four holiday celebrations which are juneth Pride um indigenous people's day and Earth Day wonder they also provided us a commitment to sponsor our summer reading program which is $2,500 in general and so that is accounting for 57% of the budget that we're intending to spend for next year that's wonderful wow great Superior Cleaning came in and finished cleaning the library upholstery these chairs with the light green uh seats they kind of came out worse for wear and I'm we might look at getting those reupholstered but uh or replaced but the rest of them did really well including some of our furniture that had um cleaning scrub in it and made white swirls on the on the fabric they those didn't seem to come clean so that was exciting oh that's great yeah um just one brief comment about the rolling chairs with seats could be reupholstered y i just and and this may be obvious but I'd like to say it I just like to um make sure that the chairs if they get reupholstered are worth reupholstering yeah no I was didn't say I guess we'll find out pardon we'll find out right yeah but I know sometimes maybe it's just my um particular shall we say family and spousal situation I have a a someone in my life who always wants to save everything and redo everything and and you know it's wonderful except that sometimes it isn't worth it yes exactly so so we'll put the board members and those questionable chairs at the top of the hill push them down so that's why I up and and they could go somewhere but we're not there I also want to invite the board to watch the archived city council meeting from October 9th there was a h a very thorough discussion um by Ravina Claxton who is a consultant working with uh this the city administrator to review HR policy policies and practices and in that discussion is information about how department heads such as myself are intended to be reviewed and provided raises in the future um so if you have an interest in that and I bring it up especially because I am in a unique situation as the library director in that um the board is responsible for hiring and retaining a quality director a competent director and has a policy in place to review that director on an annual basis and then we had really good discussion a couple of years back about whether um the board wanted to continue that practice or leave it to the city which also has a review process in place so if you would like to hear anything about what they're working on right now um and working to implement for the city that would apply to me that would be a good place to start um at the time you had that discussion of course I wasn't on the board did did that discuss did you have did you come to some conclusion or is it still kind of a in influx yeah I don't remember where we got so we invested quite a I think two meetings um looking so there so in the board set of policies there are two review forms for the director and it confused a prior board and so I brought it forward and explained this part of the policy this document was created by trustees to review the director and also you have a copy of the form that the city uses for all of its personnel and we started looking at those with the intention of getting rid of anything confusing and ALS so um making sure that the review tool was useful in the way that we wanted it to be and it just opened up quite the discussion about how the two review processes would work together and whether they were both needed and um we were trying to figure out how best to score the director and there were differing opinions on the value of the review tool especially with the scoring rubric attached to it and so ultimately the board decided to um allow the administrator to perform the review and that the board would like to provide regular feedback to the director should any be needed to be delivered and so I'm just bringing it up that the city is investing in a new review process that they've practiced for a year and then um we're we're about to start year two yeah yeah has been uh pretty thorough I think she's doing a great job so far you know everything we can see on outside it it seems like it and the feedback we've had from other other managers you know we've had spots okay and that's the October 9th October 9th yep I play me super and now do we get to yes right okay so we want to do airs SCE seat pumps next pass this around quickly um at the meeting at which we approved the purchase of the air source heat pumps we realized that we had last asked for quotes in 20 22 and I wasn't clear whether the board wanted a refresh look a refreshed look at what's available or if you were committed to the um company that did our installation so Shane steel my um my colleague who is the sustainability coordinator for the city went ahead and pursued a total of let's see three installers and only twin ports custom climate responded and that's the company that we went with and loved already so I would appreciate it if you would be willing to accept the twin fors quote and also I hope I hope it's satisfying to see what they're going to charge do we have the original quot uh do you have that number from the original po I don't have it in front of me but this is on par okay yeah sure it was in the $8,000 range yeah I thought it was somewhere in the $30,000 plus range yeah yeah um yeah I would make a motion to the expenditure and I would second it thanks all in favor do we do that okay motion by by m and second by lcy to approve the quote okay thanks thinking talking doing the thing secretari it's okay it's all super thanks um then I will go ahead and give them the call and we'll get the timeline going with that I wanted to bring up two topics tonight um one is the top book drop and one is Landscaping needs for the library the library has a book Return box inside of the tofy grmay State Bank so this is very great that we are offering um a remote way for people to come in get materials while they're here in shopping but not have the expectation of coming back to the library on time to get their books back here um we are seeing about two regular customers one being a County resident and we also are in a position at this point where we've lost the volunteers who used to bring those books up for us we no longer have staff living down there I am now in ludson but there's a timing issue so this bank is only open from 9: until 4: and it closes at lunch for an hour um so I'm never down there at the time that they're open or very rarely am so it's really hard hard to make the pickup um one significant change that has happened since that Dropbox was installed is that the library pursued finds Free Library so I am looking at closing the tofy book drop service and I'm just wanting to have a first conversation about that um yeah go ahead yeah can I ask so when when did we start I don't know so that means it was before 2015 wow okay and find free findes free happened in 2019 and there are two customers or two clients who use it two borrowers mostly I'd like to verify that before I make any decisions but that when we pulled it um a few months back that's what we were looking at okay so we like at a couple books a month not or a couple books a week right and maybe not there the day that I go and um our our customers are pretty good about giving us a little call when they have things down there but then still we have to be able to get there to get the time that the bank is open well my thought about that is if they can come up here and borrow them Excuse Me Maybe when they're shopping or or whatever and they don't have to worry about about fines they can also bring them along and drop them off when they come back to Johnson's or what ex except they live in ta and it's almost the same distance to Silver Bay and you could return them to Silver Bay Library and one of our customers is from Lake County one of the two people County so just to be clear on that so um a few thoughts here um our strategic plan calls for us to do some surveying of our community and finding out what the needs and interests are I I would like to include this in that it's just that I have it's that has been slow goinging um I be I have access to the library um patrons and so I can send a preliminary letter an open conversation and dialogue about the options and the potential change to see how it would affect them and I'd also like to speak with the bank um manager and talk to them and see what value they see the Box providing um make sure that that's still a mutual Arrangement so um don't get excited but I think this is a service that it might be time to retire and I am thinking about it thinking um Kevin just brought up an interesting point about returning books to Silver Bay um does it work in the the among the arrowhead libraries that you can return a book in any to any Library sure yes okay I nor if I don't return him here I return him to Grand Rapids yeah well that's great visiting my grand yeah it's a bigger Library it's nice Library well you know it's no it's great because we got kind of got used to that in the cities um you could return anything to any Metro Library even let's say if you took something out in St Paul you could return it in Rose um well in Roseville because uh the uh Ramsey County Library is not part of St Paul but so it's a whole different system but it's part of the Metro System so um yeah so that's a thought and Arrowhead Library System uh allows that if any of any patrons in our region were to for example come up here register their library card use our services and go home um to the Twin Cities or to celco or to excuse me Southeastern Minnesota they they can can return those books at their library and they will get couriered back to our library and sometimes that takes longer than the renewal period but also we don't charge fines exactly we don't charge fines so that is the service yeah I think it's a time to retire the service because there are alternatives people won't be stuck yeah yeah um from um digital uh digital book collections as well as maila book for um County residents and then as well as we don't charge fines so I think it's just an education I think it probably was just one of those things like hey this is something we can do easy enough yeah back in the day but since we're not charging fines it's not to get it back how many people in to know about this service and let's not tell them any more well we have a if we have that regular person yeah we could say hey next time you're coming you know can you I mean if they come regularly like once every two weeks they could they could bring up the books for us sure well here if they want to volunteer for that you know and then just in just another little campaign of uh and ask State Bank to promote it within their letter newsletter website stuff and you know hey here's a community service we provide you know I mean I'm finding the way but yes just other opportunities exist we could do some polling and some surveying down there and discovered that they'd really like Library presence in the community and if we were developing some sort of small makeshift um uh delivery thing like uh what am I trying to say here the bookmobile or if we were providing story times down there once a month or something created a pickup scenario it it could just take a slightly different form right yeah yeah I think the the the box in the bank is just sort of a a quaint Remnant remnant of the past but I like your I like your ideas we don't have a bookmobile do we or do we we don't Arrowhead library system does have a bookmobile system um and it used to travel up here but it just became prohibitive the cost became prohibitive and they they don't do it anymore okay other thing that occurs to me is that the county commissioner for the West End is in the toy Bank about once a week and she also comes here is that Jenny yeah she also comes here so you might if anything find another Courier because she has to put money in for the in that bank for the fishing Museum there you go see how she gets all the letters and everything but it might be worth talking with her and maybe she has some sense of what people like in her area as far as Library Services go so that that it would be how shall I say sort of an excuse for that conversation we did have a conversation a year ago but we are so overdue uhuh yeah um thank you for that yeah uh and volunteerism is going to come up again in our next topic which is Landscaping so we've been very fortunate to have regular landscapers working on the gardening out here in front of the library um an all works on the rain Gardens which are across the the sidewalk on the city side and this is on the uh right against the building to the library and they are not able to continue with us anymore and weren't able to do a full um work up on the garden this year so um they have done a really great job of asking around to the people that they know whether anyone else is available to volunteer their time and haven't found anyone for us I wondered if anyone here has ideas of people you could reach out to or that we could reach out to in terms of volunteering I'm also meeting with a couple of businesses to try to get quotes to see what it would cost to have that maintained um so we've talked a couple of times I believe at the board level about Emer installing an emergency exit and so if that happened over here some of this would be paved but we still have all of the library well I think practically speaking I know some of the rain I'm married to one of the rain Garden volunteers um and they are busy with that so there I don't think they will add anything to their Garden agenda um there is a Garden Club here and um everybody's rather elderly uh and so I think that and I the lady who has been doing this she's had some back issues and so on and younger people honest at least the ones that I know that in they're in my family and their friends they do not have the time to volunteer they simply don't they're busy working they're busy with kids some of them have a couple of jobs some of them commute so the idea of volunteerism is really nice but I'm wondering if maybe we I'm not so sure that it's going to be really practical and that there'll be a lot of follow through you know yes we had a girl scout TR but I don't know if they have those up here girl SC Boy Scout TR though yeah they do but I don't know if they do well yeah I mean I just think you know or church you know youth groups and that that think you know to to the point you're driving at I do think it's more to just somebody to do it a regular basis and we know they're going to do it we know what it's going to cost can hold them accountable if it doesn't happen yeah because I suspect they're you know well I shouldn't say but I do know some people out there could take the job you know maybe have a couple volunteer days at the beginning and the end or there's going to be a little more work to set it up and take it down but then it have the landscapers business do the regular maintenance of it MH yeah get a book read plant plant a flower read a book yeah yeah there you go yeah and it would be well I I was taking a look at this Garden today as I was walking around or the other day and it's really it's so overgrown it honestly it almost needs to be pulled out and started over again I mean I was a gardener I still well not very much I do pots now but mostly but you know really taming this Garden might say boy what a job that would be yeah is the water proc outside water process no but I know yeah we had an old house in St Paul that came with an old garden and you know after 25 years or so we finally more or less had the U yard in shape the Garden in shape uh I think we want to do something that'll be a little quicker than 25 years yes for sure so yeah would it' be great to see out and see who's out there how much good service along with Landscaping just as a side note not necessarily about this I talked to Aaron I'm sorry his last name it's the thing um Aaron who is on the tree board oh yeah yeah and I asked him for trees out there like a a nice shade tree um from where the you know by the retaining wall where we used to have a large Evergreen that came down yeah that's right to um so I'm asking them to pull out the root ball and give us something new nice yeah I can't wait to see that survey quite it'll be fun to see like what do we have there you might want to see if you can talk to the gardeners too um because anytime you put in a tree it does sort of change the shape of the garden and uh I don't know I if they have since there was no tree they've done some planting so they'll have more sun tolerant plants now if you put in a tree that will change that and it it doesn't mean it's bad or wrong just that it will change things and so it'd be nice to coordinate you know so often people don't talk to each each other and then they you know get mad right okay all right well any else from anyone oh I just I have a question which is I I can't remember what did we decide about winter films I ran into somebody on the way over who asked me if we were going to have winter films at the library and I had to say geez I'm not sure yeah sensitive issue um the group that loves uh the Friday night reels is very disappointed to have heard that I I decided not to run the shows this year okay um I need to focus on the safety response work and also learn how to inventory the collection and um the film committee generally starts in May and that work did not get done and so by September October we had to make a decision about whether the committee would be able to function we'd like to make some changes to the programming and how it's being run and so that takes a lot of conversation with the committee as well um and just there wasn't enough time that's fine I told the fellow that he can go see Beetle Juice tomorrow night oh exciting but I am hoping to do maybe a couple of popups I am um have some ideas for doing a couple of movie nights um here or there in the winter time once I have a sense of what the inventory is going to do but I I just can't run the whole program no and that makes sense Amanda would it be worth at least as a thought for the future talking to the folks who are organizing the grand marray Film Society and maybe doing some coordination or some mutual promotion or sure something sense don't worry you don't have to do it now but just just put it in the back of your head and leave it there I feel like we had plans to do that I just don't know where it landed so I can follow a lot has been going on yeah you didn't mention inventory this is a happen stance I spent four years part of four years inventorying large collections at the University of Minnesota so I have some experience in inventorying libraries oh great thank you so you're volunteering then I I can help or you know whatever yeah super thanks Kevin that's great right course those were in the days when you had a card catalog you know that you had I know that's not the way we did it we have iPads and scanners oh yeah and and little carts yeah it's the same process different techniques or different Hardware different Hardware exactly nice all right well folks I would say we are a j thank you much thank you or do we need to move a Jour no no okay I always forget that variational