##VIDEO ID:eKm_TQyzvxY## okay this meeting has been advertised in accordance with the New Jersey open public meetings act and is publicly accessible in accordance with law roll call please sure Kevin bril here Roco here David sadino Dr George here Sarah Maria I am here Zab Maddie here mayor walker uh Frank I'm alive all right thank you salute to the flag yeah FL 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 [Laughter] does okay Sarah's here okay so uh we have a couple of items to discuss Personnel wise so we're going to need to go into executive session personnel and attorney clent privileg okay so can I ask for a motion to go into executive session thank you second thank you all in favor I anyone opposed no thank you okay so we'll move on now to the regular portion of the meeting um the minutes of last month's meeting it's just the regular meeting minutes of October 9th do I have a motion a motion thanks the second second thanks any discussion roll call please brocco yes Dr George yes Sarah yes I am a yes Maddie yes Frank Kevin yes thank you okay uh Personnel items do we want to take these all at once or do we want to do each individual you can combine A and B at least all right we'll do a and b um do I have a motion for A and B I'll make the motion for second thank you any discussion no okay roll call sure Dr George yes Sarah yes I am a yes Maddie yes Frank yes Kevin yes Rocco yes thank you okay item C uh do I have a motion I'll move thank you second I'll second any discussion roll call Sarah Sarah sorry yes I am a yes Maddie yes Frank yes Kevin yes Roco yes Dr George yes okay thank you and last one item D appointing of the temporary staff librarian do we have a motion I'll make a motion thanks second I'll second it any discussion okay roll call I am a yes Maddie yes Frank yes Kevin yes Rocco yes Dr George Sarah yes thank you okay moving right along on to finance the uh Bill listing in the amount of 29,8 18583 no Maria is not here um I know she did have that one question regarding how one was classified and I think that got answered it did if with your permission I'll just tell everybody what that was because I think it's important y so we had the sewing program and getting that restored um at the beginning we didn't have an idea farm at all so I just put that into programming as we have a budget for idea Farm I think it's important for the board to see what our investment is there because it's separate from regular programming if we were to no longer have a maker space or an idea Farm you could get rid of that expense while still having programming expenses so that's going to all of the equipment training and um programs that are going to be in the maker space are just going to be tracked separately right and so the question was from Mar nothing came to mind so he's like yeah if you're seeing the dentist no that makes sense like that that would happen but at the same time your disease is quiet so yeah okay all right so uh the question was why was it uh in Prior um not under the idea Farm it was under programming or something correct yeah I had just gotten here and the idea Farm it was the first maker space thing we decided to do and I just put it in there and and that was corrected um in this change okay what Maria was saying was to go back through all of the expenses and now move those back over to idea Farm because some of them that's going to take Irene some catchup to do that right okay so based on that I'll make a motion to move the bill listing in am of 290,000 18583 do I have a second I'll second it thanks so discussion Frank yeah um first of all I'm I'm not any this I'm almost blind in my left eye and the size of this is what is it size four print do we need these big giant borders I'll discuss that with Irene she's been running those reports yeah no I understand it's just how do we maximize that um with what has been produced um I be have smaller borders uh all this white space has between Al marrow even if you have to go back of the page so okay I'll discuss that with her yes and just a couple of other questions dangerous I have on the passport thing the things that we show as passport at shown as Revenue that or is that the pass through that just goes to the state department what it is what of that is that actual profit for us all we don't have a calculation of actual profit on here so you get basically whatever's coming that we we're ping no um the calculation for what's coming in from passports this is the way it was done prior to my arrival yeah and I'm just saying we can absolutely review that but what's currently here isn't a calculation of um I'll have to ask um Irene to help me understand precisely how that bro is broken down and one of the things that um that I was looking at is that it isn't a calculation it's a reflection only of what money is coming in and that's for all of our um findes and fees for C I know and I asked previously before you were he that you needed to so we know what that that's just a p yeah now the other thing you got a tulous amount of pictures what do they require for one passport 22 of them I don't I just well based on the number of passports do we shoot any pictures for other people no they're act um I we may take pictures it's $5 for the picture um I know that when they're photographing children so one of the important distinctions for passports is that we only do new passports so if you've never had one before or we do the renewals for children and in the video that's coming out about the library I mentioned that specifically because that's a little complex so photographing the children can take some film you're talking about six-month old needing a passport and that takes a little work yeah no I'm just saying the number of items listed there I think for pictures I don't know how many pictures you best yeah it's it's so all of these we need to see um a a profit calculation I don't know if that's easily built into the monthly reporting it can at least be um an annual report or if you want more than that we can do that but that goes true for um printing no one's deducting the cost of paper so when you see the money coming in for printing you're not seeing ink um you're not seeing the machine yeah we're supplying the product the other stuff you're giving right whatever the picture is covered AC C I'll ask Felicia if she can give us some more detailed breakdown I would suggest you don't make yourself crazy you probably can come out with a descent which is going to be reasonably accurate instead having to go through all that just monitor for period of time yeah reg quarterly just come up with a yep I can go over that with Felicia um and actually I'm sorry one other thing that'll be on next month's agenda that's not on here is it relates to that there's I I want to get or did did I put put that on I did sorry we've got so many things going on the fact stand print system is directly related to that um so I'll discuss that a bit more when we get to that proposal because it's the investment I forgot I already did it all yes I know we talked about sorry thank you okay all right any other discussion on finance so with that roll call please Maddie yes Frank yes Kevin yes Rocco yes Dr George St Sarah yes and I am a yes thank you uh okay old business arthid okay so with regard to oh sorry um that that's actually well um what we've done is gone through we had the meeting last month where we talked uh to two different companies about RFID and the importance of doing that um going through I did discuss the proposals that I had at the buildings and grounds committee um and I I often look to these meetings to get some additional Direction on what we can anticipate the board's going to be looking for as it stands there's a $50,000 difference between those two um proposals and one of them doesn't include $20,000 in tags you're going to have them sent to you um for the next meeting but um Rocco's suggestion was that we get a third party who can um explain things a little more in depth who's not the salesperson and that seemed very reasonable so I have reached out to um Eric lausus I'm sorry I think I'm saying his name wrong but he's the the head of the Consortium and he has agreed to come in and answer any questions because one of the proposals is very um precise with all of the costs and one is a bit nebulous with those costs and it also neglects a $20,000 $25,000 cost which is the tags so um my question to the board is is that something for um buildings and grounds to go over is that something that the whole board wants to meet that I would ask the head of the Consortium to come in to answer questions this is about the books and it's about RFID I understand little confused because it's it's it's that it's an infrastructure piece it's an infrastructure piece to security and to physical selfcheck machines so that's why and I didn't decide that um several meetings ago we had said that it would be discussed there just to take care of some of the leg work obviously it comes to the full board so my only question is is there a committee that wants to meet with um the the person from Stella is it that the full board I can ask him to come in next month during our board meeting and answer any questions about RFID um I don't know what's uh your preference what are that inory right now approximately 130 something thousand okay we have 244,000 she for bookside I can get you those numbers I just don't have what's what's an average $15 yeah like 25 I think so 25 all right so whatever that number comes out to I assume I since we have a fin capacity I assume is going to be other books going out correct yeah so um there'll be a constant this process do you mean that the we would never need RFID to come in again every new book that comes in will be given an RFID tag so we won't ever have to do a this project is is huge um to get it done but once it's done there's there's no more right maintenance which is why I felt necessary at our you know at our meeting at buildings and grounds discussing I felt it was necessary to bring this information to the entire board uh and for us to decide as a group instead of just a committee of dawn myself and row so I felt you know we should be transparent in everything on this so I thought that this is something that should go to the entire board for discuss I I think it should go to the entire board because I think some some of us don't have a really strong understanding of the arfit process and how it's going to work right so you know where are we going to put it for book returns because I know you had mentioned that you know as soon as I drop a book in the book drop it should check it back in right yeah and that's if we purchase those things if right right so questions on things like that and so on I think it's good for the full board that's my yeah and it's quite a bit of money so yeah I feel looking at the two you know at the two quotes one had every every nook and cranny covered the other one was much more General and I felt that if we you know just went for the lower bid we could be missing a lot right so and that's why I suggested a third party that knows a little bit more about this obviously I know about as much as RFID as you guys do yeah um I felt at least a third party could give us a better idea what what we're buying into you know with each one of these books and I like that you selected somebody who's not a salesperson to come in and explain the process I that's that'd be scary because that guy wouldn't work in my sales department be the other thing is when we found out that the scanners were not scanning your books self scanning or whatever do we have any idea how much involves the loss so with the scanning if we were to buy a scanner that just works for the barcode I think we had decided as no that's not my question question is we know how long that was at a function was a function people it was functioning up until the change in the in the catalog system the thing is that there hasn't been an inventory here in at least 20 years so the only time we know that something's been stolen is when it comes up missing we frequently have missing titles we have no way of knowing if they're melded or if they've been stolen so we only know as we come upon them have you ever seen the way they do uh especially if you get the apparatus in place but get see the teams that can do inventory in a big grocery store where they have 40,000 items yeah and that's probably the way that should be done annually while the staff is learning something elsewh well and and I'm just just to to share with you with the system you get a wand and you literally walk down the Shelf with a wand and it tells you exactly what's missing exactly what's Miss sheld now it's not quite that simple it's a little more work own size ones that I they they're really pretty small they really are pretty small but um yeah the I I think I think that the RFID um and I do know I will say that the the director of the Consortium is um a proponent he's been looking for grant money for the whole Consortium because he would like so like one of the salesperson said the entirety of Delaware all libraries from school through academic have been done with RFID I know that he would like to see that done for our Consortium then when it gets through a ai'll find it we'll tell you yeah okay um so moving on new business the draft 2025 board meeting schedule change one day uh yeah pretty much so um I I don't know that there's any religious holidays or anything that interfere with any of those dates I don't I don't believe so the only holiday that's we don't have school district okay so so uh I'll ask for a motion to uh approve the board meeting schedule I'll make the motion a second I'll second okay any discussion on the schedule all right roll call Frank yes Kevin yes Rocco yes Dr George yes Sarah yes I am a yes Maddie yes thank you and the draft 2025 Library holiday closure schedule um so I'll ask for a motion on that I'll make the motion okay a second I'll second it so any discussion does anyone have any concerns on that schedule my my only concern was the July 4th holiday um because it comes up a bit awkwardly this year and I I don't think it's something that the board's going to want to consider for this year but maybe in the future um the July 4th holiday with it falling on a Friday means that we're closed on a Friday and then we're open the rest of that weekend and if that's what we want to do that's that's understandable but I will say that any other Library I've ever worked in on a on a Saturday and Sunday like that they wouldn't be open because people in this area are typically on vacation but if that's not what the board has been doing in the past then it it's it's more of a just a comment for future yeah I I do we have records of what our tendance other days we can um I know in the past this Library used to close in situations like that and it it was voted upon that we would not do so any longer um and I don't know that it's a can of worms that we want to open up right now so it was more just a consideration the next time um perhaps next year when we go in I can bring in numbers for those things well it's only one of the two holidays now that's actually celebrated on the day yes not been made a Monday holiday yeah and and that's the reality of it is that you know normally would the July 4th issue be there no it's when it's on a Friday and then you're going to have the Friday Saturday and Sunday is having people in here on Saturday and Sunday paying them extra for the time and a half for the Sundays and things like that is that going to be worthwhile well it's not like a hospital they got people they understand it is a lot a lot of people we have a lot of seniors who don't go away they want to spend the day in like I said it was just a suggestion because we're one of the few that are open okay so uh I'll ask for roll call sure Kevin yes Rocco yes Dr George yes Sarah yes I am a yes Maddie Maddie yes Frank yes thank you okay we we need to approve the architectural drawings a little confused by that so it's not it's hiring an architect for creating architectural drawings in anticipation of a bathroom renovation and creating a server closet which that's been in discussion for quite some time this is not subject to um bid threshold because it's Professional Services because it's not subject to bid threshold and I know that our board's going to want a to really look at a number of of proposals I went ahead and did an RFP it's um a little bit of you know an abundance of caution but I thought that that way the board would feel more comfortable with being able to make make a decision um so since we can't use the town's qpa when I started this project I went to the engineers's office asked them how we would go about this they said you start with the architectural plans they sent me over a list of those that had been approved by the town I called them asked people to come out one only one came out and I knew that that wasn't going to satisfy the board the other issue is that his price is uh 24,500 so since that is a considerable expense and that's only the drawings I thought that the board would want to see um sort of a broader range of proposals on this and that's why I went in and did it as it turns out the initial person who was already on the town's contracts is the person in looking at these results that I would recommend to the board who was that um that's Kevin sedino um sedino architects okay in Atlantic Highlands all right you also had the school board you talk there see who they' using the township and OBM Ms of right uh well that'll be when we go out to bid this is only for so this isn't approving a bathroom renovation or the construction of the closet this is only for the architect to come in who would then create the drawings that we would use for bid specifications and I checked in with the Department of Public Works and regarding the architect they're not interested when we come to going out to bid that'll be done in collaboration with all of the other Town entities to make sure that we get um um the best process there but this is also paying for the initial drawings and then support throughout the entire process including review reviewing the bids to make sure that they're meeting the specifications so this is full service is this is just step one if we get the architect to come in and do the drawings then the whole board will be a part of making the decision of whether we're going to go ahead with the bathroom putting out a bid and with especially the server closet which we know has been an issue for a long time okay so does does it make sense to uh put C and D together are these essentially the same thing right I mean it's the architectural drawings and you're saying Ren what do you mean by renovation proposals so so this is the drawing that would be necessary the C is the drawing I I'm not understanding c c is oh I'm like the actual agenda I I thought you were I was very confused okay so C no C has nothing to do with d so C is the drawings for the server closet the bathroom renovation and then D is the renovation proposal yeah the the the furniture proposal oh the furniture yeah Furniture renovation my apologies I didn't realize what you were referring to right so so let's starting with C then yep okay so then does anyone want to make a motion for C I will make motion for see second I'll second it okay thanks so discussion Frank did you have discussion no is that Sarah or Maddie sah Sarah all right uh any discussion on C okay roll call Rocco yes Dr George abstain Sarah yes I am a yes Maddie yes Frank sayain Kevin yes thank you okay so now D the renovation proposes this is on the furniture just to be clear yes so um when we discussed this last month um I believe Frank had requested that we get um more companies involved so I did that went back to the state list of contractors and got two more companies to come forward unfortunately I've only gotten those proposals um I think yesterday um so those will be coming into the board for next month but I was hoping we could discuss what the board wants to see so out of the three companies only two responded the first came out and measured but wasn't interested in the job um so there's a lot of work that they have to put into creating the design um and the two that we have Frank you had mentioned looking around so um creative Library Concepts is one of the leaders and SOA Smith is one of the leaders so what I have now is two proposals and I just wanted to give you an update and ask how we move forward with that for presenting the proposals for consideration so one of those proposals is $150,000 one of them is $250,000 and what that includes is just what we talked about for phase one so that's a new circulation desk that's the furniture for the idea Farm that's the staff room um and then like SOA Smith had put in the entryway coming in we could do it with just two new benches but I think that that area really is a nice size and there is potential just to see what these designers come up with what we really need to do to look at um is who we're interested in in going forward with and that comes down to the board looking at SOA Smith looking at creative Library Concepts and deciding whose Vision they like I could send out these proposals but then there's going to be a lot of questions will there be um I feel like it would be better to have a presentation so my question is again is that to the full board or is that to a committee got have a couple questions um building was started to built in I think it was uh 1987 and finished in 1991 so at that point everything was new of the thing and to my knowledge it wasn't any major change during that course bits and pieces it was as need the question is uh what level of functionality right now is ourn tra is it dangerous is dirty is it filthy has it not used that we want to do two very expensive firms to do this we have the money I understand that but we also still have other things to consider so that's that's my basic question I'm G I'll make the time just to walk through myself when you go to 7 what and are we buying it for 20 years for when they it becomes a fashion item rather than functional it nothing about what we're doing is fashion um its function at this point um and I think that this is part of the rationale that I went through a few months ago with showing how breaking it into phases made sure that we were always in kind of a phase of sprucing things up rather than waiting until they're broken um the things that have been um broken and dangerous I've already um for the most part repaired there's some tables there's some shelving that's falling apart those kinds of things is it on the floor us yes Che it out if it's dangerous doesn't BL in here it's not fixed I'm I'm which is why those uh the banket seats were pulled out it's why the children's seats were done I made those already but then also it's about the design that we have that it's comprehensive and it we're not to me is fashion what's that is it fashion and functional both so those parts that were literally dangerous have been removed the tables that are in my opinion dangerous with pieces of um laminate peeling off of them held together with duct tape those are still dangerous um the desks and things that we have with the finishes coming off I don't know if that's dangerous or is that fashionable just not to have the the Finish coming off this has nothing to do with you here being here now because this got that way long before you got here I'm kind of a the fact that if you have something that's with a million dollars plus sitting here why you didn't buy a new table and mat the other on or you had you sent it to a furnit shop to get fixed and brought back no I understand I understand entirely so some of the problems that we ran into is tables get phased out there was one instance where we were getting some tables the the new computer table for those um early literacy stations that we purchased which are being used very heavily by the way um I went to buy it picked it out was ready the next day I went on and they had stopped making it and no one could get it for me again so that's a little bit of it but that's not the main thing the main thing is with looking at those again those six different phases this is the staff room which really is in need of renovation um then there's the circulation desk which has the Finish worn off of it um in addition to like I said that's that's our face for a lot of people so is there a bit of fashion is that an added bonus yes is it where the the wood finish I can't have somebody come in with a sander and fix all of that um so that's where a new desk is there the idea Farm is has basically been gutted so that's why for phase one that's not fashion that's functionality so it is functionality in one area um and then those other two and that's where to me doing it this way if we can find a designer that we know is reasonable we can establish a relationship with that this is something that in each phase will'll be able to consider how far we want to go with that so this $150,000 is for one two three phases all the phases it's for one phase that's the idea Farm the circulation desk and circulation area and the staff area so we can be looking at somewhere between 15,000 and a million yes and that would be spread to me to do one or two a year um and then once we got through these phases with the furniture then we'd start looking at the shelving and any any furniture guy could not do it in theary Period they have trucks to take the stuff out that needs to be ref or replaced yeah and and just to give you an example Frank because I know this is something you've brought up before we had these stools in the children's area and all of the vinyl on them was cracked and ripped and torn so it needed to be replaced um I called the upholster and it was going to be a $100 a stool right so this is this is where it's almost not even worth it so it's a $100 a stool for me to have them refinished or it's $100 a stool for me to get them new and for me to get them in a hard plastic that's going to be able to be cleaned no more vinyl making choices that are absolutely about longevity and about maintenance with the furniture and how old were those schools I have no idea but they were well worn um and they'd been well- loved it's a popular Reading area and the new stools are there do I think that the new stools are as Charming as the old no but um to get something you know reupholstering five years from now we'd need to reupholster again these other stools will last for 20 so I think we should just meet the rep I guess the representatives as a board um and there's a big discrepancy right there's uh one was offering 150,000 and the other ones 250,000 so I think we should hear them out as a board okay excellent all right so for next month I will ask Eric in for a brief discussion and then I will schedule the two renovation firms to give you their rationale we have something in advance that explains what you mean by renovation of what I don't know what you're talking about okay okay and when you're talking about redoing the uh this that and the other we've had some discussion but not a lot of lengthy discussion but if you have other information I'd like to be able to read it ahead of time so when people come in we know what to ask them because I'm the other thing is and this may be me alone I don't know but I don't know a word that Frank said tonight that microphone being all the way down there part of it is useless right under the treatment been under part of my voice is most considerable but it's not you Frank you're you're far from the microphone as well so if we can get that Clos the camera is too far away you know in any other board that meets the the board is lined up and faces the camera we're the only one where the board goes that way and I look I'm old I have problems with hearing but I can look at television I don't usually have a problem there but that's why when I abstain it's because I don't know what you're talking about and I'm not going to vote when I don't know what I'm talking about but if you can send us some information before we have people come in so we can ask questions I wouldn't know what to ask them when you spending 250 or $150,000 that's something the whole board look like that to a comme possibly I don't know but the way things are getting so much better is there such a thing as a mic phone that can show itself as CL closed caption on screen we should so you're talking about a microphone that transcribes to well sub a device that transcribes and goes into since is Clos goes into the circuit then anybody looking on it you know can but they don't hear or they miss a word here or there yeah well that or I I know you were looking into another microphone at one that was the microphone that we upgraded this the better one yeah yeah I mean we we can we can you know the the problem the problem that is is that Zoom is not really meant for a round table discussion it's really meant for a presentation or a you know one person speaking to the zoom uh audience not a room of people so it's very very difficult um so that's I was on a zoom today and one of the speakers as they was speaking there was captions in the so I don't know if there may be a setting in Zoom okay yeah I I've got it on here subtitles okay okay all right so we can move on then uh we don't need a a motion on this one at this time fact scan print system so I sent um the library document station um is something that I put into four different libraries and it doesn't replace our copers um what it does if you look at our print area which is generating income for us right now um this is where I just wanted to reinvest in that system something that you're going to be getting next month I um put up a little technology survey on the library's website and just the we've only gotten 12 results back but the majority all of those said that what they're coming into the library for is a lot of them are using computers and printing currently our fax system which people will not let go of faxes so let's just and that one but um our our machine is relying on a phone number a phone line that we're paying for in order to be able to fax so this fax scan print system instead of having all of these different areas it gives um one screen where you can look at and do all of these functions faxing scanning and printing it's a much better quality scanner than what we currently have it makes print release much easier right now we have to have staff there this way people can actually go and release their own prints um it's much clearer for them um we wouldn't have to faxing right now we can't fax um long distance so we'd be able to fax long distance and we wouldn't need a phone line anymore so this is a system that does have a maintenance subscription that's about $6 or $700 a year but I believe we're already paying that because we already have our print release is already through this company in visionware so it would connect with that so this would just give an improved experience for everyone to be able to do the faxing scanning and printing um it makes us look more professional and since we are charging for those things I just think that the reinvestment might be worthwhile does anyone actually come in here to fax anything yes really do they did they come in on their horse and we charge $2 I fax so yeah I have to tell you I'm a power of attorney for somebody they ask me all the time to fax the documents and I do that's because they don't want to buy a new machine well these are but they're asking but with this with a fact of scanner printer you can just scan in the document and then email it to the person right so absolutely but there are some and it's a lot of state agencies and and medical and pension that people still want things fact so the thing is right now we have a phone line and people come in to fax and then we have to explain that you can't fax long distance so that's one issue but we're paying for that phone line I think we're paying like $200 a month for that phone line so this system no phone line is needed anymore right so that's taken off So eventually like in about a year um a little more than a year it would pay for itself okay and the thing is that it's it's all touchscreen um and like I said I've installed this four different times in four different libraries because it really gives a polished look it's easier for people to be able to use and particularly for people who may have difficulty seeing with these old screens and buttons and things like that they get a nice clear crisp presentation and and how much is it it's 8, 250 and if you on the on the quote the actual piece of equipment is 7,200 um the first year of maintenance is here and that's also their installation yeah so the project it's $900 for installation and I can tell you that I make sure that we get our money worth um again and these are the machines these are all the machines that are included with the installation and with um the uh sorry also the the maintenance so yeah oh just gonna say it's an 11 by 17 flatbed scanner and the the cool thing about it you know how if you have to ever use a machine to line up and to scan things you've got to put it in that corner this you can take it and throw it anywhere and it lines up and what it is is it's also a good quality scanner so that if people are asking or wanting to come in and digitize their documents historical things things like that they can do so using our scanner I graduated high school 1962 and I enlisted in the Navy on July 5th and I didn't get in because I had a bad eye any school I you know anything I wanted in there so I hadn't applied to college so I started to work uh in a trucking company and I walk in and these see machines it's a row of 10 numbers this way 10 numbers this way a comptometer have you ever seen one no there were World War II vs that were using that faster blindly than you could do on a just a calculator today fabulous unbelievable I bought my first computer for the family 198 six I think IBM PS2 IB on PS2 $2,900 so gotta go with the new stuff honestly I don't understand this lengthy discussion my feeling is all dor is asking for is a machine that will do the job that she has to do better and $88,000 when we're talking 125 and 250 ,000 I don't understand so why don't we just let I my phone in my office um just let her buy what she needs to do a good job and it's not policy it's not it's a machine to do her job we've already approved her job so uh well I can I take that as a motion Dr George I am sure okay second second there you go second second okay any any other discussion on this roll call sure Dr George yes Sarah yes I am a yes Maddie yes Frank yes Kevin yes Rocco yes thank you okay we had one last item on here I will pass to Chris yeah we're gonna move that to December uh based on the consensus tonight we'll get the document settled with the Amboy Bank and it'll be in your packet before December 11th action on December 11 so that's all for tonight thank you okay so then we'll move to director's report um I'd like to start a little dramatically by showing everyone um if anybody remembers um Mr Rogers said in any sort of dangerous situation look for the helpers and right now we have little tiny name tags for staff and they're brown and they're not very clear to see so from now on our keyless entry is going to be working these SE are the tags that staff will have on a lanyard we got them retractable so that next week we're going to give out everyone's keyless entry security cards you're going to be able to walk up to the library you have your ID and you're gonna there you go well we can get you one so these are imprinted so that they're not going to be something that people can share I know that there had been concerns about these cards being handed out to anyone so I actually have been testing them with how you can scrape off permanent marker so every key card that we have has a number on it that's assigned to an individual that can't be um scraped off um and it has no other indication of where it is so people aren't going to be trying to take it to come in here but it but it's identified as the oldd public library no this is right but it's behind it it's oh if it's in their land I have to say like I keep mine separate and there's nothing that's identifiable to where it's at in case could I drop it on my way to the car or so you mean your key card my key card has nothing that's identif it should be it should be separate okay because if somebody drops it in the parking lot right and then somebody picks it up and they know that that's a key card to get into the yeah right they'll figure out where and this is not the key card right so the key card is separate but they may know what it is all right then we can then we can ask them just do a separate one you could do it where they have right like that should stay around their neck but then their key card can stay else yeah so you already have a separate card yeah yeah yeah so okay so we'll we'll make sure that because we're going to be handing these out next week and these I'm going to be putting like I said everyone's initials on them so that I know whose it is um and this like I said I just think is nice and clear for anyone visiting the library to understand who works here and who doesn't yeah so that's an important safety item for me and your key card is numbered so if somebody loses it they can let it know and he'll just deactivate it and issue them a new one and we are administrating it Linda and I are administrating it so we'll take care of our own this way um the library is in charge of who's coming into the building excellent um I just want to give you the the good news because there's a lot of it so quickly the phone number with that being changed over not a single complaint from the community we had comp ments so that's done the servers are finally done the website today the new website is up I realized um looking at it today that um our board meetings are not on the libraries website they're on the town's website like the Zoom link so we're going to make sure that that gets corrected and then this meeting I'm going to test on moving to our Niche Academy system so we'll keep it with the town this month um but then we're going to test it for a month to make sure that Niche Academy is working because then we won't have to go to YouTube anymore okay all right um the video of the library that's a promotional video made by Oldbridge television is complete and I think it's quite good um I've made sure to mention board meetings and um that you can be a board member and the names of the board members on there so that's done and I don't know when it's coming out but I'm assuming in the next week and then sometime after that there's a Lawrence Harbor version that's going to be coming up um Aila Sentry is done and you have that um the audit was completed this morning the draft so that will also be going out to the board for next month's approval but our audit will be done um by January um that's that's all my good news okay so um are you still oh no yeah yeah okay yeah sorry there's a lot a lot this month y um I spoke to everyone about the automatic renewals that the new catalog system had most libraries don't have fines anymore and most libraries have automatic renewals if nobody asks for the book they automatically check it out to you again because the Consortium because this impacts our fines and it's a major policy so um if we went along with the cons you can have it up to three times which means you can have the book up to three weeks or nine weeks and that's how things get lost so our choice is either to have two renewals or no renewals so we don't renew automatic renewal you have to call and requested if you want the material again um we are getting some complaints about that already but only from other libraries in the Consortium not from our and can you you can renew online as well correct yes yeah yeah wa why are the libraries contain because their libraries don't have automatically or their libraries do have automatic renewals oh so people and they don't charge fines so the other libraries because they don't charge fines if they borrow from us they're getting a fine and they don't know why we don't we lend out more books than anybody else does we don't um we're up there we're we're in the we're so doesn't has automatic renewal it really doesn't matter because they get the books from us yeah well I have to say that we do lend a lot but when you look at the other libraries we're in the top five per our population so why would we let books go out for I know how what did you say six weeks nine weeks yeah I think that's expensive and wasteful people are not renewing if it's automatically renewal I just don't pay attention they'll get around to it when they get around to it and I think you just need a lot of books or people are going to wait a long time for a book yeah H so I would why can't you have one renewal that isn't an OP option well see that's just dumb and I I I agree they're pushing us into doing something and I AED on the side of being more conservative with our policy so all right um I would like to add an additional four hours of library assistant hours per week for DSS which is Digital support services and that would be expressly for the idea Farm to do the safety trainings to um be in there doing the introductions to people for equipment one of the things that I believe was asked for um from our library assistants is more opportunities and this is something where Digital support services and the idea Farm the maker space you don't have to be a librarian to do the maker space so four hours and we're talking about I think it's under $17 an hour for that so we're looking at less than um $100 a week um and this gives an opportunity for them and it means we'll be able to really have the maker space in top form by March yeah okay um as you all know um over the past weekend there was a Transformer on catell road Kevin knows a lot because there were a lot of messages back and forth so one of the a squirrel was living in a Transformer it didn't go well and got light off it impacted another Transformer and the police were actually out there with uh fire extinguishers because the grass was so dry that they had to put it out so the impact on the library was that our um HVAC went out for day and our lights only certain lights were back on so over the stacks it was only emergency lighting so I came in talked with Kevin and we decided that because the temperature was fairly mild and there was enough lighting for people to to work so we stayed open um Department of Public Works came in to help us went over every um fuse box in the walls to make sure that there wasn't um a fuse that had been blown but when the power went out the generator came on and then there was an alarm on the transfer switch and DPW was handling that we closed early because with sunset coming at 4:45 you couldn't see anymore in here and that's when I started trying to get an electrician in that turned into a nine-hour day on Sunday of trying to get them in because again it was only part of the lighting the HVAC automatically came back on at 10 o'clock on Sunday don't understand it don't need to um and then the lighting was still an issue we did pay an emergency electrician to come in it was $1,500 for them to get started going over every single one of of our panels and seeing where the current was and all of those things now with all of that um I didn't I didn't know that the answer to the problem was Linda because some of our supervisors were out so and and this is where we'll have a conversation with um the Department of Public Works who very much supports and helps us some of our lights and an odd combination of them are on a timer so even though we have a generator when the power went out it overrode the the timer so unless someone knew to go in the back and hit override on the timer and none of our more seasoned supervisors were here these were newer people because it was a weekend yeah yeah so um we figured that out and I'm not sure that anybody's been paying attention to that timer so I have a number of questions so with the generator I'll be in discussion with the Department of Public Works because if we're a heating and cooling center for emergencies we couldn't do that if the power went out and our hpfc went off so I need to solve that mystery um we're going to get the the timer and the program solved the electrician has suggested that rather than it having that they could have an automatic override on that so we're we're going to be looking at all of the outcomes from that but there were a lot so thank you to Kevin for his patience we're open no we're not yes we are and and so I just want to add to that I want to thank Don because it's it's nice to have a director that takes ownership of the library and is here when something goes wrong State yeah and in the same state um I I have to say you know unfortunately for Dawn these things always seem to happen on a weekend or when she's planning vacation um so they never seem to happen at like 12:00 noon on a Tuesday um but uh but she you know she she's taking the responsibility and she I mean she was here the entire weekend uh and she was texting me all weekend so poor Kevin yeah that that's fine I was home so yeah so like I said you know we're learning our lessons from all of that and just moving forward um there has been a request from staff to move ahead to njla membership we currently have we have an Institutional membership that's about $500 and then we pay for my membership which is another $165 that enables us to place ads it doesn't pay for staff to have a membership or give discounts to conferences they've asked for an increase of $1,100 sorry we're paying 865 right now there's something now called an enhanced institutional membership that's $1,800 a year but it gives membership in njla to every single one of our staff has that been included in negotiations Chris that request no they did not request that in negotiations they're requesting that separately from negotiations which they can do I'm surprised that they didn't make a proposal for negotiations well I don't think it it kind of came up that way I don't think they were thinking of it because it's not there's not a per person fee okay this is just if we have the institutional membership every single one of our employees automatically becomes a member of njla and gets all of their um benefits so so the difference is $700 odd doll uh to go to everyone right because you said it's currently 900 it's not cuz you said it was 1100 we're currently paying 11100 we're paying 865 oh 865 I don't know where I got 1100 from okay and this is 1,800 because I probably said it mistaken okay all right so it's it's an increase of $900 a year now I haven't seen all the details of this yet what the state is putting forward that is is that it comes with an Amazon Prime business membership that is valued at over $1,000 and they've done the bulk um negotiation for that we'll see if Amazon Prime business membership would be helpful for us we do a lot of ordering through Amazon um but I I I question the way njla has put this forward but at the same time for $900 to give every single one of our members um access to njla and that's the library assistants as well as the Librarians if we're already paying $165 for May to have it where we've got 50 staff who can all be members of njla it seems worthwhile that could actually under the current professional development language in the contract this could actually save your money so okay it's contractually it's probably a great idea which may be why they didn't propose because it's not really a financial benefit for them okay but it will it will work for everybody and and this is within director's prerogative but I wouldn't make that decision without consulting all of you first with that cost I think you want to start a practice of asking for things outside of negotiations so that we have two sets of things going on you know I I don't have any problem giving it to them I don't what does a a staff member what Advantage do they get um being a member what I don't I have no idea what what you know what the advantage is but it's professional it's professional development it's fine I but I just think that that belongs in the same little box together I apologize Dr George I didn't even think of it that way because it wasn't based on an individual like if we said we spend up to $50 per individual I wasn't even thinking of it in those terms because this it doesn't matter if you've got three employees or 300 employees it's the same thing which doesn't make too much benefit that goes to everybody that's why it should be yeah asked for by everybody yeah and I'll talk to the union reps about that just to clarify that it's a term and condition of employment that they're at least touching upon bonus okay sorry okay all right all right um we will be seeing next month with the servers getting done we do need did need two extra hours of outside support from CX Tech at $275 an hour but it's done it's over and realistically we shouldn't have to look at any server update for 5 to 10 years so the it committee will be getting a list of everything when we expect it to expire so that everybody's ready the next time it comes around and we don't have to do the research um we have an Outreach meeting set up with the uh curriculum committee unfortunately that is going to be problematic because our curriculum committee meeting is the same night as our board meeting yes so um I would imagine I'm just probably going to go to the committee meeting on my own and you're GNA have to do what you always do every month so okay unless we can I I'm looking for uh looking for another time where there is no conflict and I can have you come in at another time yeah so there's a couple of things that we can do I can always do a quick video on Camtasia just to give a presentation without me being there okay and we'll already have the list so this is about the books that we already agreed to purchase going into the schools I just spoke with Librarians today and they're going to have those lists ready so you'll be able to walk in with those titles that' be wonderful okay um um we did have um some discussion of um I I've had members of the public ask specifically for um events for families um for lgbtq families and I've explained to them that um we can find a way to offer an inclusive activity here here but we can't have any public programs that exclude any member of the demographic so we're working on finding a way to make sure that everyone's comfortable with that so right now all of our our family groups that come in and meet and things like that are just open and general and basic and no one's excluded I do understand people from um groups that may be considered to be marginalized might be looking for an enhanced service and support and we'll find a way to do that our hes School families have also asked for um some extra assistance and like I said we won't exclude anyone but we're working actively on finding ways to handle those programming requests um next month um I have the draft of the training agenda if anybody wants to see that for our training day on December 20th um I have it I apologize it wasn't ready for uh in your packet but it involves doing professional development Roundup for all staff so that they can share what they're working on um some escalation and deescalation training we've got a full day I'll make sure it's in your packet next month if anybody has questions before then please let me know and next month we will also be starting um our evaluation process for the Year sorry there was so much this month and we're already through it so I'm a little a Gog don't forget to use that word often but that's all from me okay does anyone have any discussion on director's report okay I think last month uh D you indicated that the library of things that you were going to send something to Chris about our liability or whatever um that library of things is interesting we indicated that a lot of schools a lot of libraries have it well the one that I found that had a lot of information was Mont cleair and they have just a I think about four pages of liability and a thing you sign off and it just seemed very thorough and we I didn't see anything from Chris on what our liability is on stuff we rent out or things like that we that or or yeah it's it's covered in the documents that are part of the library of things program that Don got to me and I turned around so what we I borrow I borrowed from Hoboken because I know the director there and she's incredibly thorough and has she she can Avail herself of a tremendously large team so we went through that um and Chris made some changes but all of our waivers and policies have been evalu ated and looked at the only thing that there's a typo in our policy um for the current idea Farm it says um people under the age of 16 18 so it looks like somebody couldn't make up their mind and that's actually what's posted um meaning people can use the sewing machine under the if they're over the age of 16 18 that's what it says in the policy it doesn't indicate which one is there so um with we we were taking a look at going with talk about okay okay all right we're back back we're back okay I I don't know where we left off but the reason why I brought it up was the last time you said you were sending something to Chris and that we would get the things for to look at I think the whole thing of basket of things and all it deserves a lot of discussion but you know what it doesn't have to be and I think that the things written by the librarian on the four things that you bought were very she did a good job of writing it uh I'm not the thing that I enjoyed about Montclair is they don't use taxpayer money to buy pickle balls and things like that it's done by their Foundation which I believe the foundation raised their own money I mean ours did before so it's a big difference uh I have no idea what you're buying other than the four you did the list that you gave me before had a lot of questions on it so we need to have discussion in the future but yeah as long as we're not liable if I lend out something that's electrical and I electrocute somebody for that I don't want it to be able to be sued for that because I'm not sure we should be lending that stuff out okay so that's what I want Chris's opinion that language is in yes it's in it all right well we I didn't see it so you know haven't seen yeah we can we can send out the waivers if you want to see them I would like to see what you what P yeah whatever you're using okay yeah we we can we can send you those waivers and like I said I borrowed from Hoboken and Hoboken has a very Progressive and very active program and they do pay for it themselves so that is an example um but I can make sure that you see that so library of things and um maker space or idea whatever you have for that I lump all of those together because they're non-traditional very good thank okay so let's move on then to committee reports buildings and grounds Rocco we went over enough buildings and grounds uh Finance there's nothing going on we went through Bill listing that was it Outreach marketing Frank anything nothing right no I I'm going to find out what the cost is because I don't know when we'll have the uh uh the mailing program where you'll easily be able to identify where where the library members live as soon as I can do the analysis I wasn't going to send you things until they're really ready but this is exciting and this is a gift for Frank well no just out of curiosity oh I've got a map for you but the map has red dots all over it that show where our users are you don't have it yet because no one's explained to me the data behind it until I fully understand the data behind it I'm not going to give it out to everyone but I do have an update for you that I think that you'll like the other thing that they sent me and this is from the Consortium so this is in our new catalog they have users and how many miles away from the library they are and we have about an equal amount of users that travel up to two miles or that travel between two and four miles after four miles there's a dramatic drop off so exactly what you've been exactly and exactly what you've been asking for you can now do that so I need to understand with that heat map that's got the dots all over it I want to know exactly is that simply a registered user is that a library card is that someone who's actively checking out I need to know those numbers before I present that to you but you're going to get what you've been asking for well uh when I was wandering around through all the rec find an app plan it on libraries there were uh a report came up from the M from 2022 and it showed all of the libraries that were in the Consortium and it showed active and those which are not active so our active number was about 11,700 and we have the rest of that 26 they're not here expired they're gone so I also made you map of all the libraries in Middle sex County so that you'll be able to see where there's a library desert um in in certain areas and compare all those things but I'll have charts and numbers for you I just want to make sure that I understand them first all right uh Personnel negotiations I know we we handled the negotiations piece Sarah did you want to talk about anything Personnel wise I know I know we spoke um we're looking to get the form out for the director's evaluation want to get it going earlier this year um so we'll get that out within the next couple of weeks so that we can U Move that in December and get get it completed by January um okay policy yeah uh we already talked about the idea Farm policy uh we had again I met with Dawn last week uh we also discussed uh a little situation with the meeting rooms um apparently we had had an incident uh with an angry non-resident who came in Don you want to talk about it yeah and Sarah this is something that you um responded to as well after evaluating that policy so our policy for for small meeting rooms for all of our meeting rooms they have to be Oldbridge residents our small meeting rooms are in high demand um by our students by lots of different people so this was a person whose son was working with his tutor in a room she had a work meeting at the same time she wanted to um to have one of the meeting rooms to do her Zoom meeting and there were some rooms at that moment that were empty but she's not an overd resident so she couldn't show us a card she couldn't show us ID now I know that the board has discussed this in the past um and it's something that we can discuss again in the future but it's very complex and I feel like I'd like to put together on that before we have the conversation again um and then the other thing is with our meeting room policy I was having a bit of difficulty and I realized that the problem wasn't the policy the problem was how we were implementing it so here the meeting room policy has been interpreted by a part-time librarian as to any application that that comes in can they use the room can they not that's really too much responsibility for that position and that's an administrative decision it's up to me to decide is this a for-profit is this a nonprofit how are they using it all of that so I've changed those meeting room requests over to me and then the other part of it is our meeting room policy says that we can make exceptions at any time I can't entrust a regular staff member to do that that um that's something that I need to do so as an as a for instance um the folks at Shak Shack had contacted me because it's a business but they're going to be building a facility on Route n yeah it's just they they they wanted to know if they could use our uh small meeting rooms to hold interviews even though they're not residents now they're not making money on this they're creating jobs for people in old Bridge so even though they're a for-profit this is actually also expanding the tax revenue for the town so in my estimation after a brief conversation with Kevin that's a really good use of our small meeting rooms so I would make an exception and I would let them come in and hold their interviews here that that's and you told them as long as I get a chocolate shake I did I did I did I want to on that get away with that so that's just an example so the problem wasn't with the policy the problem was with our execution of the policy and that's been rectified and then one other thing about um nonprofits and the insurance and things like that so um this is where the exception lies so I believe when Phil came here he told the board that you can't charge for meeting rooms for for businesses to use the meeting rooms is that correct thinks that's what the policy is I don't know that wasn't handled by part-time librarian in the past it was handled by a full-time library assistant uh who did meeting rooms all the time I think you're absolutely right that it has to be at the administrative level and I think you have to have some flexibility but the thing you have to remember is that it's the Oldbridge resident who's paying to heat it and and have that room not the person who lives in East Brunswick who wants to use it so the exception should be at your level where you you know it's for a serious purpose you also might know that you could suggest to them that you could get a room for them across the street I don't know the r building or something there might be other alternatives to them getting rooms at your level I wouldn't expect a part-time you know library assistant to know that no it can make a lot of um enemies there yeah yes I did either way either way there there there are um there are also a lot of people who try to use the library to give their businesses legitimacy and try to use the library for monetary gain and I'm extremely careful about that um so as an example there's a program through the state of New Jersey um like can you get covered it it's about insurance it's are you covered it's something like that in the state of New Jersey [Music] hello sorry there are two different kinds of help that you get from that one is an insurance broker which we're not having Insurance Brokers come in and do programs and try and sell people things the other part of that program is something called an insurance ass sister those people are part of the same program but one is for profit and one is nonprofit We have a program coming up with an insurance aister and that's fine but what was happening is I would looked at the calendar and and was saying why is anybody allowing this and then I realized I'm allowing this by not taking control of the meeting rooms because that's how it had been done here and it's not done that way anymore so we shouldn't have an issue is that Evan that Evan Sun I think so yeah and I mean and there are some librar I'm not going to name them but I saw once they allowed the for-profit broker to come in that broker went and paid Instagram for um what do they call the elevated posts where you pay for those enhanced posts but they were listing the library because what they're doing is giving themselves Authority and legitimacy by identifying with the library so that's what we want to be very very careful of and don't worry I'm on the key okay you also had people selling real estate out of those rooms in the past so you know people are you know cunning why I tell you but you're on top of it good okay if the real is working out of that office go somewhere else all right so anything else for policy that's it that's it Frank nothing on technology right yeah no yeah when the mailing thing works out because the other thing we could do in another way you know you can measure traffic in certain places you could get a pretty good idea as well yeah Okay Kevin just one other thing under negotiations I believe there are two contracts that we always negotiated about this time of the year so they could be done by January and that was the executive assistance so I I'm not on the Personnel committee anymore so I don't know if they've started that but if not it should be so we get everything done by January 1 and we don't have retro stuff okay have that discussion and get it on get it to me so I can update the contracts and then have it on your December 11th agenda so it's end to end yeah and and I have some unsolicited opinions on that so I'll share those with the person okay so we we could talk to Sarah and get something scheduled yeah okay all right so last item public comments anyone from the public have anything they'd like to State uh see a hand up hi can everyone hear me okay yes yes hi uh my name is Garrett I'm actually the vice president for the nonsupervisory union um I just wanted to clarify the um issue that was brought up about the njla membership um this was something that we are not aware of and um you know I'm not sure who brought it forth um and that's fine but I just wanted to make sure that it's known that during our negotiations um you know nothing of that sort was ever discussed with us or mentioned um so whoever brought that forward that's more or less on their own valtion um outside of the union and I believe I made that clear to the board gar that that was not requested as part of the Union negotiation that it was an individual request from another staff memb um and I believe that our attorney articulated that the benefit could be seen by all staff members oh sure definitely um but yeah no I just wanted to to stress that fact that yeah no we're we're unaware of that you know up until just now I think they're aware yeah appreciate it thanks okay all right with that I will ask for a motion to adjourn that and second all favor I I thank you good night good night thank you good night everyone