##VIDEO ID:9nBdmX40Kpk## this is a recording of the South Public Library Board of prises it is January 21st at 7 o'clock P.M we'll do a um naming of everyone that's here uh for anyone that's on on audio video Michael McMahon Cindy Warner Andrea bugby ly Blair Tammy sa bony public comments I don't see any members of the public in person nope just handy on Zoom okay all right Communications our monthly report from the department head meeting that I can just run through quickly with everybody okay um so December was a busy month uh so we circulated 4,944 physical items which is up 18.14% from December 2023 so overall very good um the program numbers in December we hosted six adult programs 59 attending three team programs 15 attending eight children's programs 46 attending and two general audience programs with 38 attending on December 19th I visited the Senior Center we did a little talk about Library services and our partnership with the Perkins Library um through the Perkins School for the Blind because we can get materials from them like audio tapes and special recorders all for free that people can borrow to take home for as long as they would like um did you get much interest from the people attending yeah they think they it was a small day but um people had questions and we um renewed a couple cards things like that so were they even aware you know these kind of services being available no no most people aren't so we're trying to get the word out um there's some people who do use it they can either use it for us from us or they can just sign up for it directly themselves and just kind of skip us as being the middleman and just get it directly delivered to them um but a lot of people like people on our books on the go use the program um we can get almost any book and they've been really great if there's a book that they don't have on audio they'll record it for us for people so it's a really nice service and then they do like large print and Braille and anything like that um and then I also spoke about that when I went to go to the South Lake Village and I brought the equipment to demo um and actually gave our demo equipment to somebody because they send it to us and we can just give it out to anybody um so one woman stopped by at the very end she's like this is great I love it and I'm like here take it you know use it experiment with it let us know how you like we can get you more books um let's see and in December the senior center also let us send packets home um with their meal deliveries that I made up for stuff that's like relevant for people who are homebound about our services anything that they can kind of access from home through us um we've applied for two grants that we do every year the shli children's services and Sarah Gillette services for the elderly um the children's Grant is requesting funds for the purchase of Tony boxes for the children's room and if you don't know what those are they're basically they're like little boxes and they have like little figurines and you put a different one on top of the box and it'll tell like a different story they have like Disney ones Paw Patrol um other libraries have them they're pretty popular so Molly our children's librarian coordinated everything um so there's like different boxes and kits for each age group they're cute I think I think it'll be a good addition if we we usually hear whether we got the grand in around the springtime so we'll see and then for the Sarah Gillette services for the elderly um we were asking for funds to create um like a memory Cafe which is um something Paul's been working on that he's very passionate about it's basically like um kind of a a space for caregivers and loved ones people who have memory issues dementia Alzheimer's you know we have Maybe music or a speaker or even just like accessible you know arts and crafts something like that that people can come in and spend some time together so are these organized programs or events yes yeah yep um so hopefully we'll hear about both of those in the spring um and then we are also just finalizing our events calendar for winter spring 2025 as well as our summer reading program um we are doing our opening day a week before so we don't interact with Motocross again this year um so we have a lot planned um the only thing I wanted to run by you guys as far as programming goes um we obviously have increased our programming quite a lot so my question for the board is what are your expectations from me as far as attending programs like for example the craft and chat they come in they color they have cookies I don't call to that because I set it up there's really no need for me to be here to lead anything but um you know things like theing group you know I think they're going to run themselves but things like the cookbook Club I mean I set it up beforehand I can be here if you want me to be here but if it's something that can run itself do each of these groups have like a leader who is in no not necessarily it's just kind of like a casual drop in yeah I'm just thinking can you can somebody be assigned to be kind of the leader or whatever to make sure that the room is clean and stuff all that the trouble I've run into and that I'm experiencing now is that when we have unfortunately volunteers for like leading programs it can be hit or miss um for example our evening book club um we had a volunteer running it for a while I haven't heard from her for three months so I'm having to take it over myself to try to keep it going um um so you know I'm kind of taking on a lot of additional things and if there's a program that you know can kind of run itself you want people to run the book club I do it jointly with my sister yeah if you're interested I can I can send you the sister is H character yeah so I'll send her in to talk to you about it whatever but that way there if she can't be there one week I could or one month I could be there absolutely but yeah cuz I used to do the night oh I used to do the daytime actually y that one's still going strong yeah the daytime ones are easier because I'm already here but evening stuff I have to kind of coordinate to be here because you you can't put in 50 or 60 hours paid for well yeah yeah I think my well I think between my sister and myself too we'd be good at picking books sure that the majority and stuff would like so absolutely because I read some woman claims she reads 200 bucks a year I'm like do you do nothing else but but I don't read 200 bucks a year quite a l yeah so if um usually I I what I propose is like if there's something like tomorrow night when we have a presenter coming in that I know I need to get her equipment hooked up um any technical things you know that I'm happy to be here because I arrang these in advance um but if it's something you know like the cookbook club or the craft and chat where they just come in they do their own thing they clean up you're basically just plowing the room yeah exactly exactly and usually when I'm here for anyway I'm just working out at the desk so I'd rather put my time in you know during the day as opposed to having to to come back you know if they run themselves that that that makes sense okay perfect now the other thing I wanted to mention being a part of the cultural Council yeah hit them up for more money oh good okay so your programs if you want to add programs or what have you because like every year it just seems like we're getting less and less requests oh we can we can help with that yeah and yeah I I've heard that rumor too that there's less applications yeah we're getting less and less applications and what what ends up being what ends up happening is more and more funding ends up going to the gry because they do the concert series so what we do is we just kind of sponsor the bands for the concert series so you know there's certainly opportunities there we love to give program no that's good to know we always try to be you know conservative and respectful of right other people that are I know that there's there's even programs and stuff that I have been to before like there's a I don't know if they even do it anymore a farm in I think they were in Shrewsberry and they raise herbs and stuff and they come in and talk about I think I heard growing herbs and using herb than samples I loved that I think there was one that used to do that that doesn't do it anymore yeah it was like husband and wife and their sister-in-law and they used to come and share recipes and it was they used to get a good turnout food so all right oh that's perfect thank you but yeah definitely hit the for more because I think the we get the more we get hit up by you yeah the more opportunities we've got to maybe get an increase from the town sure things that we're doing and I looked at the February um newsletter and I have Library links and I actually sat with my calendar and I'm like well what will I do you know like there was you know for adult for adult programs it's the length of the list that used to be for the children's programs and now both are so kudos to all of you because that is a lot of work yeah yeah so as long as the board is fine with me just kind of obviously if there's something that I really need to be here for Absolutely I'll be here for but if it's something that runs itself The cookbook Club is usually the same group of people right you know that doesn't VAR much um I don't know pretty rty group I've done that one too perfect and then I think the the last communication that we have that wasn't obviously included on here yet is um we have a staff member that's now out on leave um so we are trying to cover the children's room just as best as we can um she's going to be out on maternity leave probably until for three months um and we were going to have another staff member that was going to cover some of the hours to help us um but they're no longer able to do so so I'm just trying to do as best I can to cover as much as we can with the time that we have um so there's going to be gaps during the day probably no I'm I'm trying to cover I've been sitting in there in the mornings um and then somebody comes in in the afternoon at like the school hours so think the only really Gap would be is if if I have something that I need to kind of focus on 100% I move to my office or if I'm on lunch or something so there's there's not big gaps could you use volunteers for that my sister's retired so but the thing is with we have the union so we have very specific things that our volunteers can do you can't take way work from Paid staff well but if the staff is on attorney Rel you know it's just yeah okay yeah yep so that's that's that um and I did I did also um just let you know Nicole the chief administrative officer know that you know obviously we're going to be short staff um it's cold and flu season something happens and we do not have enough staff to open that will be like the absolute Last Resort but just also let them know that you know we are going to be very short staffed at certain periods of time so you never know when something goes around the building it goes around the building can you off because it's been done in the past offer a few extra hours to the part- timr to cover that's that's what we did we had one person lined up to do it who's no longer able to and then you know so unfortunately that's that's what it is we we should be okay but we're just going to do the best we can and and make it through um and that was it that ad for the communications so I have the minutes from December the other reason I come to the inperson meetings all my FR I can't handle yeah not this look at this Kyle this is a donation from Medline these are our minutes from December um so if there's anything we need to update or change just give me a shout any corrections or updates to the minutes V sure motion to approve second Michael Yes Cindy yes Andrea yes yes get the increase in circulation um fact you didn't have snow so the light where was closed I wouldn't say that I would just say um increased programming you know gets more people in gets more people you know I've been trying to kind of pull books to have during the programs um related displays just marketing as a whole um and yeah I would I would say that our our circulation is looking very good um you know door count has gone up um more reference questions not as many new cards but again you know that always varies from month to month um 14 is still pretty good um and after a while everyone in town will have a c would be the yeah so and our our hoopla and Libby have been um going very strong as well and then as far as our programs I would say that December was another really good month um we obviously have a lot of people attending programs um the children's materials have been very well used so yeah I would I would say overall a a very good very busy month especially for December around holidays I'm very happy with that circulation number to Old business um report on digal collection you should only just a brief update um I know last last month we talked about um trying to kind of Market the ebooks last month we talked about you know who was who was using our ebook collections um and John is trying to do some work to see what the teens can do you know he can do to kind of Market the ebooks to the teens um he's reach out to the high school librarian hopefully they can collaborate um and he's considering reaching out to The English Department to see how they can work together as well um and yeah on a side know he also said he's looking into kind of seeing what clubs these schools already have for teens and how we can supplement that so yeah mostly long story short appears to mostly be adults using our ebooks but I think it's something that the teens could also be interested in as well because you can they're very good with their phones you can do everything phone from a distance so okay and then um the event registration software I did somebody suggested last month and I don't remember who it was um that we talked to the Western M Western mask Library Advocates about seeing if we could get if they could kind of advocate to help us get our funds back from Plymouth rocket that closed and didn't fund any of our money um that's not really something they do I brought it up at their board meeting not really something they do however they are trying to think of ways that they can um you know whether it be through resources through classes to try to help um Library professionals just get more info and help themselves advocate for these kinds of instances But ultimately it's not something that they they do and I think at this point you know if we were to try to take legal action to get our $700 back it's G to cost more than it's than it's gonna be two hours with a lawyer you exactly exactly so I'm at the point where I think it's just we cut our losses it's not terrible you know we saw other libraries lost more but and from what I've been speaking to with other libraries I think everybody's kind of in the same boat and that you know we're not going to get it back and to take action to try to get it back is going to be a lot more work and a lot more money than you mention The Advocates are they doing legislative breakfast or anything they are yes yep yep um there is I think I'm going to the one in West Spring field they posted something the other day let's see there's one in chapi uh Friday January 24th and then there's January 31st in Pittsfield and February 14th at the West Springfield Public Library if anybody's interested in going into any of them um if you have Facebook it's the western Mass Library Advocates on Facebook and they have all the um the event details the times the registration links so I'm planning unless we're short staff that day I'm planning to be there on Valentine's Day at the West Springfield Public Library oh you know how to live yes yes now these these events are really fun um there's different legislators speak different Representatives speak from like the Massachusetts library system it's you know you get really energized um and there's food a breakfast so it's a good time a lot of good networking so you don't go with something with an ask for the legisl no no it's basically um yeah different people speak so like a representative from the western Mass Library Advocates will speak talk about what libraries have done and then um they usually have a few legislators that speak they kind of talk about what like libraries mean to them how they support us and it's a good chance for them to hear what we do from our Representatives usually the ndlc has their legislative agenda what what amount of money they're trying to get from the legislature for the coming year and that stuff is distributed sometimes there might be someone from the mblc or somebody from their board or whatever there because I can remember over the years some legislators at those kind of events saying well we get hit up by taking care of senior housing or this program or that program so if you guys aren't a little louder telling us what you need you won in fact you won't get it so this kind of event is good I mean that's the kind of wording I've heard over the years yeah absolutely yeah so if you're able to make it um really good really inspiring okay can can I send a is it appropriate to send a letter to Mr baliga him I'm sure someone put a 5050 chance 10 90% I know I'm I'm sure somebody else already has they usually send out invits to all the representatives um Nick Nick finds better events all the home builders of Western Mass are having a huge breakfast at the the uh the Comm the uh Convention Center in Springfield so he'll go to that instead of Danish and coffee yeah yeah um new business so our CPC project update still in the works still a long time coming um where we're at now is basically it's going to look like long story short when we started the project with the prior maintenance director um um he was going to do all the work for getting the ground workor for all of our stuff to put in um he's no longer with the town so we are trying to figure out you know what our other options were um and I've been working with a couple different people and it looks like we're going to need you know cement we're not GNA the plan is not to do a big ugly block of cement squares so um the person we were working with kind of Drew up this nice design to have a path that would branches off with the different you know musical instruments there um and obviously when I got a quote it's a lot more so we're basically at the point now where we need we would need more funds to complete the project so we would need to go to the CPC again probably with a revised application to ask for more funds but I'm also just checking in with the maintenance department to see if they even have time to with this project because I am very out of my element um with this type of thing see the thing is do any kind of construction and if it's public buildings you have to provide a sidewalk going out there you can't have gravel with few slates because if someone's in a wheelchair or a walker or they've got a cane or whatever they may trip over so everything has got to be done properly it's got to be the right width got to be yep not under trees so the certainly so the trees have got to come out you know it just it's very different than if you're doing something in your backyard well the quote we got uh just a couple weeks ago he actually said he'd be able to do it without removing the trees which is nice great because they're beautiful they are they well the crab apple ones I'm not a fan of they're beautiful at certain points during the year and other points three weeks other points but it would be nice not to have to remove them um but that's ultimately where the project stands I'm just checking in with maintenance to see if they have time to even assist with this project because I'm trying to figure I don't know what I'm doing well maybe between M maybe DPW might be able to do a little bit you know I don't know something you could ask Randy y yeah yeah so that's that's kind of where it stands now um I'm just waiting for an answer to see whether maintenance has time to even assist and then if they say you know no we really don't have the time to help out with this project then we will try to figure out the next steps from there um because I'm trying to to get quotes from people and I this is not my wheelhouse I don't want to mess something up royalty your cement work took months to get a quote yes yes yeah it took it took a while to um I I I was recommended the maintenance put me in touch with a landscaper in town who has experience with this type of project and then he recommended somebody for me to talk to for the um cement project and it took me a couple months to get him here and then to get a plan and then a quote um so yeah if if if we're going to ask for more funds um I talked with the CP PC coordinator and she she thinks that we'll probably have to do a revised application which is fine we can do that um but obviously it would need to go through the CPC and then be ready for the town meeting in May yeah you know if you back it up the town meetings in May so it have to be approved by a CPC meeting in April which means you probably have to go before them by sometime in March whenever they made yeah my goal was my goal was February because I can I can rework the application fairly quickly but you know I don't I I'm confused about things going into it do I need to have multiple quotes for the project do we need to decide on one before we put the application in thank you speak to miss poer on that yeah yeah there's there's a lot there's a lot and I'm you know with with the um the quotes and working with contractors it's it's just not my wheelous and so I'm I'm hoping to see if if maintenance has time to to assist on that that we were lucky in the past with the insulation project and the when they put the the siding on the outside of the building the vinyl side and all we got the build the uh maintenance department to figure out what needed to be done put the specs together and then be able to send it out to bid to get a couple of prices yep because it's just trying to do it yourself that's not your background yeah that's not my background and I I don't want to do something wrong and have to backtrack and um so that's that's where that project stands and if if nobody has time to assist then we'll figure out what to do from there so so let me just ask you so does things like that have to go through the town through the maintenance department and everything like that I guess what I'm asking is could the library do a fundraiser for something like that potentially um but the the quote I got for the cement work was pretty high so we're talking over 20,000 well no but that's why I mean like does it become like a fundraiser project or whatever to get the town well it's like the cultural council did with the auditorium fixing up the stage and the elevator and all that stuff if somebody is willing to get out there and hustle money like you guys did getting some money from Boston and right some money from the public and a few other places but I mean you know do we it's not like you hit the town up for the people in the town for a lot of things for the library yeah yeah um so do we try to do something like that I mean that that's always a possibility probably wouldn't be something we could pull off for this spring summer but you know could work on putting stuff together yeah yeah let me see um let me see what the maintenance department says I've just been waiting to hear back from them but that's a great idea that before yeah I mean are you thinking like the whole project would cost about $20,000 no that's C you're talking landscaping and all of yeah yeah Landscaping the project included um these they're um kind of meta metal musical instruments outside for kids to play with um benches trash can um so it's so what are we talking are we talking 30 or $40,000 or more I would I would have to run the numbers um I mean just Dr the top of your head maybe because um yeah I mean maybe obviously the prices of things keep going up the longer we wait um but you know the guy who gave me the quote said that they have a way of getting decent benches for a reasonable price so he did include some of the things like benches in his quote so I would have to take them out of the original proposal and move move the numbers around which I haven't had the chance to do yet but you you would need like a construction person to be like to guide the whole project the project manager yeah but then and then it comes with with things that are that expensive and this is where again it's not my wheelhouse you know there's there's bidding and things like that that need to take place and and that I will admit I know very little about so that's what town hall is for it used to be Carl handled bidding I don't know who's doing it now between the T two people there yep so so my my My Hope was to have something for the CPC by their February meeting on the 19th but we we'll see how when I hear if I don't hear anything up back from maintenance this week I'll try to check in with them the beginning of next week and if they say that you know they don't have the time for it then that's fine then we'll figure out our next steps from there so it's taking a little bit longer than than we wanted but that's that's kind of where it stands at the moment um I did already cover the next thing which was the grants we're applying for um book drops update book drops are in they secured them to the ground so now they are permanently here um were they able to get them three or six inches kind of drop the no no Dan Dan looked at at them from maintenance and putting something under them because when you open them you have to pull a cart out right um so it would affect that it would affect you know the the door and the way everything works so they're they're quality book drops they're from a good company I they'll probably last us for a while the other ones we had that got Rusty were probably here since the building opened so I think if you have to replace something once every 15 20 years that's that's a good time you're doing well yeah so so that's that's where we ended with that um all right everybody's favorite time budgets the first thing I had on here was at the end um I wanted to have everybody take a look this budget is our state aid and what we have spent from our state accounts so we have three different state aid accounts and they're each for something different they're all part of that big number that we get twice a year so I figured it would be helpful for me um thank you to have a rough budget when we're looking at our state aid accounts so I did fiscal years 22 23 and 24 and then the first half of about 25 so you can see see what we spent each year on furniture computers miscellaneous supplies and then our programs and our databases resources and whatnot so I wanted to kind of come up with a budget for a rough budget obviously you know there's going to be some years where we have a little bit more to spend like for example when we need to replace our book drops um so at the very end the last page in purple um we have kind of our um amount that we allocate each year to a specific set of vendors uh the greater the is it the greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce it's it's the Westfield Chamber of Commerce I I'm blanking on what the G stands for um so we have that membership Library aware is our email list service read squared is the online platform that we use for like our summer reading or any of our reading challenges and then local hop is our new events calendar so all of those we take out each year from our state aid and then for our other needs I've kind of budgeted computers are usually about $5,000 to $7,000 a year depending costs are going up obviously some years we have more computers to replace than others um and then I I scribbled over the programs one I I put the wrong number in there um so for the programs each department we divide the money we get from the town in our programs line three ways for each the children's teens and adult departments here's your D 98 here your $ two yeah and then um I also give each department a portion from the state aid so it basically comes out to each department has $6,000 a year to spend on performers presenters any type of program materials um so each department gets 4,167 from the state aid so it comes out to be about ,500 for the year and then Furniture I was estimating I think about like $3,000 a year on any type of furniture this is shelving yep rep placing the table chair anything like that yep yep so I wanted to kind of set up a rough budget that you guys could be comfortable with that you know how I'm spending the state aid this this is very good I've never seen anything like this in all my years here yeah you hear X number of dollars for this or for that but you never see stuff written down no I wanted I wanted to make it clear because I I I like having you guys know where the money is going and having a rough budget for I mean obviously like the computers it's going to change every year it depends but this way you know roughly what we're spending and it also gives me a budget and helps me keep me in check so we can say you know looking where we're at what do we need this year what are we needing next year we I remember a couple of years ago at the budget hearing somebody either on the select board or the fincon said oh the rest of the Town computers are paid out of this other budget thing you shouldn't be paying all of your costs there should be some money but even know you ever heard anything after that no I don't recall that um yeah because for years it's always been Library find your own way to replace computers well every so often we have to replace a server and the server is 5 to 7,000 for one computer and the related software yeah they tell us go find the money for it who won't come from town hall yep so so this is kind of what I'm presenting as just a rough budget for each fiscal year um that we will work through to help us keep in check plan what we're spending um and then you know obviously there's going to be like I said some years where we have to spend $11,000 to replace bookd drops but you know so that's the big expense for 2024 2024 or no that 2024 we replaced um we're we were running short of space so that was for a bunch of endcaps if you're ever back in like the fiction the endcaps at the end of each of the stacks we got a bunch of those and it saved us so much space um so again because it's like 2023 you hardly spent anything exact after after I right after I started we were hit with the pandemic and then that wasn't the time to kind of start dreaming big things we were kind of making it through and um and so now we have our we have the money we want to make sure we're budgeting and spending it appropriately um so yeah there there's a little bit less in the earlier fiscal years but now that I've been here for a while I can kind of see what needs fixing and What needs replacing and that's kind of what we've been doing so but yeah if you'll see the fiscal year 2025 this is as of um mid December so that you'll see the furniture where I counted the um book drops was at 15,000 it's not going to be that every year but they needed replacing okay so the book drops are going to hit 2025 yeah yeah yeah they already hit so they hit yep they already hit yep yep it's the town fiscal year is July 1st through June 30th oh okay okay all right get it now yep so so essentially that's that's my plan for the state AG going forward obviously if there's any big changes I always like to run them by the board just so everybody's aware but this will some cost keep going up like poer cartridges I noticed BJs or Costco whatever oh yes they're jumping you know three or four bucks for every package absolutely yeah it's it's quite crazy so if everybody's comfortable with that um that is that's just what I propose as like a a general General budget tentatively could change but well gives us a good idea where we've been and where we're going around y absolutely any other questions before we move on to the big budget and then all the salaries come from the town is that yes okay yeah we're different than the Westfield ath and which is scalone 501c3 that gets 80 or 90% of its money in the city and then they have to figure around rest money somebody's got their arms long all right I printed it I didn't get the nice pretty color oh yeah so this is our um draft budget for the next fiscal year that is due on Friday so we were asked this year to provide a level funded and a 5% decrease if you will notice I pretty much kept all of the lines the same the ones to note are the maintenance and the maintenance contracts lines those ones are controlled by the maintenance department so we had a meeting to discuss because and Andrea this is your first budget season hooray so um basically if you look at the last line the informational materials line under Library operations that line um that one the state requires us to have it be 19% of our town appropriated funds the trick is that includes salaries which we don't know yet um obviously we we can kind of know the union salaries because those are in the contract however myself and the assistant director we don't know our salaries for next year so I usually do the best that I can estimating with the numbers that we have as much as we can predict so um maintenance needed um what they wanted to do for their lines for their maintenance normally in the maintenance line they have more in the maintenance contracts they have less they wanted to switch that because they find that they're spending more out of the maintenance contracts line than the regular maintenance line so they wanted um $18,300 for the maintenance contracts and then $5,000 for general maintenance and since that is what they're going to request I PL it in here so we can work with it um now doesn't exactly work with the 5% decrease yeah so what I did I I didn't want to go in here and be like no no we won't show you a 5% decrease at all I want to show them that yes this is what it would look like with a 5% disree where would I take that 5% out of can't take it out of any of the operations fuel electricity got to keep the building open um supplies we need our supplies I took it out of to show them the informational materials line which is ironically that's the line where the materials those are the stuff for our patrons that's the number one line that stuff goes directly to the patrons so I took it out of that line and ran the numbers they're in red because if we took it out of that line we're not going to meet our 19% requirement which is state law state we yes if if we don't meet it then there's a lot of paperwork and yeah so if we were look at our level funded line um I did increase very slightly from it was $93,000 this current year I bumped it up to 9575 which is basically using the estimated salaries as best that I can to make it as close as it can to the absolute minimum of that 19% requirement that we need so if all the and the trick is what happens is if maintenance comes in and says they want $18,000 for example more this year you put in more money in another line that 19% is going to go up so the more you add the more that night do you know what I'm saying it's been a long day help me help me help you explain it and I don't want to invite myself to do this but Michael could I call you later for a little budget tutorial okay um just so that I don't bog down this meeting but the big question I have is why does maintenance have such a stronghold like why do we have to be level funded or five depend percent see the way the town did it up until five or six years ago there was no maintenance lines maintenance was all paid out of one or two lines at Town Hall Central yes one of the select and I don't remember which one said let's split up maintenance to each individual building so DPW Police Department fire department you're all going to have a maintenance line so the maintenance depart and said okay we'll do that whatever our costs are we'll attach that to that building yeah yes so they basically control those two lines within our budget um and then so usually I meet with them every year to say what are you going to ask for because I need to know so that we can figure out our 19% okay so all right I need a tutorial yep so total 24 budget this is what was agreed upon during the budget meeting from last year uh so the total fiscal year 2024 that was the previous fiscal year technically last year yes so that was the budget so that was the budget then FIS year that was what we expended that's what you actually spent out of the budget and then the total fiscal year 25 is the current year we're in okay um where is the current year so the current year doesn't match the 24 budget where is that coming from so like you you had a budget of 33,000 for electricity yep you only spent 18,000 of it yep but you're expecting 25,000 for 2025 well that's that's our current year so they did reduce our electricity line um because obviously we had a lot left over if you'll remember from the yeah from the last budget meeting um last year we had a lot left over so they reduced our line to 25,000 at the end of the year on June 30 it's like sent to your personal checking account the money you haven't spent by midnight on June 30th goes into what I will call the slush fund right the town calls it free cash for years our utilities were way overfunded so on June 30th we would give back to town hall 10 or $220,000 every year okay and they knew it was money we would never spend okay so so that they could have been allocated elsewhere the free cash for the last three years in this town is been between three and four million a year from all the Departments you know in total the master checking account call it so they could then spend that hey we let you buy two more Cruisers you want a dump truck here's 180,000 for a new dump truck so it's intentionally engineered into the budget yes and what Joe has done as chairman of the finance committee over the last year or two since he's been on there he's taken the $3 million let's just say the three million was last year's free cash he said let's take a million or a million and a half of that and buy down the tax rate you know so all sorts of things happen with that used to be cultural Council gets like a p we'll give you $3,100 yeah get like two grand okay okay because I'm just trying to understand all right yeah so um yeah obviously we don't they didn't have they didn't add in the um total fiscal year or current year we've expended so but they will for the budget meetings okay so this is so the total expended is only like through a certain date it's not for the full year the if you're looking at the total fiscal year 2025 expended um halfway through that year y they they don't tell you how much we've spent so far yeah I mean we we have an idea you know Heather has her records so yeah we have an idea but they'll they'll add it in as of like right before the meeting right so they know what we've spent so far okay because I I guess I'm just trying to understand so when they wrote the budget for 24 you had 176,000 say for Library operations yes and then at 25 it's already down to 171,000 yes and they want you to go down 5% right more than that right why the 5% decrease the town for years has said zero minus5 plus five and they did that for like eight or 10 years in a row and when you read the message it was the same message every year we're in dire Financial circumstances the economy has been destroyed or in the middle of a depression and they Ed the same wording year after year had nothing to do with reality yeah but when you go to these budget hearings in February on a Saturday morning first Department that comes in is like police fire DPW they immediately tell you I've got to add two more officers so there's $150,000 fire dep say we need 300,000 from new pump truck DPW you need two pickup trucks and $180 $180,000 dump truck so they never listen to the minus5 or level fund they're always asking for more and the schools come in and say with the reduction in the number of students we need an extra $3 million so then it's the library the town clerk the cultural Council that are told times are tough we can give you a couple of pennies but we can't give you a dollar bill I mean we got to start being squeet a Wheels we really do because you should have your little patio out there if the if the town has $3 million in flush each year should have a beautiful little patio out there I should be talking about us in a Springfield they are we get a lot of Comedy SC yes you are and you should well see the the the key reality with the library budget is the town accountant understands where you've got to meet those state requirements there were terrified of Boston you to select the town everybody's terrified of Boston and Boston it's in the state law they called mgl Mass General law about the 19% and the fact that your budget has to go up 2 and a half% over the running running average three years so they know that so they calculate what that number is and they'll say we'll give you 200 bucks 300 bucks over that just for rounding ISS yeah so to summarize um the state has many requirements for us we have to be open a certain number of hours open all all based on our town size um and then we have to meet 19% of our budget has to be spent on what they call informational material books movies any of our you know some of our digital resources um anything that's directly for Patron use and then we also have to meet our Municipal appropriation requirement which is the past three fiscal years added up divided by three and then it's like a 2.5 it's a 2.5% increase so we have to meet that as well so if you look on the very last page this is my and I printed them so it's like stapled in the wrong space but um this is my explanation of the budget sheet for the the finance committee obviously so they they know what we're asking for and why we're asking for um so our Municipal appropriation requirement in that second paragraph there uh is 49284 so that's what our budget has to be in order to meet our Municipal appropriation requirement and um you know our budget has hasn't been going up a lot year toe so we you know we are slowly approaching that requirement obviously with the first budget here that's says it's level funded but technically not because we have to bump up that 19% line you know we would meet as I said at the bottom in bold we would meet the 19% requirement and we meet the municipal appropriation requirement um as best I can figure out again because they have us leave the salaries blank so what I did to kind of calculate the salaries as best I could um I think it's the fifth page in the one that's this one this one does not go to the finance committee this is just my math so you can see my math um see if I print it out yeah if you don't I have more copies of this it was all part of the same document so you probably do have it um this is where I calculated the yeah the municipal appropriation requirement at the very top there then to calculate the salaries to give me an idea obviously things may change we may not get what we're asking for it all depends um myself and Heather are at the top um I calculated ours out the union ones are set in their Union contracts so those are a little bit more predictable okay however we are also asking for an increase in hours for one of our circulation positions I did not include that in this number because we asked for a few years we haven't gotten it if we do get it the extra amount is it's not going to be that much we we can figure it out you know um so so that's what I calculated for the salaries so if you're looking at it from the beginning first page 5% decrease level funded second page they wanted to know um like the current balance of our gift account um any of our grant accounts I included our state aid and what we got there I also included um you know the Sarah gelatin shirtliff grants because this is new asking for that before this is new this year and I also included the the CPC funds because I just want to have everything in there so we don't forget anything um the third page is where we are asking for that um borrower Services librarian just taking one of our four circulation Librarians giving them more hours with a higher pay rate because there's more responsibilities that's where we're asking for that and if you go to again the very last page um at the second part where it says on form two for the circulation librarian um I it's it's a lot of words but I wanted to make sure that everything was very clearly on here I calculated it out what it would be because there Union has two pay rates for certain positions so if you um if you've been here under 10 years it's one rate if you've been here over 10 years it's a little bit higher um so I calculated everything out all of the math so essentially if a non- 10-year employee if this position was approved if a non- 10year employee were to get it the difference would be about 12,300 if a person who had been here 10 plus years were to get it the difference would be about 12,600 so we're looking at a difference of $112,000 about to give this P to give this person more hours and more pay just curious if that position were approved do you sort of have someone in mind yes what I what I did what I did um as we've done from the very beginning with this before we go through this whole process and we ask people um or we ask for the money I wanted to make sure that we had somebody interested in it first before we do all the work so yes um and then and maybe this is ignorant but you have all of these documents you give us every month where that that prove all these numbers and statistics that prove that you're actually doing more work and serving more people but I don't see that in any of your letters like is that is it an appropriate paragraph to have hey we're like we're up in everything like 17 20% this year in this and this we've had this many people that kind of comes up on that Saturday budget meeting where they're saying well you know everything is tough tough tough you say we serve 3,000 customers a month 36,000 or 40,000 whatever the number is per year more people come to the library than to any other department right yes so my goal between now and those meetings is to try to pull together some charts and graphs thankfully um these monthly department head reports are going to they're going to the select board now so the select board see them every month um and our numbers are on there so um yeah before our finance committee meetings usually Saturdays in February or March um I'm hoping to pull together some graphs and charts and numbers um to just give them an idea because what the police and fire department do is they come with slick brochures from the dealer saying if you give us this new truck look how what it looks like in color here our farm parade yeah yeah so so yes we do have the numbers and my hope is to pull together something that we can okay present and give to them for for that meeting yeah I mean it sounds like oh yeah you can make a very valid argument I think so yeah one point one of those Saturday morning meetings some number of years ago how do you know how many people come to the library we have a machine on the front door so everyone that comes through it counts oh you've got that yeah that was very sophisticated to them they were selling that stuff at Radio had 50 years ago now so the the grounds work that you want to have done I know that it's mentioned here on one of the pages is any of the cost of that built into this maintenance budget no no no this is own separate thing no yeah they they usually go through our maintenance budget they they need all of what they ask for so you have a drawing schematic of what you want to do out there yep I would put it on a big whiteboard I see my other question is too is is I don't know if we can do that because it was a contractor who drew it up so whether it's his property because he designed it I would assume if we were to go to other people and ask them to design it we'd have to just ask them to least gives the select board an idea of what you're looking to oh oh okay I thought you meant like for just in general but would I would bring it to the meeting make it look really the color pencil it or what have you and that will be our Slick Truck that we're you know looking for in the meeting and get them kind of excited about the other thing I will mention is um if you when we looked at all of the state aid graphs that I pulled together that's all stuff that we don't ask them for all of those computer all that furniture all those programs the town doesn't we don't ask for that you know that comes from our state a they don't have to pay for that well we don't I don't think you want to talk about that with them because you're hitting them up for money yeah so you don't want them to have the fall back of oh well you do get all that state funding what what one year this is prior to Joi we had a chairman of the finance committee when we were doing the installation in the roof asked us to ask Boston or have a fundraiser do something to pay for the installation and myself and whoever I know Diane or Ann whoever the director was the time we said we don't have 75,000 bucks and it's not our job to provide installation to keep the building public building yeah so so with the exception of the page with all the numbers on it this is just my numbers um the rest of this will be submitted by Friday to the town um I may add on page three Michael do you think I should if we're we were discussing um because as we found with Heather's salary year after year is she's kind of lumped in with the other administrative assistance per se um and so we found that originally we thought it was the same across the board for everybody for the raises for them but we found that it it differs oh yeah um so when I was looking at the numbers for last year and what the other administrative assistance they were requesting for you know the assistant to the uh like the assistant to the accountant assistant to like the treasurer clerk um they all asked for 4% so I imagine that they're going to ask big again this year if you think that's a healthy number to ask for Heather's position it it really is because if you look at the the real data nationally the Consumer Price Index the last 12 months in the country was 2.9% and the Northeast it's three and a half per. right that stuff is not going down the cost of heating oil the cost of electric know you look at that January Electric gas bill if youve got natural gas it didn't go down it gu rocket it yep um so I will I I did mention that in our explanation on the final page but I'd probably help to put her on the salaries page too to just so it's in both places um all they can do is say no all they can do is say no my salary my contract's up in June so we negotiate at some point so I don't know what mine will be but um yeah so so that's that is what I proposed to everybody on well we would submit I know in years past we've left the 5% decrease line completely blank and said we simply cannot do this but I I did present it this year because I figured maybe it would be helpful for them to see us actually try to do it and how it's not going to work yeah it it as long as they understand that yeah that bottom online just won't work because state law says got to go up yep yep so yeah if you don't meet your your 19% requirement you Municipal appropriation requirement um you could lose your state aid um all that fun stuff I remember one year somebody in the fincon at that Saturday meeting said so how much is the state money and at that time it was very low was like1 or 122,000 a year here they said oh so we could give you 3,000 so you need all that stuff and you get 12 I think we have to do that because one year we didn't and the town accountant by state law and all the rest of it had to go back and justify how did the police budget change how did the fire department budget change how did DPW change and why the library got more of a cut than these other department that got increases the town accountant said she went through so much work and so much stuff she never wanted to do that again so they've always known whatever that minimum is will give you two or 300 above it just for rounding erands well right and it would be what is it Penny wise and pound foolish for them to you know that that doesn't make any sense to L that right so what effect does the fact that they need to do Town Hall repairs and things like that have to do on the overall budget nothing we we've got between three and four million in free cash every year for the last three years the the the last time I mentioned that to one of them they looked at me like how did you know I said I want on the State website go on the the Department of Revenue and the data is there for every city in town all 351 in the state that information is public they thought it was a Seer oh I publicly go on the State website all that information is there I said in fact here's a print out of the last four years your with just like it just it's it's not you're getting secret information right right it's all public yeah so if everyone is confident with this budget um then this is this is what I will submit it's it's due Friday so I usually like to do a last run through of everything just to double check and then I sure there's nothing that you forgotten or nothing that would be really good to have or yeah I mean I mean obviously I think we would just the asking for the more hours for that position would make right a world of difference I think because see the the key thing if you look at some like programming the money you get from the state only pays for a few programs so you're trying to get money from these two private foundations you hit up the friends of the library for money to pay for programs and to do different things but that's the function of it the friends are happy to do it right but it's like cultural Council yeah cultural councel it's not like town is paying for1 2% of every you spend or not no I mean I think we could always ask for more in programs but you know we we supplement with the state aid and other grants and whatnot so kind of the biggest concern right now is just Staffing so okay I'm just thinking about private sector yeah okay so when I'm writing my budget I might pad certain areas so that I have give back and so that I can protect the areas that I really want to have the funding for so in other words if I really needed this salary I might hit the furniture budget up by 20 grand or something something like that so that they could say absolutely no to the furniture budget but then they would approve the salary budget how does it work in budget it it works the same way here for example I'll have a figure in here for for part-time salaries every June 30th you know you're giving back five or $110,000 out of that salary line to town hall you know you're giving a little bit of the natural gas money because you didn't spend all of it because we had at a reasonable year that's why if you look at okay FY 24 the budget versus actually spent you can see a get back yeah there's always some give back in there how do you feel are there any parts of this that you feel pretty solid about or you have some trepidation about I mean I mean I feel I feel pretty solid I I like to present a responsible budget and I feel like this is a responsible budget you know we we don't ask for more than we need no I know but how many times have you asked for this extra salary piece yes that's why I went really hard with the numbers four five years well that's that's what I mean so that's why if we can come in with how much um you know the circulation has increased and everything like that that all plays directly into that and why it would make sense to have here out there out lunch more often on that Saturday morning if we could have three or four people or five sitting in the audience we don't know they they'll usually let us know in like February because I'll be told for the Cal counsel right because T typically you look at the the senior center they'll get five or six seniors there and the Selectmen will look all Mrs Jones or Mrs Smith you know who's 80 or 90 years old who's been around forever oh yes well we need to take care of the senior center and we need to take care of you people if they see a face it's not just the department and or somebody I think there's that's a good tactic tired yeah yeah appreciate all the work that you put into it right all the thought you put into it stuffff just want to make sure that we're supporting you and getting cranky if we need to yeah well said yeah do we need to vote so I can submit sure all those in favor of proposed budget that ly has put together um Michael Yes Cindy yes Andrea yes Samy yes okay okay I will Breeze through the last part of this meeting so we can get home in a reasonable amount of time um the next thing on here I'm just requesting a a change um the minimum Staffing policy we have um in this policy that the library cannot be operated by only two staff members for longer than a two-hour period on weekdays but then we have it on Saturday um it can't be operated by two people from more than 3 hours I'm just requesting that we change it to to be the same thing originally we put it in there because I was like oh we have to make sure people get breaks and whatnot Oh They'll we'll absolutely get breaks but my thinking is like if we're ever short staffed on a weekday afternoon and we really can't close early if we have students here waiting for a ride so I'm just requesting that we change it across the board to just be it can't be operated by two people alone for more than three hours regardless of the day of the week so that it's it's standard um and we don't run into any issues potentially you know because you really can't close the building early if there's kids here waiting for a ride okay any discussion well then let's vote on making that that correction Michael Yes Cindy yes and yes Tammy yes and then we were asked by the so this will so this last sentence will change from a twoh hour period to a thre hour period yeah on weekdays yep um we were asked by the Southwick master plan implementation committee I sent around a copy of um where they think the library I almost fell over that would be a fantastic way to end the night think we should sit further apart next we I'll sit somewhere on the stack all right so this this is um as part of the Town master plan this is the areas where they see that the library can be a supporting role so we have to provide a response to the areas that they think we can support um obviously the first one action 3.3 um intergenerational opportunities we kind of already do that spaces such as a community center I would argue that we are a community center um with resources programming materials all for all ages free of cost um and then we regularly offer programming from people from babies to seniors um programs are often held during after school hours which in they mentioned um an after school hangout space that is in safely walkable distance from school that's us um so we do that I'm just gonna reiterate that you know yes obviously we do that um and action 1.5 so we aren't considered a historical building however we do have a wealth of historical information about the town and our local history collection um action 1.6 developing a local preservation award I just said we'd be happy to participate in help as needed I don't know what we could you know our building's only 99 so it's not that old um action 2.4 broaden the knowledge of American Indians and Southwick by exploring historical archives um you know I said we have again our local history collection which definitely has information in there we've partnered before with the Historical Society to offer program on Native Americans and we definitely be interested in doing so again um and then the last one a master plan implementation progress card and I just said we'd be happy to participate as needed as we detail our process through all of this I will obviously clean up our response but if anybody has anything else that they think they can add or that we should add um yeah this is this is how they think the library can and you you've got a couple of copies of the master plan are they for circulation or just use in the I think I got a couple I have I know I have one in reference and I think one circulates we may just anyone ask about um I I don't know I don't know they would go to the reference desk so maybe maybe they have I'm not sure I think it's online too it is I believe it's online yeah yep um so this is what I'll be submitting to the obviously once I cleaned up the work I didn't really have much time so I did bullet points um so I will clean it up and I'll submit it to the master plan implementation committee um and then so just to be clear when I saw this nobody's asking the library to take a lead on any no we're supporting okay yeah we're leading a supporting role okay so okay yeah so the action side that's when you wrote up the no this is this is all them I just I just have my bullet point notes I read um so yeah but I I it's a good chance for us to kind of let them know that you know we are an after school hangout we do have after school programs um you know so we are in walking distance to the schools so I will I will clean up my responses submit them to the master plan committee and just kind of make this okay a priority going forward yeah and you have the community room so if you want to so with a plaque you've yeah we can dress it up a little you know less boxes and stuff we'll make it look nice in here yeah so that's that and then what was the last thing oh the last thing is just nothing nothing anybody needs to vote on or do anything about but it's just a copy of our um what I submitted for the annual report for the town getting better your arm is [Laughter] just it's good that that you WR a good bit of stuff I don't know if anyone actually reads Daniel report I do but I don't know if anyone else does for all the different departments and committees and commissions yeah yeah we try to focus on the you know all the really good things and obviously you know these are some of the numbers that we can dress up and present um obviously it's it can be kind of confusing because the fiscal year is July to June and this is from January to December calendar so you know you don't want to confuse anybody with those numbers but obviously this is kind of a good way to show a lot of what we do and that is it from me well done so our next meeting would be sorry our next meeting would be February 11th at 7 pm and take a vote uh shut down the meeting for the the month Michael Yes Cindy yes Andrew yes Tammy yes everybody have a good night Tammy