Carbondale Reporter

City of Carbondale Library Board of Trustees met September 13.

Here is the minutes provided by the Board:

Call to order.

Called to order at 4:30 p.m.

Roll call.

Introductions, audience and visitors. Visitors are asked to introduce themselves at this time and present any issues they wish to discuss. Visitors wishing to address specific agenda items will be granted two to five minutes at the discretion of the President, not to exceed a total of twenty minutes. The Library Board may cut short any comments that are irrelevant, repetitious, or disruptive. (Id. at 1425-26).

Present.

Philip Brown, President

Barbara Levine, Vice President (1)

Joyce Hayes, Secretary

Roland Person

Julian Pei

Harriet Simon (2)

Sharifa Stewart (1)

Absent.

Don Prosser, Treasurer (3)

Susan Tulis (2)

The number following the Trustee’s name indicates the number of absences this fiscal year.

Staff present.

Diana Brawley Sussman, Library Director

Gwen Hall Grosshenrich, Finance Manager

Visitors present

 None.

President’s report.

None.

Secretary’s report.

1. Approval of August 9, 2017 minutes. Minutes: Barbara Levine moved to approve the minutes. Joyce Hayes seconded. Harriet Simon noted one typo. MOTION to approve minutes with one correction passed unanimously.

Correspondence and communications.

None.

Financial report.

1. Approval of bills payable up to and including bills due September 16, 2017 to October 15, 2017. Bills include masonry work as well as standard bills. Roland Person motioned to pay bills. Julian Pei seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

2. Acceptance of the financial report for August 2017. The Finance Manager reported that another $100,000 was moved to checking from reserves to cover expenses. We should receive property tax revenue in late September or October. Philip Brown motioned to accept the financial report. Roland Person seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

3. Discuss FY19 levy and budget priorities. There is one possible capital project that the Director is researching, which is to create a walled off area for teens, a “no adults allowed / under 21 area” with computers, the teen collection, and craft activities upstairs in the northeast corner. The wall would be clear, perhaps acrylic. We see large groups of older kids and teens, especially in the summertime. While the children’s area attracts families with younger children, older kids end up clustered around computers where adults are trying to work. We hope to provide an attractive space and better service to teens and older kids in a way that’s less intrusive to adults.

Because the library did not raise its levy this year, the tax rate went down slightly. A home with a retail value around $150,000 will pay about 48 cents less this year. This may allow us to raise the levy slightly without raising the cost for individual taxpayers. The board feels that if we don’t have to raise the levy to meet expenses, then we shouldn’t raise it. However, there are some revenue shortfalls, particularly with the state replacement tax, and the board does not necessarily want to short change the staff either. They asked the Director to present the numbers for discussion at the October meeting.

Librarian’s report.

1. Building and grounds maintenance. Reviewed before and after photos of masonry cleaning.New light bulbs for all canned lighting are being purchased at reduced price in conjunction with an Ameren grant. Bulbs will last longer, use less electricity, and be less of a fire hazard. We are looking into cost of replacing long florescent lights and lighting in Brush. Thanks to Maintenance Manager Jimmy Kalert for finding and pursuing this opportunity.

2. Per Capita requirement: Review and discuss chapters 1-2 of “Trustee Facts File Third Edition.” The board reviewed the chapters and discussed the different types of libraries. They discussed ila.org as a resource for understanding current library and advocacy issues, and accessing the ILA Reporter online.

3. Per Capita requirement: Discussion of services provided by the Illinois State Library Literacy program. The board reviewed the website at http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/library/literacy/home.html. The Director pointed out the Electronic Literacy Resource List under Quick Links, which has extensive resources for literacy practitioners. We will link to that, as well as the State Library’s literacy page on the our website. The board and Director are very grateful that John A. Logan has been given a literacy grant again. They had provided literacy and ESL tutoring for decades, but did not get the grant and dropped the service during the budget impasse. Carbondale has residents from over 70 different countries, so lack of ESL tutoring created a devastating service gap in our region.

Committee reports.

None.

Unfinished business.

None.

New business.

None.

Other.

None.

Adjournment.

Adjourned at 5:12 p.m.

Next Board Meetings for 2017 (all in Public Library meeting room, 4:30 p.m., second Wednesday of each month except for October): October 4, November 8, December 13.

http://explorecarbondale.com/sites/default/files/Council%20Minutes/2017CouncilMinutes/Boards%20and%20Commissions%20Minutes.pdf