Carbondale Reporter

Carbondale Public Library Board of Trustees met April 11. 

Here is the minutes as 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 (3)

Joyce Hayes, Secretary

Don Prosser, Treasurer (2, plus 2 excused)

Julian Pei (1)

Roland Person (1)

Harriet Simon (3)

Susan Tulis (2)

Absent.

Sharifa Stewart (4)

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.

Four students.

President’s report.

Secretary’s report.

1. Approval of March 14, 2018 minutes. Roland Person moved to approve the minutes. Barbara Levine

seconded. There is one correction: add Roland Person as present. MOTION passed unanimously.

Correspondence and communications.

None.

Financial report.

1. Approval of bills payable up to and including bills due April 16, 2018 to May 15, 2018. Along with

standard expenses, notable bills include Servpro and A&W Plumbing from the flood. Barbara Levine moved

to pay the bills. Joyce Hayes seconded. MOTION passed unanimously.

2. Set Finance Committee meeting near end of April: Tuesday, April 24 at 4:00 p.m.

3. Harriet made a motion to authorize the finance committee to approve all bills to be paid by the last day of

the fiscal year, not to exceed budgetary authority. Susan Tulis seconded. MOTION passed unanimously.

4. Acceptance of the financial report for March 2018. The materials budget was reduced when we were

uncertain that our per capita funds would arrive, and to make up for the reduced amount of promised per

capita. We’ve not had any major unanticipated expenses, so we’re in good shape for the end of the fiscal

year. Don Prosser moved to approve the financial report. Julian Pei seconded. MOTION passed

unanimously.

Librarian’s report.

1. Building and grounds maintenance. The flood in March was caused by a plumbing failure in the men’s

restroom. While it was not caused by sabotage, the failure happened when very minor work was underway.

Our restrooms are sometimes sabotaged in various ways, so we’ve looked for solutions to prevent the kind

of sabotage that could cause a flood. Maintenance Manager Josh Fenton found that we could have stainless

steel covers made locally to protect our toilet fixtures for $125 each (a fraction of the cost of other options).

While this expenditure does not require board approval, the Director sought the board’s opinion. Don

Prosser made a motion to commission the stainless steel covers. Philip Brown seconded. MOTION passed

unanimously.

2. Review of April 10th budget hearing. There were no questions or comments about the library’s budget.

3. Consider extending insurance reimbursement of $278.23 to the library Maintenance Manager for his time

installing cove base. Barbara Levine made a motion to extend the reimbursement for cove base installation

to Josh Fenton for performing that work. Susan Tulis seconded. MOTION passed unanimously.

4. Other. The Director brought the following to the board’s attention:

The budget includes a table of property tax rates from each local taxing body over the last ten years. I’ve

attached these pages for your information. I created the following table to show how our levy coincides with

our tax rate. You’ll notice that our FY18 levy was $30,057 higher than it was two years prior in FY16, and

yet the tax rate is lower, costing the individual property owner less money (assuming their property is not

reassessed at a higher value). For FY19 we’ve increased our levy a modest $15,004. This might not increase

the tax rate at all.

FY16                              FY17                                  FY18                                FY19

$1,001,892 levy             $1,031,949 levy                 $1,031,949 levy                $1,046,953 levy

0.33669 tax rate             0.34134 tax rate                0.33583 tax rate                Not yet available

Committee reports.

None.

Unfinished business.

None.

New business.

None.

Other.

None.

Adjournment.

Adjourned at 4:55 p.m.

Board Meetings for 2018 (all in Public Library meeting room, 4:30 p.m., second Wednesday of each

month): May 9, 2018, June 13, 2018, July 11, 2018, August 8, 2018, September 12, 2018, October 10, 2018,

November 14, 2018, December 12, 2018

http://carbondalepubliclibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/April-2018-minutes-Carbondale-Public-Library-Board-of-Trustees.pdf