PDF Minutes of Meeting of the Board of Trustees Highland Public Library Tuesday, August 1, 2017 30 Church Street Highland, NY 12528 Attending: Joanne Loewenthal, President; Darlene Plavchak, Vice President for Internal Matters; Nancy Hammond, Vice President for External Matters; Frances Brooks, Recording Secretary; Eric Norberg, Financial Officer; Mark McPeck, Assistant Financial Officer and Technology Director; Julie Dempsey, Library Director and Melissa Burdash , Corresponding Secretary and Fundraising Chair (Late) Attending from the Friends of the Highland Public Library: Angela Grieco Guest: Alan Barone, Construction Manager The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. The members recited the Pledge of Allegiance Due to Alan Barone’s schedule, the Board had him give the Construction Project Update prior to the regular meeting. Delay in the construction project is due to the building design with the roof structure that is intricate and time consuming. Manpower is tough to get for public works (Arris is Unionized) We are hoping the roof will be airtight by the end of the week so other trades can do their jobs. Tomorrow (Wednesday, August 2, 2017) some partitions will go up. We hope there will be sufficient partitions to have electric installed. Long lead items are in storage (windows, doors, door frames, cement board, siding, roof tops, A/C) so we won’t be waiting for them to come in. The target date for substantial completion of the project is mid-October. There is no penalty for the project not being completed by a certain date. If a penalty was put in the contract, there would also have to be a reward for completing the project early. Gas is installed in the back of the building. All storm lines are connected. There are 9 carpenters for the General Contractor on the site. By the end of this month, curbs and sidewalks should be installed. There have been no issues with the neighbor on West side of the site (we cleared out poison ivy and trimmed some of their trees for them). There have not been any issues with the neighbor on the East side of the site. We are within allowances and contingencies in the budget. At this point, Al Barone left and the regular Board Meeting began. Nancy moved to accept the minutes of the July 6, 2017 BOT Meeting. Darlene seconded. All were in favor. Financial Report: There are no anomalies. We received a very good report from our accountant. We have $17,000 remaining in our 2016-2017 Budget. Julie will research items to fund from this amount. Eric moved as follows: Be it resolved to accept the Financial Report for June, 2017 as received from Rose Turmo Woodworth, CPA. Fran seconded. All were in favor. Mark moved as follows: Be it resolved to approve the warrants attached for operating expenses for the month of July, 2017. Eric seconded. All were in favor. Nancy moved as follows: Be it resolved to approve the warrants listed below for the capital construction project as presented for payment July 31, 2017: Arris - $133,553.71 Ashley Mech - $9,262.01 Atlantic Testing - $900.19 Barone Construction - $7,498.08 Butler Rowland Mays - $0 Carson Block Consulting - $4,000.00 SRI Fire Sprinkler - $24,355.62 Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna - $517.50 Fran seconded. All were in favor. Director’s Report: 1) Construction Grant We received a construction grant for $81,000 for last year for Construction Manager and Radiant heat. Have received the initial check of $73,000 + Julie is applying for another grant for from $140,000 to $145,000 for accessibility and services (hearing loop, video conferencing, bike stations, benches, digital signage and generator, etc.). 2) Maintenance Options-New Building We have several options regarding maintenance for the new building: 1. Create a new position 2. Contract it out and increase the frequency of performing tasks 3. Contract with school district (that already has maintenance staff) for shared services (for electrician, plumber, snow plowing, and a custodian, etc). If we go with option #3, we would have to address payment issues; determine if the school district is staffed to do shared services. This would give us some positive public relations if it is a workable solution. Eric moved to authorize Julie to explore shared services with the school district. Nancy seconded. All were in favor. Eric moved to accept the ITC proposal for telephony and cameras as recommended by Carson Block, IT Consultant (for infrastructure, cables, phone system, cameras, etc.) Nancy seconded. All were in favor. The proposal includes: $23,590 for installation of the complete system $4,570 for phone hardware and service $16,200 for installation of cameras and training We are applying for a grant to cover the security expenditures. In addition, there would be a charge of $189.89 phone cost per month vs what we are paying Verizon now (over $200 per month). New Business: The Board needs to work on the Long-Range Plan and get community input by utilizing focus groups. The Board needs to develop a questionnaire and go out to the community to see what they want from their Library. We also need to insure that the new Library is environmentally sustainable and able to grow. To insure that it is, Julie has issued directives that there will be no paper cups in the new building; employees will need to bring their own cups and there will be drinking fountains for the kids. Julie plans to reach out to the Lloyd Police Department to develop policies and training; e.g. active shooter policy. She also wants to get Narcan training for the Library staff. (Narcan is a medication to block the effects of opioids, especially overdoses). Committees: Personnel: Some policies may need to be reviewed and revised and will be addressed in the future. Fundraising: We are not hard selling the paving stones. We have one business that is interested in a paving stone, but has not yet indicated what they want inscribed on the stone. Fran will contact them. Melissa mentioned a 5K run/walk as a possible fund raiser either on the Walkway or the Rail Trail. She also mentioned a 5K run/walk that has ice cream at every stop. Friends of the Highland Public Library: Angela announced that the next Friends Board Meeting is Saturday August 26, 2017 in the upstairs room of the Library. The meet & greet portion of the Board Meeting begins at 10:15 a.m. and the regular meeting begins at 10:30 a.m. August is membership enrollment month. Notices have been sent out for members to pay their yearly dues. Fran moved to go into Executive Session. Eric seconded. The Board moved into Executive Session at 7:40 p.m. The Board came out of Executive Session at 7:50 p.m. The next meeting of the BOT will be on Thursday, September 7, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. Eric moved to adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 7:52 p.m.