Lincoln Library Trustees’ Meeting Minutes
February 14, 2006
Present: Trustees: Jack Pugh, Jacquelin Apsler, Marshall Clemens, Diana Abrashkin, Peter Sugar;
Library Director: Barbara Myles; Staff Representative: Lisa Bracken
Minutes
The January 24, 2006 minutes were approved as amended.
Announcements
None
Financial Report
The report is in the town’s format because Kathy Rushby is on vacation. She will reconfigure the data to show contrasting periods when she returns.
All preferred budgets were accepted; there will be no override; final approval of all budgets will be voted at Town Meeting on March 25, 2006.
Jack will prepare overheads for Town Meeting presentation: Maintenance budget for $25,000 includes $11,000 for standard annual expenditures, $10,000 for elevator vent repair, and the remaining $4,000 for a few special, one-shot items depending on costs.
A building committee member will explain the windows funding request: analysis of budget, contingency, fees, number of windows (60-70), and why the cost averages $5,000/window. The Capital Preservation Committee will meet on Feb. 16—they seem very sympathetic, and the Ridge Apt. purchase by the town Is off the table, which frees up the CPC money.
Librarian’s Report
See attached report.
The Capital budget was approved.
FOLL is accepting grant requests from the staff.
Building repairs:
The oil burner’s solenoid valve was replaced. Our repair and maintenance company will research compatibility between boiler and burner.
A new vent for the elevator shaft will be replaced when the Fire Dept. reviews the plans.
Ads for designer services for the vault renovation project were published in the Central Register and the Waltham Tribune. Bids are due on March 1.
In Memory of John Bottino, the Trustees will send a card with a drawing of the Library by Peter Sugar, expressions of appreciation and sorrow by Diana Abrashkin, and signed by the Trustees.
Staff Concerns
None except for concern about the slow pace of replacing the worn out carpeting.
Friends of the Library Newsletter
The FOLL asked for our review of an article about the library budget that they will include in their next newsletter to be mailed to all Lincoln households. Jacquelin will collect our feedback for the FOLL.
Strategic Planning
Members of the Strategic Planning committee indicated that the Trustees are perceived as not being visible enough or proactive enough. Discussion ensued regarding the impact of former events like the Trustees’ Boxing Day and how to increase our visibility and promote the library more effectively. Suggestions included: collaborating with the FOLL for a July 4th float; having a joint annual meeting with the FOLL; opening the Holiday party to include FOLL board; attending the May 9 FOLL appreciation luncheon; holding a joint meeting to review the strategic plan.
Trustees see the Strategic Plan as primarily staff driven with some involvement by the Trustees and would like to review the plan when a draft is available.
The SP Committee also discussed the need for a town wide maintenance person, which is being pushed by members of the FinCom. Can one person do it all? Would a permanent building committee made up of liaisons from each group be better able to handle the many different repair and maintenance needs? The Trustees would appreciate a supportive “helper” instead of a building czar. Or, it could be “codifying benign neglect” for the library, because the schools and the town buildings will need a lot of work in the near future. It may lighten Barbara’s load. We should contact our FinCom liaison for some guidance with this issue. How does the fact that the library’s original charter was created by
Mr. Tarbell and not the town relate to this issue? The DeCordova and Codman have independent boards.
Building Committee
The Contractor accepted the slate; insurance is not the library’s problem.
The architect, who is the windows expert, has left the firm we are dealing with (GRA). He is studying to be a minister. He will be back for a visual inspection of the window insulation.
The interior design--$2500 maximum—will include preparation of an overall document for the whole building with bidding for just the sections of carpet we need to replace.
Vault documents ready for RFQ for designer services.
Maintenance article is for $25,000.
Foundation clearing to be done with CPC FY05 money.
Old business
None
New business
Doug Harding, who administers the town’s trusts, says the library has >$10,000 in income that needs to be used. Perhaps, ask Tarbell descendents how they would like us to allocate the money: ADA doors, windows in the Tarbell section, etc.? Peter Sugar and Ellen Sisco, who know Peggy Carman (a Tarbell descendent) well, will approach her. Ask Diana how to spend the Diana West-Abrashkin fund.
FinCom member advised us to forget next year’s 2-3% guideline and advocate for 1 FTE cut years ago.
We should research the library’s formal anniversary date and make it our new PR event.
Barbara reported that regarding monitoring issues, the library does not track what books people read or what people search on the internet. The computers are set up to flush the previous user’s search results when a new user logs on. Chief Mooney would get a warrant if needed, but in an emergency, such as abduction, he would want us to trust him. Barbara would like some guidelines on what to do.
Next Meeting
March 28, 2006 – 7:30pm
Respectfully submitted by
Jacquelin Apsler
* * * * *
LIBRARIAN’S REPORT
February 14, 2006
TO: Trustees, Lincoln Public Library
FROM: Barbara Myles, Librarian
FY 2007 Operating Budget
The third Joint Budget Workshop was held on February 6. In attendance were Selectmen, the Finance Committee, governing boards, and Department Heads. The goal of this meeting was to set the amount of the override budget, which was expected to be nearly $500,000. To everyone’s surprise, John Robinson, Chairman of the Finance Committee, announced that several factors positively impacted the budget such that no override would be necessary to fund the preferred budget. After some discussion, the Selectmen agreed to the Finance Committee’s plan.
FY 2007 Community Preservation Budget
On January 31 Peter Sugar and I met with the Community Preservation Committee to present the Library’s need to replace the rotting Marvin windows in the Gund building. For this meeting we had two quotes for this project and a third in progress. Construction by Design’s price quote was $485,000 to replace the existing Marvin windows with the exact same Marvin windows. Cheviot Corporation’s price quote was $377,463 and specified mahogany windows.
The third price quote, which should arrive in time for the Community Preservation Committee’s next meeting is from A.W. Hastings, the regional distributor for Marvin Windows, and Littleton Lumber. A.W. Hastings has agreed to offer the Library the same settlement as was awarded to members of group 2 of the class action lawsuit against Marvin Windows. A.W. Hastings would mark down the price of the windows by 30% and Littleton Lumber would pass this savings along to the Library.
Adult Department
Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos was discussed at Ellen Sisco’s Friday morning book group on February 3. Harold McAleer presented New Orleans style meets Jelly Roll for the Classic Jazz group on February 8. This was the group’s 273rd meeting. Music CDs of Classic Jazz presentations are available for purchase. Rob Trainor’s paintings are on display in the gallery through February.
Children’s Department
The Children’s librarians are gearing up for February school vacation week, which begins next week. Stacy began weeding the non-fiction section of the Children’s book collection. She will begin at the beginning of the Dewey Decimal classification system, 001, and work her way up to 999. Dana made beautiful crafts for Valentine’s Day. This was the first time that she used the new craft table. The Mach family donated this table to the library and it is ideal because it has an adjustable height feature. This new table can be lowered so the children can sit on the chairs instead of standing on them to make the crafts. Furthermore, the table is washable, sturdy, and light-weight. Thank you Mach family!
Technical Services
In addition to her duties in Technical Services, Lisa Rothenberg, works at the reference desk some of the time when Jeanne is not on duty. To improve her reference skills, Lisa is taking an online course for business reference. This course was paid for by a grant from the Friends of the Lincoln Library.
Reference Department
Staff at the reference desk answered 416 documented reference questions in January, which is the third highest January since 1993. Jeanne attended a training session at the Metrowest Massachusetts Regional Library System called, “Go Local Massachusetts,” which is a new medical source of information. A new online database, Books in Print, is now available for patrons to use at the library or at home.
The Lincoln Archives Committee met and set training sessions for March. Jeanne will train staff first and volunteers soon after. The goal is to make the material stored in the vault more accessible. In the future, volunteers from the Lincoln Historical Society will help patrons search for archival materials on Saturday mornings.
Building Repairs
HVAC
A serviceman from the HVAC service company, Solar-Tech, came to the library on January 17 to inspect the heating system to determine the cause of what the Fire Department believes was a blow back in the boiler on January 14. The oil nozzle and filters were replaced and the room was tested form carbon monoxide. These were routine maintenance activities which may not be the cause of the problem of why too much oil was getting into the boiler.
On February 3, the president of the Solar-Tech came to the library to investigate the problem further. He replaced the oil burner’s solenoid valve, which connects the oil burner to the boiler because this is the device that allows oil to enter the boiler
I also called the representative from the oil boiler company about this problem. He also thinks the problem is with the oil burner, not the boiler. He is checking to see if the oil burner installed in October 2004 is compatible with the library’s boiler.
Elevator
The Fire Department is reviewing the plans for a new vent for the elevator shaft, which will open when there is a fire or when the elevator shaft becomes too hot. The modifications must meet fire code so the Fire Department needs to review these plans before the modifications are made to the elevator shaft.
Roof Replacement Project
Gorman Richardson Architects has a new project manager assigned to our roof replacement project because Neil Rouleau, the former project manager, left the firm. The new project manager is Scott Richardson, a Principal and co-founder of GRA. According to Mr. Richardson, Neil will be available on a consulting basis to help finish the projects that are in progress.
Vault Renovation Project
Advertisements were published in the Central Register and Waltham Tribune for designer services for the vault renovation project. Bids for this project are due on March first.
In Memory
We were saddened by the death of John Bottino, who was the library’s custodian from 1966 to 1996. I did not work with John but I did have the chance to know him because he attended staff holiday parties and came to visit the staff after he had retired. He even invited us to his 90th birthday party last fall.
We also remember Karen Sinclair, who was on the Board of the Friends of the Library for several years and was a current member of Ellen’s Friday Book Discussion Group. A reception for Karen was held at the library on February 2nd.
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