Vice President Felicia Hopkins called the meeting to order at 7:35 PM.
Members present: Lloyd Murdoch, Jane Pingelski, Felicia Hopkins, Cathy Lozier, and Librarian Rebecca Fasulo. Catherine Bailey and Franklin Bennek attended virtually.
Minutes of the previous meeting: Minutes from the July 12th meeting were read. A motion was made by Cathy Lozier and seconded by Lloyd Murdoch to accept the minutes. The motion was carried with all in favor.
Treasurer’s Report: The treasurer’s report was read and discussed. Treasurer Cathy Lozier cited corrections to be made to the report. She also noted that ramp repairs were taken from the Ruth Allen CD and that an increase in insurance rate caused the over budget expenditure. A motion was made by Jane Pingelski and seconded by Lloyd Murdoch to approve all paid bills. The motion was carried with all in favor. A motion was made by Jane Pingelski and seconded by Lloyd Murdoch to accept the treasurer’s report as corrected. The motion was carried with all in favor.
Librarian’s Report: The Librarian’s report was presented with highlights as follows:
- Rainbow Nursery School came for a special rocket launch
- Book sale to be held in conjunction with Fall Festival on Oct. 16
See librarian’s report for full details
A motion was made by Lloyd Murdoch and seconded by Cathy Lozier to accept the librarian’s report. The motion was carried with all in favor.
Old Business:
1. Pandemic – Saratoga County, as well as most of the country, is continuing to see high community transmission. The recommendations from CDC, NYS health, and Saratoga County Health all are continuing to recommend that all people, whether vaccinated or not, should be wearing a mask when indoors or in crowded areas.
Other than requiring masks in the building, we are mostly back to business as usual. There are a couple of areas that remain off limits, or have restrictions in place.
- We continue to monitor the use of the Children’s Room. This room is small and has poor ventilation. In addition, children under 12 are not eligible to be vaccinated yet.
- The Hudson River Room is used as a staff lunch area and has many stored pieces of furniture and so is off limits to all but staff.
- The reading / computer area is still for computer use only at this point. This is mainly because of stored furniture and ILL staging.
Changes that we have made that are working – not charging overdues and the changed hours. If we want to keep these in place (and I recommend that we do) the Board should do a formal resolution to that effect and we will need to make sure that all of our literature and web presences reflect those changes.
RESOLVED, By the Board of Trustees of the Corinth Free Library to continue not charging overdue fines is hereby adopted.
Motion is made by: Felicia Hopkins and seconded by Franklin Bennek.
Those in favor: Lloyd Murdoch, Jane Pingelski, Felicia Hopkins, Cathy Lozier, Franklin Bennek, Catherine Bailey.
Those against: None
Motion carried with all in favor.
On a lower priority, the barriers should be made to look more business as normal (prettier).
2. NY Hero Act – This is a workplace safety plan that we are required by NYS to have in place in the event of future air-born infectious disease emergencies. This was ok-ed virtually this summer but needs to be formally approved by the board.
RESOLVED, By the Board of Trustees of the Corinth Free Library that the NY Hero Act as presented, is hereby adopted.
Motion is made by: Jane Pingelski and seconded by Cathy Lozier.
Those in favor: Lloyd Murdoch, Jane Pingelski, Felicia Hopkins, Cathy Lozier, Franklin Bennek, Catherine Bailey.
Those against: None
Motion carried with all in favor.
3. Strategic Plan – Our committee has been working diligently on our plan. We meet again this month to go over the rough draft and work on any edits that are needed. This will be sent to you via email before our budget meeting in December and will need to be officially approved by the board at that time. We need to have this in place to meet NYS minimum standards.
Trustee Book Club – I believe that there is still time to take advantage of these webinars. There are three –
Tuesday, October 19, 2021 from 5:00-6:30pm: Duties & Responsibilities | Register Here Tuesday, November 16, 2021 from 5:00-6:30pm: Library Board Meetings | Register Here Tuesday, December 14, 2021 from 5:00-6:30pm: Personnel | Register Here
4. Juneteenth – June 19th was designated as a Federal holiday a few weeks ago. Will the library observe this? If yes, how – close for the day, or remain open but let staff take a floating holiday in that month? This should be decided on by our April meeting at the latest.
5. Library Birthday – The library will turn 100 in 2026 (or 2027 depending on when you consider its “birth”). A board committee should decide when and how to celebrate this milestone. Becky doesn’t think we should let it pass without some acknowledgement.
New Business:
- The Bicentennial Committee met for a last time to decide what to do with the remainder of the funds that were collected. $500 was donated to the library. We were also given two of the large Cate Mandigo paintings (one of each scene). In addition, the remainder of the Cate Mandigo paintings were divided up between the Museum and the Library. We can sell these and keep the proceeds.
- We received a check for $1000 as a bequest from Rosemary Silverman.
We received a check for $4,700 from the Miller Trust Fund. It is labeled as a partial payment, but I believe it will be the last check.
3. ADP – They are adding Employment Verification to their services. If we do not want this we need to opt out by Nov. 11. There is no cost, but I’m not sure we need this. The Board decided to opt out.
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Adjournment: The motion was made by Lloyd Murdoch and seconded by Jane Pingelski with all in favor to adjourn the meeting at 8:29 PM.
Next meeting: Dec. 6