Lawton Memorial Library Board Meeting

              Regular Board Meeting          Tuesday, March 22, 2022

                                                                                                  

*6:15 p.m. Chair Barbara Melvin called the meeting to order at the Lawton Memorial Library. Roll Call was taken with board members Melvin, Donna Niles, Gail Muller, Gwendolyn Hatfield, Georgia Everson (zoom), and Kimberly Walker present. Absent was Carol Persons. Also present was Librarian Lisa Ahler.     

  

*Verification of meeting posting at the Bank, Post Office, and Village Office on March 17, 2022, was given. (Meeting was posted for using Zoom or attending in person).   

  

*Hatfield moved, Niles seconded to approve the minutes from the January 18, 2022, meeting. (Carried).

                                   

*Financial report: Reviewed the report from 1/1/2022 thru 3/21/2022. The balance is $45,857.50. Of this amount $564.63 is Gates grant funds and $1,184.50 is Cropp grant funds. This leaves an operating budget of $44,108.37. We haven’t received the Vernon County aid payment yet, of $32,911. Muller will check on this with the county. The savings account has $42,076.78, plus the 2 CD’s of $3,978.96 and $9,577.78. Discussed taking some of the money from the savings and put it in one of the CD’s. Kim will check when they mature and what the interest rates are on them. Will discuss this at the May meeting. The resource grant of $478.35 was used up this year. It was used on the ebook buying pool fees for 2022. The Cropp grant funds were discussed. Kim will check back to see what this is to be used for. Muller moved, Hatfield seconded to approve the financial report. (Carried).  

 

*Statistical Report: Lisa reviewed circulation numbers, computer use, and curbside use for January and February. Patron numbers are starting to climb. And the new revenue update, for fines, copies, faxes, and donations received, saw $58 for January (partial month as this was just started), and $100 for February.   

 

*Friends Update: Nothing new to update, just that Music in the Park has been scheduled for the summer. 

 

*Directors Report:

**Things are picking up. Seeing more kids in the library.

**In February got the annual report done. It went very well. Copies were emailed the board.

**The DVD’s are all back in the cases. Lisa’s sister helped her out.

**Started buying material with part of the $5,000 donation received in January. The material will be displayed in a collection. Would like to call it the “Sustainability Collection”. It includes things on solar items, energy efficiency, and resilience.    

**Lisa called Nancy Green, our cleaner, and she said she’s no longer able to clean the library or village hall.

**Programming: Storytime is still on hold. The Page Turners Book club is meeting thru Zoom, Knitting is meeting Mondays at the community center, Mah Jong isn’t meeting yet, the Take & Make bags are still popular, and the winter reading challenge will wrap up the end of March.

**WRLS meetings have been held every other month thru Zoom. 

**Summer Reading program: Looking at take home logs, with prizes. Still working on this.

 

*Business:

**Covid Update/Mask discussion: Lisa handed out stats from WRLS on what area libraries are doing. Right now, we are still requiring masks. Discussed lifting this. Hatfield moved, Muller seconded to discontinue requiring masks. (Carried). The board agreed to give Lisa the ability to make adjustments in the future if things change. A sign will be put up that if a person is ill, to please wear a mask. Lisa will open one of the kid computers and the seating areas will be opened, with social distancing being watched.  

**For the meeting room use, decided to limit the use to 12 people for now. Can re-visit this again at the May meeting. And agreed it was ok to have food.

**Kids area: Will hold off on story hour time yet, until next Fall.

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**Cleaning person: Becky Hooker and Barb put together a job description for this position. With Nancy quitting, discussed advertising for the job. Will advertise for 2 weeks in the Episcope and Epitaph-News newspapers next week, along with putting it on LAPA’s Facebook page and the village website. The job is 2-3 hours per week, with pay at $12.00/hour. Have a 3-month probationary period, with a possible raise after this time. Application deadline is April 11th. Then Barb and Lisa will do interviews.   

 

*Public comments: Barb said she will mention the trees out front to PWM Wayne Haugrud again to trim out the dead branches.          

   

*The next meeting was scheduled for May 24, 2022, at 6:15 p.m.  

   

*Niles moved, Muller seconded to adjourn. (Carried). Adjourned at 7:32 p.m.

                                                                        __________________________________ 

Kimberly Walker, Village Clerk/Treasurer