Lawton Memorial Library Board Special Meeting

       Tuesday, August 15, 2023

                                                                                                 

1). Chair Barbara Melvin called the special board meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. at the Lawton Memorial Library. Roll call was taken with all board members present: Melvin, Gail Muller, Georgia Everson, Donna Niles, Gwendolyn Hatfield, Carol Persons, and Kimberly Walker. Also present was Librarian Lisa Ahler, Barbara Sarnowski, Jean Beck, Peggy Pasker, Charna Schwartz, and Kristina Ralph.                  

                                                                                                             

2). Verification of posting at the Bank, Post Office, and Village Office on August 10, 2023, was given.             

         

3). Barb welcomed the members present for the Friends of the Lawton Memorial Library group, who were on hand to help the board with organizing and planning events for the 100-year celebration of the library. The thought was to have it in the month of October, with several events going on the whole month.    

 

*Friends President, Jean Beck, emailed her members asking for suggestions, which she reviewed. Barb then gave the library boards ideas from our last meeting. Combining them all, we came up with the following:

 

• Events: Hold an Open House on October 18th. This is during National Friends of the Library week (October 15th – 21st). Look into Speakers (Library board President, Village President, Friends President, local historian, and anyone that wants to share), have refreshments, etc. Barb, Kristina, and Kim will work on this.

 

• Activities: A Time Capsule, to be opened in 25 years (2048), a 100-year plaque, plant an Oak tree, have a bookmark contest, do craft demos, a treasurer hunt, brochure give away (give non-patrons a library brochure signed by us to bring into the library to redeem for a gift), Friends to purchase 100 books for the library, golden tickets in books, award every 100th patron who comes in the library in October a prize, a contest to list all librarians in order, and a roaring 20’s theme with staff & volunteers in costumes & activities. Gwen and Peggy will work on these. Jean Beck will check with the school on a square dance they may be holding in October, where we could possibly do a “100 year” cake or something special at it. 

 

• Displays: Have best-selling books from the 1920’s, photos of former librarians and library buildings, and do a roaring 20’s theme of cookbooks, old cooking utensils, etc. Donna, Carol, Georgia, and Barb Sarnowski will work on this. Anyone can help where they’d like to.  

 

*Carol will do publicity. She will write a notice for the newspaper, asking for help with items for the displays and any information people would like to share. Also, if people are willing to write their memories down, we could put together a binder and put them in the time capsule. 

 

*Set September 12th, at 5 p.m. at the library, to hold another joint meeting for an update, and to finalize plans. 

 

4). Discussion/Possible action on the Library Sign: At the last meeting, we discussed options on the sign out front. Barb talked with Mike Fowell at the school, and they are not able to make a wood sign. It’s too big for them, but they could make a metal one. Carol and Barb went to Henke Signs in La Valle. They designed one for us. Cost for a 3’ X 4’ was $1,773 and a 4’ X 5” was $2,821. An aluminum one was $807 and $938. Our current sign is 4’ X 6’. A couple other places were checked also but didn’t work out. Barb talked with Aaron Nemec again. He said he can fix/clean up the current one, change the color, have a different accent, and enclose the back. Hatfield moved, Muller seconded to ask Aaron to check it over, give us a price, and if it’s not over $1,500, to have him redo it. (Carried). The village could probably take it down and deliver it to his place. Also, see if he had time before October to get it done, before the 100-year celebration.

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5). Discussion/Possible action on the hot water heater: Carol did research on this from our last meeting. She talked with Samantha Laskowski, and they did some daily monitoring and checked the kilowatt usage. Barb asked Wayne Haugrud to check on it. He said the element was good, no sediment or lime build up, the breakers worked, and it was the right amps. He drained it and thought it looked good. Samantha had a person also look at, and he found it was leaking by the pressure valve. Wayne thought it was from him draining it, so he made some adjustments. He recommended we didn’t need to do anything. The board agreed to leave it the way it is for now.      

 

6). Niles moved, Everson seconded to adjourn. (Carried). Adjourned at 6:20 p.m.

 

                                                                         __________________________________

Kimberly Walker, Village Clerk/Treasurer