Lawton Memorial Library Board Meeting

              Regular Board Meeting          Tuesday, May 24, 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, Gwendolyn Hatfield, Gail Muller, Georgia Everson, Carol Persons, and Kimberly Walker present. Absent was Donna Niles. Also present was Librarian Lisa Ahler.     

  

*Verification of meeting posting at the Bank, Post Office, and Village Office on May 23, 2022, was given.    

  

*Persons moved, Everson seconded to approve the minutes from the March 22, 2022, and April 26, 2022 meetings. (Carried).

 *Financial report: Reviewed the report from 1/1/2022 thru 5/23/2022. The balance is $66,699.44. Of this amount $564.63 is Gates grant funds, $1,184.50 is Cropp grant funds, and $5,806.73 is the balance in the donations. This leaves an operating budget of $59,143.58. The savings account has $42,081.18, plus the 2 CD’s of $3,978.96 and $9,584.86. Discussed taking some money from the savings and put it in one of the CD’s. The interest rate on the regular savings is .10%. The $9,584.86 CD matures on 6/26/22 and the current rate to renew it for 1 year is .45%. For 2 years, the rate is .55% The CD for $3,978.96 matures on December 2, 2022. The current interest on that is .40%. Persons moved, Hatfield seconded to take $21,000 (from the savings) and add it to the June 26th CD when it comes due, for one year. (Carried). Muller moved, Everson seconded to approve the financial report. (Carried).  

*Statistical Report: Lisa reported circulation numbers have gone up over 400 from January. Last Friday, had 31 people in house. Noticing curbside is going down. Lisa reviewed the revenue from fines, copies, faxes, and the donations received.  *Friends Update: Meeting the first week in June to plan for the Music in the Park and 4th of July. In need of volunteers for helping to take care of the gardening around the library. And working to place 2 library book boxes. One location is the lot on Main Street by the Hardware store, and the other is in the Village Park.   

*Directors Report:

**Traffic is picking up. A lot of kids are starting to come in.  

**Holly Hysel started the cleaning position on May 4th. Going well.  

**The Vernon County Reads author is Sue Berg. The program is August 24th.

**The sustainability collection is circulating well.     

**Last week, Lisa went on a bus tour with other area directors to tour libraries. Went to West Salem, Coon Valley, Cashton, Westby, Viroqua, Norwalk, and La Farge.

**The Friends donated $1,300, to be broken out as follows: $200 for the Vernon County Reads, $300 for the summer reading program, $200 for Board books, and $600 for a new disc cleaner.

**Ordered a new circulation computer and scanner. Cost is $750-$800 and will be paid with the Cropp grant funds.   

**WRLS is working on updating our 4 computers that have been off since Covid. Looking to designate one for card catalog use only.

**Lisa attended the WI Association of Public Libraries conference. It was nice and she learned new ideas.

**Programming: The summer reading program is ready.

**The Page Turners Book club: Dropping zoom and looking to hold meetings outside.

**Knitting and Mah Jong are back.

**The Take & Make bags are going like crazy. Using a lot of supplies, so the budget may be over at year end. Carol mentioned asking the Friends for a donation if needed.

**The Winter reading challenge had two winners: Karen Cutler and Lauralyn Flaherty.

**The library has Music in the Park and Vernon County Reads information available.

*Business:

**Covid Update: Vernon County is back to medium risk. Lisa says she keeps up on this and the mask situation.

**Library Hours: Lisa would like to tweak the hours. Since January, she’s been monitoring traffic during certain hours. Between 5:00 & 6:00 is the busiest, then from 6-7:00 is next. Usually not a lot from 7-8:00.

She’d also like to be open during lunch time, instead of closing. Can stagger lunch times with workers. The board agreed more consistency is good. The hours will remain at 30 per week. New hours will start June 1st. They are as follows:

        Monday 1:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.       Tuesday 10:00 a.m. – 5 p.m.   

        Wednesday 1:00 p.m. – 7 p.m.       Thursday – Closed

        Friday 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.         Saturday 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.                                     

Persons moved, Everson seconded to change the library hours as written. (Carried).

**State of the Library-changes and intentions for the future: Lisa has been here 6 months. She said everything is going great. She said she’d be lost without Becky and the volunteers have been good. Things are smooth. Like to be pro-patron. Meet their needs. The change in hours was felt a good move. One concern mentioned was moving some of the collections together, but Lisa said she wasn’t going to do that. Maybe in the future will look at dividing them out more. It was agreed if any changes will affect patrons, to bring it to the board. Lisa just commented the cleaning for awhile was disappointing, but that   

has been taken care of. She feels supportive. In the future, will look at programming again.      

*Public comments: None.               

*The next meeting was scheduled for July 26, 2022, at 5:15 p.m.      

*Persons moved, Hatfield seconded to adjourn. (Carried). Adjourned at 7:12 p.m.

                                                                        __________________________________ 

Kimberly Walker, Village Clerk/Treasurer