April 10, 2023

Benton Public Library District
Board of Trustees Meeting
April 10, 2023

Members Present: Debbie Clark, Brian Crisp, Pat Hollada, Sue Wells, Kathy Storey

Absent: Sara Handlin, Stephanie Hart

Library Director: Susan Stickel

Meeting Called to Order: 5:30 pm by Sue Wells

Approval of March Board Meeting Minutes

1^st by Kathy Storey 2^nd by Debbie Clark

Payment of Bills:

1^st by Debbie Clark 2^nd by Brian Crisp

Financial Report:

1^st by Kathy Storey 2^nd by Brian Crisp

Librarian’s Report:

MAINTENANCE:

A service call has been placed to Dormakaba to repair the west interior door.
FW Plumbing has been contacted and a service call made. A sensor has been ordered
Terrace Fence has been contacted. A limb from the oak tree fell onto the fence damaging two fence panels. Also, the locks on the gates are still causing issues.
Due to the harsh winter, we have lost the three holly trees in the Butterfly Garden and possibly one of our memorial trees. Susan contacted Max from Plantscape to help with getting the garden ready for the dedication.
The date for the dedication has been set. It will be Saturday, June 3, 2023 from 1-4 pm.
Curt Erwin was contacted to repair the library roof. There is a leak in the circulation area. In addition, Susan requested a roof inspection due to all of the strong winds.
FW Electric has now replaced lights that were out in the monument sign, canopy, and cupola. Susan is waiting on an estimate for the Freedom Plaza lights.
Austin from our lawn service removed the two remaining stumps/seats by the log walk. No charge. He said it was a Valentine’s day gift.
Mr. Severin sent Susan a very nice letter after he landscaped the island. We ahd a donation for this project.
Lisa Keener will be raising her cleaning rate 15% as of July 1, 2023.
Henry is performing a daily maintenance of the outside grounds for any problems/issues.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

The Benton Grade School Early Childhood classes visited the library and pirate ship. Kimberly and Susan provided snacks, stories, and a library tour. They played in the garden and on the ship
Susan was invited to speak at the Benton Head Start on March 2nd to represent the library. They had a good attendance at their program.
The Southern Illinoisan reached out to Susan and did a story about the ship. I appeared in the March 31st edition of the newspaper.
Susan contacted IHLS to ask them to spotlight our library in their newsletter.
WFCN News posted pictures about the ship and there were a lot of good comments.
We are sending the events calendar to The Benton Evening News and The Franklin County Gazette each month.

INCIDENTS

Susan has given all of the information to the library’s attorney regarding the Cards for Kids Act.
Lisa found a meth pipe along with brown cotton gloves in the women’s restroom. Susan notified the police and the disposed of the paraphernalia. Lisa gave Susan dates to check the video surveillance. A few library patrons were let into the bathroom during this time frame. No one was identified.
Susan did a follow-up on the cigarette receptacle which turned up nothing,

Old Business:

Personnel:

Pam Teague had given a verbal resignation from the Genealogy Department and only wanted a few days/some hours.
Susan asked Pam to provide a written resignation, but Friday, she stated to her that she would like to stay in the position.

Sue called for the board to go into executive session

EXECUTIVE SESSION 5:44 PM

Present for this closed session:

Sue Wells, Brian Crisp, Kathy Storey, Pat Hollada, and Debbie Clark

Personnel issues were discussed.

Closed session ended at 6:17pm

1^stby Debbie Clark 2^nd by Brian Crisp

New Business

Bond Payment