So I assume we keep the food barrel is always going to be there.
Sure.
It's actually almost full now.
Excellent.
Pick up.
And by the upstairs door.
I'm actually it's in that no carry where the coffee is.
Okay.
No.
Oh, the bear.
I'm.
Yeah.
I'm thinking of the bear.
I'm thinking of the bear.
I'm thinking of the bear.
I'm thinking of the bear.
Oh, the bear.
Yeah.
I'm thinking of the other one where they can people in this coming and pick up food.
So there's actually two.
Oh.
And then the lines now are collecting glasses.
Okay.
Ox.
Yeah.
Container.
It's a big one.
I should do that.
I've got some.
But.
I'm part of.
Okay.
Can I.
Okay, then we move on to the
minutes from the August meeting.
Thank you.
Second.
Thank you.
All those in favor.
All right.
Let's see.
Invoices for August.
The first question is.
There is now a fee for the new phones.
The voice over IP and.
Well, it looks like charter has.
Really reduced their price, which is a good thing.
And then the.
The dino dino link communication phones.
And the telephone system has been working totally fine.
Other than that.
Nothing.
You may say the reasons of the University of Minnesota.
Go golfers.
That's where we get our fight.
To the organization called many texts.
Any questions.
Move to approve.
Thank you.
All those in favor.
Revenue and expense report.
Nothing surprising.
We're right on track.
Any questions.
I'll move to approve.
Second.
Thank you.
All those in favor.
Director's report step update.
So we do have two new.
Shelters.
Two high school students.
They're very good.
And.
They take their job very seriously.
It's kind of fun to watch.
But they're excited.
They're very excited.
This is both of the I believe their first jobs.
And so.
Things are going really well.
I think that's about it for staff.
Building update.
So.
We're coming to the end of the grant.
Just got an email today with all these different types of reports.
Poor Roger.
He's going to be busy.
But we'll be helping him out as well.
There's only a few things that we need to do.
We have to.
Get the book locker installed.
So we know how the electricity and the networks.
It's not in the.
It doesn't look very pretty on the outside, but.
So we had to do to get the job done.
Hopefully locker.
Three weeks and be an optimistic, but it's already been paid for.
So it's just for them to come.
And install.
We are having problems with the grand avenue door again.
So I have to call for repair.
But all the doors are getting to the point where.
They're going to have to be totally replaced.
I mean, it's been 25 years.
And those kids love pushing that button for the handicap access.
We're waiting on.
I asked for the shed to get repaired so we can open it.
I made that request.
Several weeks ago.
And some landscaping needs to be done to stop some ponding by the.
Community room door.
And so, but I've had.
I've already submitted those requests.
And we're still looking.
Getting the clock repaired.
There's not many people who do that anymore.
It's been difficult.
To find someone.
But I was hoping that.
I could have Steve do it, but.
He doesn't have the time.
Because it's, you know, the hours for the library.
That's saving cut, but I asked Robin.
I said, we need those back by October 1st.
Because we are.
There are things that.
They're not getting done because he's not there.
Just because he spent all the time cleaning.
And we're getting in.
To.
I'm sorry to say.
Winter is around the corner.
So we need, you know, we're going to need him for shoveling and.
And.
It gets a lot more messier with all the leaves.
Coming in and.
And so there's a lot more work that needs to be done.
And so we need him back to his 20 hours.
So hopefully I'll get an answer this week.
I'm going to bring it up tomorrow at the finance committee meeting.
I think there's.
Sometimes people.
Forget that we are a busy public building.
And we have to keep it clean.
Unfortunately, we have a lot of.
It's not enough kids that come in and they like to write stuff all over the way.
We just have to do a better job of.
Keeping things clean.
And one of the great things is our community room is just being used all the time.
And, you know, we have to be good hosts.
Make sure things are clean.
To the best of our ability.
This year only cleaner like the CSE maintenance and.
Yeah, he hasn't been doing anything.
Everything vacuuming.
Yes, he's not doing maintenance.
Every square inch.
Yeah, he's just for cleaning because he's.
The hours are right.
They've taken away five hours.
And you may not say, saying, well, that's not a lot.
It actually it is.
So I don't know if they made a decision of what they're going to do with the new.
Public service building.
But we need them back.
And, you know, I did this all in good faith that, you know, we'd get them back.
And.
I.
We can.
Get them back full time, not full time, but to his regular hours in October.
You just statistics.
You know, it's.
You know, we're being used.
It's really great.
I mean, we're definitely seeing an increase.
Just in usage and people coming in and just.
Working on a laptop.
And so it'll be interesting to see our end of your statistics.
But it will show that the library libraries are changing.
You know, we're that third space.
We're the gathering place.
And the study rooms are being used that conference room is being used.
And so.
We really appreciate the support with the renovation because.
It's worked.
People using it.
Community room is very popular.
We're getting great comments.
And so.
I think we should be proud of the statistics.
We're all like every other public library.
It's very interesting just to compare the usage and.
How libraries we in use.
Okay, on to new business.
So update on the friends of the library.
We will have new leadership.
The leaders current leadership have both.
She has resigned.
As well as.
Her husband, he was acting.
Kind of a secretary.
So there will be new leadership in October.
That's when they're having.
Elections.
Kathleen and Tim did a great job.
And they worked really hard in the position.
And but.
I think the friends group is going to do things a little bit differently.
And some of the members have some really great ideas.
And I said, go for it.
And we'll still have the ongoing friends.
Book sale, which staff will be helping for the next month,
month and a half.
And so we wish.
Tim and Kathleen.
Well, and you know, I hope to see him in the library.
Okay.
Yeah.
So I included the center summer reading program.
It was a tremendous success.
It was.
It was so great to see all the kids participating.
And they're when they turned in their.
Their final hours to get their prizes.
And it's.
Staff did a tremendous job.
Everyone was involved.
Everyone was signing up.
It was everyone wanted that Amazon gift card.
It's going to be a little bit of changes.
It was so funny how packed that box was.
But so next year its theme is mysteries.
So they're already thinking of some pretty cool ideas.
I'm going to take advantage of the mysteries of Port Washington.
And get local businesses involved, hopefully.
And they have all kinds of ideas.
So I'm excited to see what happens.
Any questions about the other summer reading program?
I would just add a celebration for all the staff's work in pulling that off and bringing all those young readers into the library.
So we're getting close to the end of.
Budget talks regarding the 27 budget.
So tomorrow there is a meeting at 9 30.
Here in City Hall, I believe it's the lower level. Correct.
It's right here.
Okay.
I must have missed where they didn't say anyway.
So we are really not asking for a lot and a lot of extra money.
Just ask for a few more dollars for the materials.
And that's to help cover some of the things in the grant that we would continue.
To have Wi-Fi hotspots for checkout.
Did ask for.
Having the.
Children's library in position be full time.
I probably will find out tomorrow.
If that's a go, I'm not sure yet.
But other than that, you know, there are the increases with.
Unfortunately, electricity.
Still don't have numbers regarding health insurance.
That I'm aware of that always usually is to the very end.
But I think it's a, it's a fair ask.
It's, you know, it's nothing.
Out of the ordinary.
We are increasing our revenue due to.
Used by town of Grafton.
And we have seen a little bit of increase from others.
And so that is a good thing.
Because what's happening, those communities.
I don't have a library.
Those people are looking at the library as a way of cost savings.
You know, to check out the DVDs, the CDs books, audio books.
And so that will add a little bit to the revenue as well.
Was children's full time not too long ago, correct?
Yes, it was two years ago.
We did look at, we moved it to part time.
So we have to cover the.
Head of circulation going full time and actually to have.
For have benefits.
Yes.
Because we don't want to lose Dave.
And well as.
Kate has really earned it.
She has done a tremendous job in her position.
I love her interaction with kids.
And the parents, she really.
She has a gift, you know, and you can see it.
And the like tonight they're having family being all night.
I hope they have a great turn up.
And just some of the programs is just.
They're very creative.
And they're.
One of the things we're still pushing is that literacy.
I don't know if you have seen the headlines, but literacy for both children and adults.
Are way down.
And so.
We should be able to.
Create programs that help help the community increase that.
So like adults, it's like 20%.
And this is for casual reading.
And so we gotta help change that.
Thank you for making that priority because I think it's really important.
Absolutely.
And she's also to it's been working really hard on the nonfiction collection, making sure it's all up to date.
And we are.
I always get the name of the device Tony.
We're buying more Tony's. They're very popular.
Tony's are the little box.
Where kids can listen.
And they really enjoy them.
So.
So any questions about the budget.
Is it possible to add in the, but in the, in your ask that you ask if you can't get Steve back.
For 20 hours that you asked for like a cleaning lady or a clean service for a couple hours.
Well, technically they have to ask the library board.
You guys really have the final say regarding his position.
And the person didn't realize didn't under know that.
And so.
I've explained to her, whatever happens, it has to go through the library more.
More likely.
I think we're going to get those hours back.
I don't know what they're planning on doing with the new public safety building.
And city hall, but I know we need, we need that person back.
Because if not, a lot of stuff is not getting done and then we're going to have to spend more money to hire someone who can do the things that Steve does for it.
He hasn't been able to fix an electrical problem. So then we got to spend.
It's going to be like four to $500 to bring someone in and some other things as well.
So I'm just going to stay positive and, and it will all work out.
But if not, we're going to have to find funding.
Because we have the place has to be kept clean.
And staff are doing their part. They're.
Trying to clean when it's quiet.
Which is difficult to do. The showers have been trained for cleaning.
But you know, they only have so many hours as well. So.
It's just that our building is used.
Practically the most out of any city.
Service for open the most.
And we get used.
Tom, are we.
Documenting or creating an artifact in any way of time or hours that other folks are spending doing things that would typically fall within those five hours or things that aren't getting done because somebody's not there.
Well, I'm kind of keeping track of what's not getting done.
Robin has sent out some things.
And decided on what some of our staff should be doing.
Which.
We should be.
Communicating to first.
So I've just been following along to. Hopefully this is just temporary.
But it may be something we may have to fight for things.
We have to have a clean building. We get used credit. You know, we are gathering place.
And I will tell you.
Working with contract cleaning companies.
In my 32 years of experience now.
Never works.
Because what happens.
I'm not saying the city does this, but every city they go.
They try to find the cheapest.
And.
It never works out.
It just.
Things don't get cleaned. They don't show up.
They have to keep in mind cleaning companies have a difficulty of keeping employees too.
So that's why.
We've been so fortunate to have Steve.
I just, I think if this is a conversation we do need to continue having after tomorrow's meeting.
And if it doesn't.
Our optimism is not met.
I think it would be helpful for us to see some, some hours or minutes or what,
what's going on.
Undone because of that. I think time Steve has written out of it.
He.
He wrote down everything he does and how much time he has spent.
On each duty.
The HR director has seen that right Robin has seen that document.
Yes, she's one who made him fill it out.
I did think there's a different.
Mindset.
Because of.
We are a public building.
And I think we owe it to our citizens that when they come on, they expect a clean.
Building. So I mean, we.
I'm not talking white glove treatment.
But, you know, we need to write down the tables more and the chairs more and keep up.
With the study rooms, because we are heading into.
I call it disease season.
And it's how those little kids fall.
Because they go out of school and then they all get together and.
So.
So yeah, so I'm just it's just it's important.
I have just one more budget question and I think I know the answer, but I more just want to clarify my thinking.
Things like potential door replacements or I know windows. I believe is something we've talked about in the past.
That would show up in the facilities long from planning rather than the budget for next year.
Yes.
Now there was an announcement this week.
That Rob Vanden Oven is stepping down.
He's retirement. He's retiring now.
I have talked to him about.
Deciding needs painting.
I mean, we can't wait three years. It's only going to get worse and worse.
So I have sent him. I did get a quote.
From a painting company.
And I just got to sense it.
To get an idea.
And yes, it's really really high.
But the doors I reminded that they need to put that in with the windows.
Because if not, we're just going to be.
Pain someone to come in.
And.
Just to walk in our buildings now.
It's 300 bucks.
And that's the norm.
I mean, all the vendors, it's, you know, it's just electrician and plumbers are not that bad yet.
But, you know, the building has been used.
I mean, it's being used.
And so.
We have to keep up with the maintenance.
And I think the city, you know, they have done a good job the last couple of years of, you know, getting the heating replace.
The HVAC.
So it's just, it's just a.
Continuing, you know, we're part of the plan. That's the most important thing.
Did I answer your question.
And Tom, is that 2028 that the windows are supposed to be.
That in the plan for the 10 year planner, I think it's 29.
29.
Okay.
And, you know, actually right now, because of terrorists and other things, this may not.
Not the best time to be buying windows because a lot of them come from Canada.
And, you know, all these added prices. So maybe by the time.
It's the plan in the plan when they're ready to implement.
The prices will be more affordable.
So next item.
Is this is just a discussion.
So.
And we, it's called the discussion of map monopolization and abuse of service policy.
You might say, what is that?
Well, we have people that manipulate our system.
And.
We're going to be soon getting ready to offer Wi-Fi hotspots.
And the last time we had Wi-Fi hotspots.
We had about four families trying to monopolize.
The use of the Wi-Fi hotspots.
They'd have their children check it out, the wife check it out, grandma check it out, grandpa.
So sometimes they'd have it, you know, for a month.
The two months and they.
They were getting their free broadband.
So.
I talked to Beaver Dam about it and they have this policy.
And.
From what I hear from tonight.
If you're okay with us.
Looking at this policy, we'll come back.
With the policy that we have come up, come up with.
You know, we have people who manipulate the new books who, you know.
Sometimes.
Because we're quote free.
You know, we have people that will check in and check out the same book for a year.
I mean, they, they, it's, it's.
It's a challenge for them.
And so this just gives us.
A policy we can hand.
Get to them and say, look.
After reading the Beaver Dam, like.
Policy, I guess it's still fairly vague.
Right.
And that's.
Okay.
Like it's still very vague to me.
I mean, I, I interpret this to me.
I couldn't check out the same item more than once.
Or even broadly that I could check out things for a year.
Like would you put more guardrails in?
I guess it's one of my questions.
Yeah, I had some.
I think as this current policy is written, there's an opportunity for some unintended consequences.
I think off of this.
And so I would, I would agree in more detail or some more clarity around what we mean here.
Talk to them, Tom.
What's the enforcement policy?
What's the repercussions?
What's a book on it or so when I talked to the one guy, this was like five years ago.
And I tried to explain.
That, look, the.
We want everyone in the community to have an opportunity to use these.
And he just shot back.
Well, you don't have a rule about it.
And.
You know, so this is our attempt.
We can come back next meeting with a more in detail.
We can check with.
There's not many libraries that have this or if they do, they have it in the procedure.
But I'm preparing for us offering Wi-Fi again and we're going to have these.
People that are going to manipulate it and that's not what they're intended for.
You know, that's why we were hoping to limit to like four uses a year.
You know, so that's four weeks a year.
Because they say, well, I don't have it.
I don't. Well, we have it right here in the library for you to use.
We're open till eight o'clock every night.
You can actually sit in your car and get Wi-Fi access.
I mean,
does our current system allow us to put blocks on people's cards for a certain item or can you.
That's sophisticated.
Like I check it out the fifth time that it brings me right.
I'm blocked.
No, not that sophisticated.
We have reports.
We can run essentially to see who's doing this and excessively checking out an item.
And it's, I agree that, you know, this is just a rough draft where we could add more specific language.
So we're not talking about like, let's say I check out a switch game for my son and it's on his card.
The next time I check it out and it's on my card and now it's multiple accounts to get that same item.
Like we're on the black list is not not that type of example would be if he checks it out returns it.
I checked out return it.
My husband checks it out return it.
He checks it out.
All of a sudden we have it like three months and it's intended to be used by other people in the community too.
Right. So this is kind of more excessive cases.
And I think it's left broad on purpose so we can apply it to different collections too.
Because we've got the adventure passes same thing.
Sometimes people try and mooch those.
So I kind of think of it as a just don't be a moocher policy and covering it in general for it applies to study room usage too.
Like we have that policy.
But if we find that somebody is doing that like, oh, can you check out the study room for me and then I'll come in and use it.
And they're, you know, skirting around the policies.
So I think it's just a safeguard to cover our bases for all of our collections and services.
But we can certainly add more specific lingo to make it a little clearer.
And we can run reports too that show kind of those top extreme cases of who is maybe checking out those same items.
So it won't block you at checkout, but we can kind of see it on the back end later and then talk to those people.
Yeah, whatever helps you guys to do your best.
Yeah, I was just going to say clarity around language like excessive and what do we mean by excessive.
The last bullet point that they have on here that to me makes sense that first bullet point makes makes me worried though I think and if I got when we need it, we use it.
But if we're going to have a policy on the books, I want to make sure it's a good policy that we want to be enforcing.
So I think some language like you just used there, Rosalia would be really helpful in the next draft we look up.
And even that last line is a good cover, you know, CYA clause.
We'll review this and watch for abusive services on a case by case basis.
You know, it's not like your example of, you know, oh, one person returns it and you check it out and then it gets checked that maybe three times that's not an abuse.
Monopolization is just.
Yeah, I read this policy and thought boy I've broken this policy.
Thank you.
Yeah, I mean, we want all the materials to be used. You just want to try to have some type of fairness for everyone and fair access.
99% of the patrons are really good.
There's just that 1%.
Try to take advantage.
Like we're going to have a couple of laptops you can check out.
That's not for you to that becomes your personal laptop.
Yeah.
You know what I mean? It's just because we're actually going to have software on it that wants to come.
The computer shuts down.
It's erased everything you've done on it.
We've been libraries when using the software software for decades now.
And so we'll come back with a.
Hopefully more clear.
Policy and, you know, if you have anything.
Do you like to share or provide, you know, just send us an email and we'll be happy to.
And, and, and cooperate. I mean.
It's, it's, it's difficult when you see people just taking advantage.
And, and.
You know, this is, you know, some of these resources are available for people who can't afford them.
And, you know, it's hard when.
When you see people take advantage.
I just like to share.
A story that took place last week in the library.
And Rosalia can jump in.
But we had Rosalia received a call from a hospice worker.
And a gentleman.
One of his last wishes was to come and stay in the library for a while.
So it's, it really shows you what a public library means to people.
They rented, they checked out a study room and had lunch.
You know, we didn't know when how to them or, you know, we didn't ask for more information.
But it's just to remind you.
That you're part of a board that provides these great services to the public.
And.
We still play such a critical role as a gathering spot in our community.
And where people have equal access.
To materials.
To learning opportunities.
And it just.
It really, it should make you feel really good.
And.
And I appreciate the staff and all the hard work they do.
And trying to make the library a comfortable safe space.
And, and we will continue to do that.
Oh.
We have a chipmunk story.
So.
A chipmunk.
I saw it.
It was when I was leaving and I said, hey, Dave, that's you.
You could take care of that chipmunk.
And.
Well, then I happened upon it.
So it's between the staff entrance in the back and then we have a second door.
So there's like the back staircase.
You know, leaves blow in.
It's kind of.
Dim and basementy feeling.
So when I heard a wrestling, I didn't think that much of it because there's leaves and like the air vents let Aaron.
But then I heard it again and I looked down and I see the chipmunk.
He goes down the stairs.
So I came back up the other way, you know, trying to scare it up.
So then eventually Dave and I together ushered it out gently with brooms to the back to the great outdoors.
But yeah, even the chipmunks want to access the library.
There's a children's story in there somewhere.
There's a children's story in there somewhere.
Okay, somebody else have anything.
Okay, now entertain a motion to adjourn.
Motion.
Thank you.
I'll sack it.
Thank you.
All those in favor.
Hi.
We are adjourned.
Thanks everyone.
Thank you.
Thank you.