McLean County Times

City of Pontiac Public Library Board of Trustees met Feb. 13.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

The Pontiac Public Library Board of Trustees met on February 13th, 2023. President Connie Snyder called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM.

The roll call was answered by Connie Snyder, Kathy Mclean, Debbie Dowdy, Lisa Martin, Eric Hoover, and John Wille. Larry Krominga joined after roll call was taken. Also in attendance was the Library Director, Kristin Holzhauer.

Consent Agenda:

Trustees reviewed the December minutes and paid bills. John Wille moved to accept the minutes and bills as presented. Debbie Dowdy seconded. All present voted in favor; motion carried.

Citizens to be Heard:

None

Correspondence:

None

Director’s Report:

The ’22 Per Capita Grant and expenditures report was submitted to the state on 1/30/23. The state has confirmed receipt of the grant application and report. The Library’s state certification and ILLINET survey has also been submitted to the state for the fiscal year. I continue to work on the year’s IPLAR report that will be due June 1st.

The City of Pontiac is generously providing temporary off-site storage for the furniture in the Reading Room in lieu of the Illinois Freedom Project exhibit. They removed the furniture ahead of the installation and will bring it back as soon as the exhibit is picked up by Timothy Townsend in early March. I appreciate the City’s assistance with this very much.

The Grand Opening of the Illinois Freedom Project was February 2nd. I sincerely thank those trustees that were able to attend. Heather Feezor from Looking for Lincoln came from Springfield for the event. Timothy Townsend’s presentation was very informative and a great start to our month-long feature of the traveling exhibit. Some classes from District 429 will come for class visits while the exhibit is here which is very exciting.

In addition to our thematic programming to commemorate Black History Month and Lincoln’s Birthday, our annual Blind Date with a Book and Cupid’s Corner for Valentine’s Day has been popular. The Library will host a reading incentive contest called “Read Over the Rainbow” for the month of March. Our adult patrons really enjoy these reading contests and I expect this will be popular. We are advertising this for all ages ahead of our annual summer reading program with the hope of increasing circulation statistics for the end of the fiscal year.

We will welcome the Hudson Public Library staff for a visit on 2/20. They are touring bigger Tri-County libraries to see different library operations, programs, floor display setup, etc. They will have questions for me and the staff to address to assist them with developing or altering their own library setup in Hudson for better patron engagement. They will also take time to see the Illinois Freedom Exhibit and some of our local history spots while in Pontiac.

Three of the indoor furnace units needed new (used parts) primary devices this month. Lyons brothers were able to replace these parts and restore heat to the building. The repair was encumbered with current repairs/maintenance funds. They again cautioned me on the future availability of these parts. The HVAC units for the building will need to be replaced soon.

The staff is busy moving DVD/CD discs to the browsing sleeves on the floor. This will provide some necessary storage space in the work room. I would like to remove the current storage cabinets and discuss potentially selling them to another library to provide even further room for different storage and work areas.

Committee Updates:

Management – Management Committee met on 1/9/23. The Personnel Policy Manual and paid holidays were discussed as well as the library’s business hours. These items are on the agenda for vote by the full board.

Building and Grounds – None

Finance – None

Old Business:

Digitization Funding Update- We are still in need of roughly $24,000.00 to fully fund the digitization project. It was proposed that we need to look at the interest of neighboring libraries to enter into an intergovernmental agreement for shared access to the digitized collection when complete. Kristin will present this to the Tri-County library group and ask that they discuss the project with their library boards.

Live & Learn Construction Update- Kristin provided the final quote from Vissering to complete the bathroom project. To include painting of the bathrooms brings the project to $11,700. Kristin feels the painting can be done with volunteer hours which would lower the final cost to $8,800. This includes new flooring, cove base, toilet paper holders, removal of partitions, two sinks, one toilet, and the installation of signs for the all gender family restroom model. Larry Krominga moved to accept the quote for $8,800 and sign a contract with Vissering to complete the bathroom remodel minus painting. Debbie seconded the motion. All present voted in favor; motion carried. Kristin will initiate that contract and schedule the work with Vissering.

New Business:

Personnel Policy- Holidays – Kristin compared the holiday schedule with what the City of Pontiac offers other city employees and found that there are 3 holidays for which the library is not close and the library staff does not receive holiday pay. She would like to close the library on these holidays consistent with the city offices and offer these as

paid holidays for the full-time staff. Lisa Martin motioned to add these three holidays to the paid holidays for the full-time library staff. Kathy McLean seconded. All present voted in favor; motion carried.

Business Hours – Kristin has been monitoring patron traffic and has noted that attendance has changed post pandemic. The evening hours are not as heavily desired on certain days. Currently the library provides 56 service hours weekly. Kristin would like to reduce this by 4 hours weekly to more closely align the service hours to how patrons are currently using the library and to save payroll expenses where possible. The change will not affect full time employees’ schedules and will only make slight changes to the part-time employees weekly schedules overall. The change will save roughly $5,000 annually in payroll expenses. Kathy Mclean motioned to reduce business hours by 4 hours weekly. Larry Krominga seconded. All present voted in favor; motion carried. The new business hours will begin 4/3/23 at the start of the next fiscal period.

’23-24 Budget – Kristin presented a draft of the ’23-24 budget reflecting both the changes in holiday pay and new business hours. Kristin also proposed the wages for both full-time and part-time staff for the next fiscal period. She would like to take full-time staff to $15.00 for the next fiscal period which is closer to the pay scale currently being offered to other City employees. It was discussed that making this change now helps to ensure that the library can retain the skill of the current employees and that a new salary schedule can be built ahead of the state’s mandated minimum wage increases to $15.00 in 2025. A final review and approval of the budget will occur at the next board meeting.

Trustee Closing Comments:

None

Lisa Martin moved to adjourn the meeting. Debbie Dowdy seconded. All present voted in favor; motion carried.

https://www.pontiac.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_02132023-957