St. Elmo Public Library District
311 W Cumberland Road
St. Elmo, IL 62458
Board Meeting Minutes
August 11, 2022
Present: President T. Koberlein, D. Crawford, B. Koberlein, C. Arnold, S. Hord, C. Hough, C. Kamnick and Director Karnes
Guest: None
The Board Meeting was held at the St. Elmo Public Library and was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by President Koberlein.
Minutes of the July 8, 2022 meeting were approved as read.
A review of the financial statement was given by C. Kamnick. Connie K. stated the payroll has been all messed up with the changing over to a new system at Dieterich Bank. It has all been worked out and every employee received their check. Time was spent talking about predicting amount needed in the social security account. President Koberlein stated that the treasurer’s report was to be placed on file for audit.
President Koberlein stated a motion needed to be made to pay the bills. Crawford made the motion and it was seconded by Hough to approve the treasurer’s report and to pay the bills. The motioned carried.
For the Director’s Communication, Kim mention that seven new cards had been issued for St. Elmo, six at Brownstown and two at Beecher City. Kim state that Wayne had gotten the two new computers installed. Kim report that Wayne said that the open DNS was messing up, because apparently all three libraries were on the same IP address, and it was going off of Brownstown’s IP address. Wayne got that all fixed, but it wasn’t blocking the websites at St. Elmo. Wayne said, if it continues, he will look into some other companies that we could use. Director Karnes stated that the September 8 Board meeting will be at the Beecher City Library and the October 13 meeting will be at the Brownstown Library. Both meetings will start at 6:00 pm. Kim mention that she is needing to have an all-day staff meeting to clear a few things up. No date had been set for the staff meeting, as of this Board meeting. Kim also talked about a dying tree on the library property. Tony suggested calling Dalton Buff. Hopefully, Dalton could look at all the trees on the property and make suggestions of which ones need to come down. The library in Beecher City is in need of a new toilet. Tony told Kim to purchase a new taller toilet for Beecher City Library. Tony said he would go to Bradford Supply and pick one up. The new book shelves at Beecher City are almost completed. The plan is to paint the walls before the new bookshelves are installed. Kim asked Tony about the accountant he had mentioned in Vandalia, since Larry Stine is retiring. Tony said he had talked with her and, since other clients had mentioned direct deposit, she was looking further into making that available. The new museum door has been installed, but the company needs to come back and do some touch up painting. The large back doors came with dents in them and they were not installed and were returned to the manufacture for replacement. JD has applied the cat mace in the reading garden and around the potted plants at the front of the library.
During the Old Business the summer reading program was discussed. Kim said in St. Elmo, they started off Monday with eight kids and by Friday, they had 20 kids. At Beecher City they started Monday with three kids and by Friday, they had 12 kids. At Brownstown, Kim called the program off on Tuesday, due to no one participating. Cathy suggested that, in the future we contact the principals at the three grade schools to see if they would be willing to do a call-them-all to announce what is going on as far as the reading program. There was discussion about contacting the grade schools to announce any special programs the three libraries are having. Kim is hoping to be able to meet with all three grade school principals during the month of September. The Beecher City Memorial stone is about two weeks out and then, he will send us a photo for final approval. A ceremony will be planned and, also, have newspaper coverage. Discussion was held about the final wording on the stone. As far as the plumbing at the Beecher City Library remains a problem. With all the rain that we’ve had recently, the toilet won’t flush, once again. Tony said he would be in contact with Jason Wells to see if he can get something done. The back roof has been fixed after Tony made a phone call. Information about the Beecher City Lease ground, Tony got a call from Nicki stating that the Beecher City Bank doesn’t want them to sign off on the lease because it someone else buys the ground, they will need parking. So, Connie Kamnick and Tony are going to Beecher City Bank and talk with John and inform him of the current situation. Connie K. stated that some kind of rock border is needed to keep the rock in place for the Reading Garden. Discussion was made about painting the picnic tables in a cute manner. Kim mention Danielle Fontaine could possibly do that sort of thing.
New Business. Westendorf has not been back in touch with Cathy since she called about new fencing for the Beecher City Library. She is planning on calling again. Photos were shown to the Board of three books that were returned with droplets of blood, as well as bugs. The patron stated that the books came to her like that. Since the books were on loan, the library had to pay to have those books replaced. After researching other libraries, Kim found out that some libraries have a policy in place that the patron has to show proof that their house has been treated and cleared before they are allowed into the library in order to check books out. A letter is sent out stating the policy and the whole board needs to sign off on it. Kim had asked other library for copies of their policies, but hadn’t received an answer, as of this date. Showing movies from time to time, to bring people into the libraries was talked about.
A motion was made by Kamnick at 7:45 p.m. to close the meeting and seconded by Hord.