St. Elmo Public Library District
311 W Cumberland Road
St. Elmo, IL 62458
Board Meeting Minutes
October 13, 2022
Present: President T. Koberlein, B. Koberlein, C. Arnold, S Hord, C Hough, C Kamnick, Director Karnes.
Guests: Wayne Moran and his wife Neeley
The Board Meeting was held at the Brownstown Library and was called to order at 6:10 pm. by President Koberlein
Minutes of the September 8, 2022 were approved as read.
Review of the Financial Statement
Review of the financial statement was given by Connie Kamnick. President Koberlein asked that the financial statement be put on file for adit. A motion to accept the treasurer’s report and pay the bills was made by S. Hord and seconded by D. Crawford. The motion was unanimous approved.
The Librarian’s Report
Kim reported at the Brownstown Library 16 patrons checked out 112 items and at Beecher City Library 32 patrons checked out 267 items. Brownstown Library had 82 people came into building, but for some other reason that checking out an item or using the computers. Kim stated that we are still issuing a lot of library cards at the three libraries. St. Elmo collected $142.52 in fines, mostly due to a local patron keeping several books for a long period of time. The question was raised, if the patron checks out material in Effingham, are they notified that St. Elm District Library does charge a late fee and Kim said the patron is made aware of that fact. For the after school program at the St. Elmo Library on October 12, they had 12 Kindergarten and 1st grade and October 13, they had 16 2nd and 3rd grade kids.
Director’s Communication
Kim stated that Sexual Harassment Training was completed for another year. The employee Christmas party is planned for December 9, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. Kim said she did meet with the Beecher City principal and it was approved to allow busing to the Beecher City Library for the After School Program. Instead of having the program on the third Thursday, the library will have their program on the third Friday. This is due to the school has a running after school programs Monday – Thursday. Kim, also stated, the Beecher City principal is hoping she can implement a program with the High School that will pair up a high school student with a younger student in which the high school student will help the younger student get a library cand and they will be able to spend some time together reading in the library. Kim also discussed other things that are available that can be uploaded to their school tablets. Kim stated that she has been unable to meet with the Brownstown Elementary principal, Martin Son. She has been unable to meet with Trent Kreke to discuss the problem trees at the Beecher City Library. It was suggested that Kim also call Dalton Buff to get an estimate. At the St. Elmo Elementary, Kim talked to Donell, the school secretary, about getting information to the students and Donell said, we just have to print out the flyers and she will get them to each teacher. Beecher City Elementary offered to make copies, if we take them a flyer. Kim didn’t have any information about getting information to the students yet, as she hasn’t been able to talk with the principal.
Guest
Wayne Moran stated that in St. Elmo people are coming to the library all hours of the night and using the Wi-Fi, which causes the St. Elmo Police Department to notify Wayne or Tony of someone hanging out at the St. Elmo Library. Wayne mentioned using an RT series so that the Wi-Fi will turn on and off on a schedule. Wayne stated that we would need two routers allow them to operate from 7 a.m. – 9 p.m. This will also, be needed at the Beecher City Library. Wayne will be purchasing two ASUS RT routers. Wayne mentioned that it’s cheaper to buy a monitor with a display port. Wayne asked if the current monitors had speakers on them and Kim said they did, but they don’t use the speakers. It was decided to stick with the 22” monitors, which is what we have currently. It was decided to get three new monitors at $139 each.
Beecher City Memorial
The date of the Memorial for JoAn was set for Thursday, October 27, 2022 at 5:30 p.m. Five dozen cookies will be purchased.
Beecher City Plumbing
Nothing
Beecher City Lease
Nothing
Damaged Items do to Insects/Bugs Policy
Nothing
Miscellanous
Nothing
New Business
Movie License
To get all three libraries licensed it would cost $1350.00. If we would purchase the license for one year, we would get a 5% discount and for three years we would get a 10% discount. Tony suggested we get a one year license and see how it goes. So it was decided to get a license for one year and see what kind of response is given. The Library District doesn’t want to have a conflict with other organizations, like the St. Elmo Park District or the PTO that are already have scheduled movie nights. Kim would like to be able to close up the Main Street in Brownstown and offer movies right on the street in the summer time. St. Elmo Park District have said the Library could use the inflatable screen anytime.
Snow Removal
Tony checked with Cody Sprerry and found out Chris Tappendorf does Sperry’s Service snow removal. Tony asked Cody to give Chris his number to see if he would take care of the library also.
Voting on Ordinance 2022-3
Ordinance 2022-3 Adoping the Budget and Appropriation. C. Hough made a motion to accept Ordinance 2022-3 with D. Crawford seconded it. C. Kamnick, yes, President Koberlein, yes, C. Hough, yes, C. Arnold, yes, B. Koberlein, yes, S. Hord, yes, D. Crawford, yes.
Voting on Ordinance 2022-4
Ordinance 2022-4 Annual Tax Levy. D. Crawford made a motion to accept Ordinance 2022-4 with C. Hough seconded it. President Koberlein, yes, C. Arnold, yes, B.Koberlein, yes, D. Crawford, yes, S, Hord, yes, C. Kamnick, yes, C. Hough, yes.
Beecher City Christmas Walk
The Beecher City Christmas Walk will be December 10, 5:00 – 8:00. Cathy thought it would be nice to provide cookies and punch during the walk through. She also thought, it would be a good idea, for those board members that have nativity sets to bring them to the library for display at the top of the bookcases. We should bring them to the November meeting. It was decided to order four dozen cookies.
Changing hours the library hours
Changing hours of each library was discussed to allow to have programs in the mornings on one week day. There was some discussion about having staff work a split shift. Also, the board is trying ideas to get more children into the library. Cathy stated that she had been reading about the fact that if you start kids early in age and get them into a library and get them to read the books, they will want to continue doing that as an adult. It was stated that we change the hours for six months and, if that doesn’t work out to go back to the previous set hours. It was offered that staff come to the next meeting to discuss the changing of the hours plan. The discussion was tabled until the November meeting.
Microfilm
Newspapers.com got in touch with Kim. They are wanting to convert all the banner microfilms over to digitize them. They want us to send all the library microfilm that we have to them and they will send it back the originals. The library would have to pay the cost to ship it to them and they will pay the cost to send it back. They will house it and make sure they are secure and safe. They will give us access to what we provide them on line. That would give us the option of getting rid of our current microfilm machine.
Discussion of new library programs
Kim mention about perhaps having a hunter safety course or having Patty Winn come in again. Staff all seemed to be in favor of that. Kim mentioned planning an awards program and passing out information about a pizza party in the fall for whatever class used the library the most over the summer. It was discussed of how to get the children into the library during the summer. It was mention that there are grants that allow the kids to be bused to the library.
Miscellaneous
Kim stated that our ERATE application is coming up for all three libraries. Right now the library has Mediacom. Both St. Elmo and Brownstown Libraries have to be bid out to maintain the current discounts. Right now the cost for St. Elmo is $129.95 and Brownstown is $58.99. Beecher City is locked in with Walbash until the contract expires in 2024. American Fiber may want to put in a bid, as well.
Kim mention the kid size picnic table for the reading garden. She had priced one on Amazon for $99.00, but it didn’t appear to be very sturdy. She priced another company for $195.00, that uses 1” northern white cedar. And $275.00 if you choose 2×4 cedar planking. She, also, has asked Adam Mathis to give her prices for a kids picnic table and he offers one with a canopy over it. The discussion was tabled until we receive more information.
Kim looked in to full-size library cards and the cost would be 98 cents each card with a minimum order of 250. Several people have asked Kim for full-size library cards.
Painting the Beecher City Library was tabled.
A motion was made by C. Kamnick and seconded by D. Crawford to close the meeting at 8:12 p.m.