St. Elmo Public Library District
311 W Cumberland Road
St. Elmo, IL 62458
Board Meeting Minutes
September 8, 2022
Present: President T. Koberlein, B. Koberlein, C. Arnold, S Hord, C Hough, C Kamnick, Director Karnes.
Guests: None
The Board Meeting was held at the Beecher City Library and was called to order at 6:02 pm. by President Koberlein.
Minutes of the August 11, 2022 were approved as read.
Review of the Financial Statement
Review of the financial statement was given by Connie Kamnick. Connie stated that the per capita grant was $8,900 which is a little lower than last year. Amazon is now using gift card for any returns made, which makes record keeping more difficult. Ameren bill was $700 this month after being $1000 last month. Connie also broke down the movements in some of the other accounts. President Koberlein asked that the financial statement be put on file for audit. A motion to accept the treasurer’s report and pay the bills was made by C. Arnold and seconded by S. Hord. The motion was unanimously approved.
The Librarian’s Report
Kim reported that our numbers are staying about the same at all three libraries. The libraries are still issuing several cards monthly. Computer use was about the same as the previous month.
Director’s Communication
Kim suggested that in honor the passing away of Bev Crawford that the library buy some rectangle planters and dedicate those with a sign saying, “Bev Crawford’s bee pollinating garden” and place pollinating plants in the pots. Also, getting another bee keeping manual book and placing her name inside of it. Beecher City mower has changed. Ryan Waugh had been mowing it, but the hydrostatic part of his lawn mower died. Ryan’s grandfather, River Front Mowing, is taking over the contract and its $50 cheaper. Kim stated that the October meeting will be held at the Brownstown Library. Trent Kreke is going to meet Kim in the coming week. When Wayne put the new public computers in, he did not put what’s called SmartShield on them. SmartShield locks down the computers so that nothing can be saved on them and if they are logged in to anything, it logs them out. Wayne was wanting the staff to delete the computers every night. Kim and Tony both talked with Wayne and asked him to get a quote on “SmartShield”. The cost from Data 443 would be $23.02 for each of the computers. So, for 11 computers it’s $227.90. Wayne was unsure if that was a yearly fee, but he was going to get back to Kim.
No visitors were present.
Old Business
Beecher City Memorial
The wording on the memorial stone will use the word, Beloved instead of Cherished and of instead of for 18 years. The board decided to go with the #2 design that was given to us in honor of JoAn. Plans are being made for the Beecher City newspaper to do a write-up about the installation of the stone. The memorial celebration is being planned.
Beecher City Plumbing
Beecher City is supposed to raise the manhole and put a new cover on it. Getting a back flow preventer was mentioned.
Beecher City Lease
Tony and Connie K. talked with John at the Beecher City Bank about the problem lease.
Damaged Items due to Insects/Bugs Policy
Kim talked to another library and they said they didn’t have a written policy, but when the staff encounters bugs in material that has been returned, they are to report it to the Director and the Director sends out a letter. They do not ban the patron from the location, but they put a blocking note on their account so they couldn’t check anything out. Kim then talked to the Arab tech that comes in and he said as long as the individual didn’t sit on any furniture, we should be okay. The board adopted a policy to handle bug infestation that shows up in a patrons returned books and a letter concerning the matter will be sent to the patron.
We talked about replacing some much needed ceiling tile. RP lumber was mention for getting a few more ceiling tiles.
Maintenance at the Beecher City Library
There was a discussion about painting inside the Beecher City Library. Discussion was made about changing the furnace filters every three months.
New Business
After School Club
Plans are being make to start the After School Club back up in October. Due to the large participation from the St. Elmo Elementary, Kim is planning on splitting that group up into two days. The days will be in the same week. The second Tuesday of the month, she will have Kindergarten and First Grade and the second Thursday she will have 2nd and 3rd grades. Beecher City will be on the third Thursday of the month for K-5th grade. Kim is hoping to plan something at a future date for St. Elmo 4th and 5th grades.
Miscellaneous
The new accountant is working on being able to use Direct Deposit for staff.
The meeting was closed by President T. Koberlein at 7:43 p.m.