Haverhill Public Library
Board of Trustees
Minutes of April 21, 2022
The regular monthly meeting of the Trustees of the Haverhill Public Library was called to order at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 21, 2022 in the Donald C. Freeman Whittier Room. In attendance were Trustees Bresnahan, Coletti, Klueber, Sheehan, and Veasey-Sirois. Also in attendance was Director, Sarah Moser and Assistant Director, Jonathan Nichols.
TD Bank Presentation, Joe Marini
The first order of business was a presentation by Joe Marini summarizing the increases in the library’s portfolio over the past 17 years and a summary of the special collections funds over the past 10 years. He stated that overall the library’s portfolio is continuing to do well with a solid performance shown by a continued increase in the endowment.
Secretary’s Report
The trustees were given copies of the minutes dated March 17, 2022. After perusing the minutes, a motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes. The minutes were approved.
Treasurer’s Report
Business manager, Josh, presented the financial statements for March. Highlights included:
- Reader’s Fund donations are still slowly coming in but the total gifts are down 44% and the number of gifts is down 25%.
- Lost fees and paid fees has increased since doing away with fines partly due to an increase in late fees for hot spots.
- State aid funds have been received by the City. Funds were increased this year.
A motion was made and seconded to accept the financial statements. The statements were approved.
Director’s Report
Sarah discussed the highlights of the director’s report:
- Foot traffic, meeting room use and programming attendance were all up this month.
- There have been roof leaks in the auditorium, which Sarah discussed with Paul and the roofing company. The drains were cleaned and we will continue to monitor it.
- The new Head of Youth Services and Head of Reference are both working out well.
- Sarah had a budget meeting with the Mayor. He seemed to be open to the possibility of hiring a full time archivist.
- The new cleaning company will start in June and the City has increased the cleaning budget.
Old Business
The wall mural art project has been put on hold.
The trustees discussed their thoughts and impressions of each architecture company that presented last month for the library renovations. They thought getting more proposals and forming an advisory committee would be helpful.
Trustee Sheehan is continuing to work with Louis Miller on acquiring the 3rd floor condo. There was a motion to empower Attorney Miller to draft a letter on behalf of the board to acquire the property potentially including a 30B regulation. All were in favor.
New Business
Sarah discussed the updated mending policy. After a discussion, the trustees voted to accept the changes. All were in favor.
Sarah met with the garden club to discuss having the Leave a Plant, Take a Plant shelf on library grounds. There was discussion about the logistics of it, such as, how will it be maintained since library staff can’t maintain it, and where to locate it that it doesn’t interfere in library business.
Sarah was contacted by an undergraduate student wanting to do and internship. She said it would be helpful to have her work on outreach.
Sarah has been working with the auctioneers to discuss selling the weathervane and heard the trustees comments and concerns.
Dana asked if she would be allowed to work from home if she became sick and especially with Covid, since she is a contract employee. The trustees agreed that she could if she had Covid.
Sarah discussed the need for staff training, especially for department heads, on how to handle a person causing commotion in the library, including people they know.
Jonathan discussed his ideas on using the outreach money allocated to the library with the need for private, movable, soundproof areas for conference calls and meetings. He presented quotes to the trustees. They thought it was a good idea but said that rules and a policy would need to be created.
There being no further business to discuss, a motion was made and seconded to adjourn. The meeting ended at 11:45 a.m.
Sincerely, Kathleen Bresnahan