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Minutes of the Quarterly
Meeting of the
Columbus Library Board
and the
Platte County Library Advisory Board
March 8, 2007
The regularly scheduled quarterly meeting of the Columbus Public Library Board
and the Platte County Library Advisory Board was called to order at 4:35 PM on
Thursday, March 8, 2007 by the President of the Board, Craig Neid. He read and
signed the “Certification of Compliance” regarding the “Open Meeting” law.
Other Library Board members present included CarolKeller, Jim Schaefer, Jerry
Jirka, and Lynne Rambour. Carol Rosendahl,representing the County Library
Advisory Board, was present. Joe Mangiamelli, City Director, Brad Hruska, the
Children’s Librarian, Karen Hake, the Bookmobile Librarian, and Robert
Trautwein, Library Director, were also in attendance.
Notice of this meeting was given in advance with a copy of the agenda posted
at City Hall and in the Public Library. All proceedings hereafter shown were
taken while the convened meeting was open to the public.
The Minutes of the February Board meeting were reviewed and allowed to stand
as corrected with a motion from Lynne Rambour and a second from Carol Keller.
The motion passed by voice vote.
The Library Director distributed the March Financial Reports for the City
Library, County Library Services, and Library Foundation. Trautwein noted that
March is the sixth month of the 2006-07 budget year with 41% of the City
Library’s budget spent. A motion was made by Jim Schaefer and seconded by
Lynne Rambour to accept the financial reports as presented. This motion passed
by roll call vote: Neid-Aye, Keller-Aye, Rambour-Aye, and Schaefer-Aye. Jirka
abstained as he had arrived late.
Trautwein reviewed the Director’s Report.
There were no Committee Reports
Under Correspondence, Karen Hake, the Bookmobile Librarian, discussed the use
of her collection and the additional of graphic novels. She said that on the
27th of March, she and Brad Hruska will be attending the summer reading
program training session in Norfolk. This training session is sponsored by the
Nebraska Library Commission and the Northeast Library System. Mrs. Hake
excused herself.
Under Old Business, Larry Mares, from RVW, was present to discuss the single
bid received for the remodeling of the ceiling in the Children’s Room. He
noted that the base bid was from Bierman Contracting for $123, 975, with an
supplemental bid of $5,676 for the addition of the windows to the west
exterior walls. Mr. Mares noted that he had faxed the advertisement for bids
to 15 construction companies to solicit as many bids as possible. He said that
he had talked to an engineer at BD Construction and learned that that company
has as much work in the foreseeable future as it needs. Mr. Mares said that a
combination of a lot of other work available and the nature of the Library’s
project (messy) probably resulted in the single bid at a higher price than
anticipated. Mares said that bid is valid for 30 days.
Mr. Mares said that he reviewed the bid to see if the project could be scaled
back. The only item that could be eliminated is the re-carpeting of the
Children’s Room, but that would only reduce the cost by $7,000 at the most.
Jim Schaefer asked about the shortfall. Trautwein said that after RVW is paid
for their work, there remains but $103,500.00, so the shortfall is $26,151.00.
Trautwein noted that the Foundation account contains approximately $125,000.
Craig Neid asked if there would be any savings if the project were delayed
until Fall as the financial forecasters are expecting a building slow down
later this year? Jerry Jirka asked Mr. Mares if his work to-date would remain
valid if the project were delayed a few months? Mr. Mares said that he thought
it would remain valid unless a construction code was changed.
Trautwein asked if the Library would incur any additional expenses from RVW if
the project were postponed? Mares said there would be a few additional
expenses in reprinting the drawing and advertising the bid.
There was a discussion about the single bid. Concern was expressed that with a
single bid, there is no comparison and no idea if the bid reflects the cost of
the project.
Keller asked about the minimum financial level for the Foundation. She said
that if the Foundation paid the $60,000 and picked up the $26,500 shortfall,
there would remain in the Treasury approximately $35,000.
Trautwein asked Mr. Mangiamelli about the possibility of carrying over the
allocation to the 2007-08 year. He said that this was a possibility. He said
that the Foundation could recommend that the single bid be rejected with the
intention to re-advertise sometime in the future. He said that the Board would
then need to analyze the potential for the cost of the project remaining as
high or higher when it re-advertised. In the meanwhile, in anticipating a
similar bid, will the Board ask both the Foundation and the City for
additional money for the project in the next budget year?
Mr. Neid said that there is a significant risk in waiting until Fall to
re-advertise. He said that we might see more bids, but the costs might
escalate.
Carol Keller asked Mr. Mares what he thought of the single bid price. He said
that he wasn’t too surprised at the amount. He didn’t think that the bid is
too far off. His original estimate might have been too low.
On the topic of rejecting bids, Mr. Mares said that it has been his experience
that if a bid is rejected, it is better to wait quite a while before
re-advertising. The low bidder may not want to bid again as his rejected bid
has become public.
Following further discussion, it was decided to call a special meeting of the
Library Foundation to determine if more Foundation money could be contributed
to the project. Perhaps Foundation money could be used to leverage more money
from the City Council.
Mr. Neid said that at present, the Foundation is in a fifty-fifty partnership
with the city and it should use that argument to leverage more matching city
funds.
Trautwein was asked to set up a Foundation meeting as soon as possible to
explore the possibility of adding more money to the project.
Mr. Mares excused himself.
A motion by Jim Schaefer to move the meeting into Executive Session to
consider the performance review of the Library Director. This motion passed by
roll call vote: Neid-Aye, Keller-Aye, Jirka-Aye, Rambour-Aye, and
Schaefer-Aye.
A motion to move from the Executive Session to a public meeting was made by
Carol Keller and seconded by Jim Schaefer. This motion passed by voice vote.
The President adjourned the meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Robert Trautwein,
Library Director
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