Minutes of the Monthly
                                                           Meeting of the
                                                  Columbus Library Board
                                          
                                                            May 11, 2005

The regularly scheduled meeting of the Columbus Public Library Board was called to order at 4:30 PM on Thursday, May 11th by the President of the Board, Jerry Jirka. Other Library Board members present included Jolaine Nielsen, Jim Schaefer, Lynne Rambour and Craig Neid. Also in attendance were John Woerth and Joe Tooley, both members of the Platte County Board of Supervisors and Robert Trautwein, Library Director.

Notice of this meeting was given in advance with a copy of the agenda posted at City Hall, the County Court House and in the Public Library. All proceedings hereafter shown were taken while the convened meeting was open to the public.

The minutes to the April 14th Library Board meeting were reviewed and allowed to stand as submitted with a motion from Jolaine Nielsen and a second from Jim Schaefer. The motion passed by voice vote.

The Library Director distributed the May financial reports for the City Library, the Platte County Library and the Library Foundation. He noted that the reports were for the 8th month of the fiscal year. Following a review, a motion was made by Jim Schaefer and seconded by Lynne Rambour to accept the reports. This motion passed by roll call vote: Jirka-aye, Neid-aye, Nielsen-aye, Schaefer-aye, and Rambour-aye.

Trautwein said that he had nothing to add to his monthly report

There were no committee reports.

Under correspondence, Trautwein said that Brad Hruska had planned to be at the meeting, but he couldn’t make it. Trautwein pointed out the head to the wooden dragon that will be the main feature in the Children’s Room during the summer reading program. Trautwein said that he estimates that the dragon will stand about 9 feet tall and will be about 12 feet long.

Under Old Business, Trautwein said that he does not have a report regarding the return of the long-overdue materials. He said that some of the long-overdue materials have been returned through the book drops and there have been a few people who have come into the Library to settle their accounts or return the overdue materials and sign promissory notes to pay their fines. He said that some parents have called to say that since their children are now past the age of majority (19 years old), the parents are no longer responsible for them. Those patrons are reminded that they signed a contract saying that they would guarantee payment for fines and lost materials checked out to their children. As the children were under 19 years of age when they checked out the items, the parents are legally responsible. This hasn’t gone over too well. Some people say they are not going to pay. ARL Credit services will be taking them to court to get a judgment.

Under New Business, John Woerth said that as it was time to discuss the renewal of the contract for county library service, he and Joe Tooley were at the meeting to review the County Board of Supervisor’s position. Mr. Woerth said that it was his understanding that during last year’s negotiations it was decided that the Library would look into downsizing the vehicle so that it could be operated by one person. Trautwein said that that was the intended situation, however, when he reviewed the proposal with Anne Kinnison, the City’s Finance Officer, and Joe Frei, the City Administrator, he learned that neither would support the purchase of a new—smaller—vehicle without a long-term contract. Because of the city’s stance on the purchase, Trautwein said that he went no further than contacting one of the vendors to get an estimate of the cost of a new vehicle.

Trautwein said that the Library Board is at an impasse. In order to downside the staff on the vehicle, it needs to purchase a smaller unit, but it can’t purchase a smaller unit unless it can get a long-term contract from the County.

Mr. Woerth said that he had hoped that the Library would have an estimated budget that would show a reduction in overall cost with a smaller vehicle. Trautwein said that he could prepare such a budget. For the first year, the budget would not be that much reduced as it will take six or more months to request bids, select the builder/vendor and produce the vehicle. All the while, the old 2-man vehicle would continue to be in operation. Trautwein said that, then, for the coming year, he could prepare a budget that would reflect a reduction in staff by one full-time person.

Woerth said that he could see additional saving with a smaller vehicle. Trautwein said that he would be concerned about getting too small of a vehicle as it would limit the choice patrons would have when they visited the bookmobile.

Mr. Tooley suggested that the vehicle be a van that would be used primarily to haul books to schools. He said that with the library’s holdings now available through Internet, the schools could order books and other materials to be delivered at a later date. Again, Trautwein said that much of what is checked out from the vehicle is selected through browsing. At school stops, a teacher may have an assignment for which there will be books on the bookmobile, but the students will also check out materials that strike their interest. A delivery van would eliminate browsing and reduce the service provided to county residents.

Mrs. Nielsen asked about the type of vehicle that the Library Director had looked at a year ago. Trautwein said that particular vehicle had an engine in the front and was about two-thirds the size of the present vehicle. He said that he only got an estimate of the cost and he believed the estimate was around $87,000.

Mr. Tooley asked about the resale value of the old vehicle. Trautwein said that there may be some fairly strong interest in the unit as it would be a lot cheaper for some libraries to purchase rather than buy a new vehicle that has all of the ADA “handicapped accessible” equipment.

Mr. Woerth asked about a sinking fund to purchase a new vehicle. Trautwein said that the city has been building a fund to replace the vehicle and he believes there is ample money to make the purchase.

Mr. Woerth said that the county would need to know the cost of the coming year’s budget as well as have some idea of the next year’s budget in order to consider a multi-year contract. Trautwein said that he could provide that, but the county must understand that it will take 6 to 8 months to get a new vehicle, so the 2005-06 budget wouldn’t be too much less than the current year budget.

Mr. Schaefer asked what the County was trying to move to. Mr. Woerth said that the County Commissioners would like to downsize the operations as the Commissioners think that it costs a lot of money to run the vehicle.

Trautwein distributed a sheet that showed the circulation statistics for the first 7 months of the year for both the city library and the bookmobile.

Mr. Neid asked about a “level of service” that the county would like to have for its funding. Trautwein said that there was an “understanding” when the first 3-year contract was negotiated that the bookmobile would be “on location” on the average of 25 hours a week, or 100 hours a month. Trautwein said that 25 hours is about the most that can be guaranteed because of the driving time to and from the Library and to and from the stops and the preparation time involved in locating books in the library, checking those out and also downloading the circulation data from the bookmobile’s computer to the Library’s computer.

Mr. Neid said that he was inquiring about patron expectations. He said that he is concerned that if the vehicle is too small and the selection is limited, patrons may be dissatisfied with the service.

Mr. Tooley asked about the bookmobile stops that are just a few miles from the city. He said that those people ought to be able to drive into town and use the city library. Trautwein said that the Library at one time tried to curtail those stops but the residents said that they were county residents and they were paying the taxes so they wanted the vehicle to stop for them also.

Jim Schaefer asked that since the county is wanting to have a year-to-year contract, is the county trying to get rid of the vehicle? Mr. Woerth said that county is interested in reducing the cost of county library service.

Trautwein said that he could prepare a budget for the coming year. This budget would be for practically the same amount as the current year because of the length of time it would take to write the specs, place the order and build the vehicle. He said he could also prepare a tentative budget for the 2006-07 year which would show the cost of operating a smaller vehicle.

Jerry Jirka excused himself and asked Craig Neid to take over the chair.

Mr. Woerth said that he didn’t know that there was much else to discuss. He would review what had been discussed with the County Board of Supervisors.

Trautwein asked about being on the May 17th agenda of the County Board of Supervisors. Mr. Woerth said that the agenda was still open and that he should call Diane Pinger and ask to be included. Trautwein said that all he could discuss at the meeting, if he were to attend, is a memo that reviewed the Library Board’s position.

Mr. Woerth and Mr. Tooley excused themselves.

The next item of business was budget planning for 2005. Trautwein said that it was coming along. He said that he is most of the way through the budget. He said that there has been no dictate from the City Council on a percentage increase. Instead, the departments are working on budgets which would allow the same level of service as the current year. Trautwein said that he has already figured the personnel costs. Factoring in insurance costs, that figure—for the same level of staffing—is going to raise 6.7%.

Trautwein said that he hoped to have the proposed budget finished by May 20th and submitted to city hall. At the June Library Board meeting, he would review his proposal.

Under Announcements, Trautwein said that he would be on vacation from Saturday, May 21st through Monday, May 30th.

Regarding the closing of the Library over Memorial day, Mrs. Nielsen noted the holiday is Monday, May 30th. She asked why the Library was closed on Sunday? Trautwein said that since the holiday was on a Monday, he chose to close on Sunday also. He said that he thought there was a city policy regarding this. (He later learned that the city policy is that if the holiday falls on a Sunday, city offices are closed on Monday also.) Mr. Neid said that a similar situation came up at Christmas time. Mr. Neid and Mrs. Rambour said that they would prefer that the Library were open on the Sunday prior to the Memorial Day Monday. Trautwein said that he would keep the library open on the Sunday prior to Memorial Day. Mrs. Nielsen said that it would be better—in the interest of public service—to keep the library open on its regular hours as much as possible.

A motion to adjourn was made by Craig Neid and seconded by Jolaine Nielsen. This motion passed by voice vote.