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Minutes
Meeting of the
Columbus Library Board
July 8, 2004
The regularly scheduled meeting of the Columbus Library Board was called to
order by the President, Charlie Bahr, at 4:30 PM on Thursday, July 8, 2004.
Other members of the Library Board present were Jolaine Nielsen, Bill Merrill,
Lynne Rambour, and Jerry Jirka. Also in attendance were Robert Trautwein, the
Library Director, and Brad Hruska, the Children’s Librarian.
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 of the June Board meeting were reviewed and allowed to stand as
presented with a motion from Jerry Jirka and a second from Lynne Rambour. The
motion passed by voice vote
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The Library Director distributed the July financial reports for the City
Library, the Platte County Library, and the Library Foundation. He noted that
while July is the 10th month of the budget year, the postings for June are not
listed in the “Revenue” section and in the “Personnel” section of expenses.
Regarding the budget line for “Electricity”, it was suggested that we try to
raise the temperature a degree or so to affect some savings. Following a
discussion of each report, a motion to accept the financial reports was made
by Jerry Jirka and seconded by Jolaine Nielsen. This motion passed by a roll
call vote: Bahr-aye, Nielsen-aye, Merrill-aye, Rambour-aye, and Jirka-aye.
Regarding the Director’s Report, Trautwein said that he has been doing work on
the Library’s new website including a notice of the Library being closed over
the 4th of July. Jerry Jirka asked about including a list of new books added
to the Library. Trautwein said that in the section of the website for the
“Reader’s Advisor”, Mrs. Hansen intends to list the latest new books added.
There were no committee reports.
Under correspondence, Brad Hruska, the Children’s Librarian, discussed the
upcoming “Summer Reading Program”. He said that there are around 775 children
registered for the program. The reading challenge for this year is that, if
the children read 100,000 pages, he has volunteered to be dunked. He said that
that goal has already been met, so he’s going to be dunked for sure. He noted
that the volunteers have been very cooperative this year with very little
no-shows. Comments were also made about the chartreuse book bags. The children
are really using them and the parents are pleased with the color as they can
readily find the bags.
Under Old Business, Trautwein said that on Wednesday at a Department Head’s
meeting he was given a revision to his budget which includes a 2% salary
increase. This revision brings the Library budget increase to 6.8% over the
previous year. Trautwein said that by using the revised budget that includes
the 2% salary increase, if the City Council demands that the budget be reduced
to only a 3% increase, he will need to eliminate $18,225 in expenses. As there
is very little “discretionary” line items within the Library budget, Trautwein
said that the only recourse to eliminating that amount of money would be to
reduce staffing by one part time person and reducing one full-time position to
a part-time one. Considering that the Library has only 12 employees (not
including the custodian), a cut of 40 hours per week will necessitate a
reduction in library hours. Trautwein said that he has been asked by Anne
Kinnison to respond to the revised budget with a “consequences” scenario.
Under new business, the Director said that he had not done any work on the bid
specifications for a new bookmobile.
Regarding the Universal Service Fund application, Trautwein said that about
two weeks earlier he had received a phone call from someone at the Universal
Service Fund. He was told that he needed to submit a “Technology Plan”. He
said that he told the person that it had been his understanding that since he
was applying for only a refund on the Library’s telephone expenses, he did not
need to submit a technology plan. The person informed him that there had been
a revision in the specifications and all needed to submit a plan. So,
Trautwein said that he spent the next several days writing a technology plan.
He sent that draft to the Universal Service Fund. He has since learned that
the Library has been granted the money it requested for the 2004-05 year. He
said that he had been working a person from the Nebraska Library Commission on
the final format of technology plan. He hopes to have the plan completed
within the next few days. Once finished, a copy will be sent to the Library
Commission and a second copy to the Universal Service fund.
Regarding announcements, Trautwein said that the Library Foundation’s annual
book sale will begin on Sunday, August 8th. The Sunday date was selected to
give working people a better opportunity to get to the book sale on the first
day of its opening.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned with a motion from
Jolaine Nielsen and a second by Jerry Jirka.
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