The Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Bucks County Free Library was held at the Pennwood branch in Langhorne. The meeting was called to order at 5:32 p.m. Present were:  Joan Bowman, President; William Draper, Vice President;
Roberta Foerst , Secretary; Jerry Balchis, Treasurer; Mary Ann Garton and
Steven Dilliplane, Board Trustees;  Martina Kominiarek , Executive Director;
Sue Ziegler, Public Services Director; David Bauer, Business Manager; Jan Dickler, Branch Librarian/Langhorne; Mike Barba, Assistant Branch Librarian/Langhorne; Dianne Malvoso , Youth Services Consultant; Joe Thompson, Facilities Manager; Beryl Heisman , Union Steward/Langhorne; and Pam Riley, Executive Assistant.
Det Ansinn, Board Trustee, was absent.

 

A MOTION to APPROVE the minutes of the Regular Meeting of June 19, 2007 was made by Foerst, SECONDED by Garton and unanimously APPROVED.

 

 

STAFF REPORTS

 

Report of Branch Librarian/Pennwood (Langhorne)

 

Jan Dickler hosted her first meeting as Branch Librarian of the Pennwood Library. Board members were given a tour of the library, observing some small changes that have already been made and hearing plans for larger renovations. She noted that weeding has resulted in the collection size being reduced from 92,825 to 81,656 in just six months and is still ongoing. The increased space that will result will be used to integrate juvenile and adult non-fiction and will allow relocation of many of the collections in a way that will be more user-friendly. A teen area and small café are planned as well. Their plan is to be a model for merchandising and for trying new ideas which can then be adapted to other libraries.

 

 

 

Report of Executive Director:  

 

Ms. Kominiarek spoke on the exciting changes occurring at the Pennwood branch library, noting that there are many projects planned with hope of funding from various sources, including Brunhouse and book sale funds. April is the target month for completion of the library’s transformation and updating.

 

 

 

The state’s Keystone funding, which is used for library capital grants, was at risk during the recent budget talks. Legislators had to decide whether to keep the money for the use it was earmarked for or use it for hazardous waste cleanup. A large number of people appealed to legislators to keep the Keystone fund intact, and they agreed. This was especially good news since we had recently applied for a Keystone grant to improve the parking lot of the Bensalem branch library. The state voted to give libraries a .03% increase, which is $25,000 more for the whole state in 2008 than in 2007. Because of this it is especially important that we receive a 3% increase from the county next year, as the 1.75% we received last year will not be enough to allow us to meet negotiated payroll increases and other demands.

 

A Strategic Planning orientation session for library board members and directors will be held at the Warminster Township Free Library on July 26 from
6:00-8:00 p.m. Our speaker will be June Garcia, and we will be looking to develop one countywide strategic plan. BCFL board members are encouraged to attend.

 

 

Report of Public Services Director (submitted in writing)

 

Special thanks were given to Jan Dickler for accepting the Branch Librarian position at the Pennwood Library, as she is the perfect person to accomplish the changes that need to occur here. The Bensalem branch is to be commended for sharing passport fund revenues with the Pennwood branch to enable two children’s programs to be held here, as there was no robust programming in place due to the retirement of the Assistant Branch Librarian, who also headed up Youth Services.

 

 

Report of System Services Director (submitted in writing)

 

 

Report of District Consultant (submitted in writing).

 

 

Report of Youth Services Consultant (submitted in writing)

 

Dianne Malvoso , Youth Services Consultant, reported on the Teen Summer Reading Program, which has proven to be successful in part due to the online component allowing teens to register and participate online. This was the first concerted effort made across the county to get young adults to participate. There are 160 teens so far that enrolled themselves, and there are 20 book reviews by the teens placed online. Teens record what they have read, and any teen who reads over 200 pages is eligible to enter for the grand prize drawing, which will be a limo ride for the winner and five friends on the first day of school.

 

 

Report of Collection Management Director (submitted in writing)

 

 

Report of Technical Services Manager (submitted in writing)

 

 

Report of Business Manager

 

MOTION to APPROVE the payment of bills for June 2007 in the amount of $328,086.80 was made by Balchis, SECONDED by Draper and APPROVED unanimously.

 

MOTION to APPROVE the June 2007 financial statements (subject to audit) was made by Garton, SECONDED by Draper, and APPROVED unanimously.

 

Mr. Bauer submitted a corporate resolution for approval. The resolution named Wachovia Bank as BCFL investment manager and Gerald Balchis, BCFL Board Treasurer, as BCFL authorized representative in matters involving Wachovia Bank investments. A MOTION to APPROVE the corporate resolution was made by Foerst, SECONDED by Garton and APPROVED unanimously.

 

Bids were requested for cleaning services for five branches, and the bids were opened in the presence of Mr. Balchis, Treasurer, on Monday, July 16, 2007. A handout was distributed listing a comparison of the bids, the requirements that each met, and the services they will provide. The company that included everything requested in the RFP and was lower priced was Cleannet. One item of importance was that the point of contact for this company has been there for 20 years.  The cleaning service will be implemented at the same time as the reorganization of BCFL custodial staff, where there will be flexibility of scheduling of custodians among the branches. Levittown and Quakertown will have full-time janitors due to the size of their buildings.  The remainder of the branches will have cleaning services. Full-time custodians will be available for all branches for maintenance work, and cleaning services will be supplemental. Three custodians will be scheduled among the southern Bucks area and two custodians plus the facilities manager will be available for central and northern Bucks. One of the biggest problems in BCFL’s infrastructure is maintenance, and this set-up will allow for continuous upkeep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A MOTION to APPROVE the cleaning service contract to Cleannet was made by Foerst, SECONDED by Draper and APPROVED unanimously.

 

On county capital projects Mr. Thompson, Facilities Manager, noted that:
1) Yardley-Makefield branch went from four to three HVAC units due to some unexpected costs at another branch; 2) there are no start dates yet for the
Yardley-Makefield HVAC; and 3) the Levittown roof will have a two-week deadline for completion starting on 10/1/07.

 

Board Committee Reports:

 

President’s Report – (submitted in writing)

 

The president reminded everyone that they are invited to attend the Strategic Planning session on Thursday, July 26, 2007 to be held at the Warminster Township Free Library from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. She said it is of value to everyone.

 

 

Building, Development and Finance Committees did not meet.

 

 

Library Services/Personnel Committees – Ms. Garton shared information about possible board restructuring provided by board expert Michael Kumer.
Joan Bowman and Steve Dilliplane were very familiar with his ideas from the Trustee Institute. The current BCFL system of five committees was created several years ago due to various issues that were pertinent to BCFL and needed to be addressed, and as a result, some things come to committees just because the committees exist. It was recommended by the committee to schedule a presentation by Michael Kumer for the board as part of moving ahead with restructuring.
Mr. Kumer requests a full-day workshop for his presentation of information plus interactions with board members. The entire board would have to be available to participate. It was suggested that the board try to schedule a presentation on a weekday in the latter part of October or the first part of November, if possible. It was felt that he should be contacted first for his availability and possible dates, and then the board members would be polled to find out if they were available as well.

 

 

Finance Committee – Although the Finance Committee did not meet, Mr. Balchis stopped at the administrative offices to review the revised budget. The board was sent copies of the revised income and expenditures budget and operations budget for approval.

 

A MOTION to APPROVE the revised budget was made by Draper, SECONDED by Garton and APPROVED unanimously.

 

 

 

 

Correspondence

 

Public Comment - Meeting was opened to Public Comment.  No public in attendance. 

 

Unfinished business –None

 

New Business –  The Executive Director met with the Personnel/Library Services Committee members and discussed the creation of a Library Answer Manual that would address many situations that might occur in a library. The draft manual would be a procedure manual, and for it to be effective there must be approved policies to go along with it. As a result, there are four draft policies for the board to review:  Behavior; Unattended Child; Inclement Weather; and Building Maintenance. The first three are revisions of old policies, and the last one is new. They should be reviewed by the whole board with a decision reached on how the board would like to move forward with these. Library staff members have been provided with copies as well and will be reviewing them to see if they have any additional ideas on items they have experienced that were omitted.

 

There being no further business, a MOTION to ADJOURN was made at 6:11 p.m. by Foerst, SECONDED by Dilliplane and so MOVED.

           

Respectfully submitted,

 

                                                                            Pamela J. Riley

 

Executive Assistant