Kankakee Times

Bradley Public Library District Board of Trustees met Aug. 19.

Here is the minutes provided by the board:

President Bayer called the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of Bradley Public Library District to order at 6:04 P.M.

Present: Trustees Bayer, Hendrickson, Benoit, Ponton, Rodgers and Grace

Absent: none

Also present: J. DePatis, Director and J.Ponton, Recording Secretary and Cesar Pina

Correction…….called the regular meeting….

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Moved by Trustee Rodgers, seconded by Trustee Grace, that MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF JULY 14, 2020 BE APPROVED AS CORRECTED

Motion carried by unanimous vote

PUBLIC COMMENT - None

TREASURER’S REPORT

Moved by Trustee Bayer, seconded by Trustee Grace, that TREASURER’S REPORT FOR JULY BE ACCEPTED AS SUBMITTED

Motion carried by roll call vote of 6 ayes, 0 nays, 0 absent

VENDOR PAYMENTS

Moved by Trustee Ponton, seconded by Trustee Rodgers that:

BILLS TOTALLING $42,253.22 ALLOWED AND PAID FOR JULY

Motion carried by roll call vote of 6 ayes, 0 nays, 0 absent

DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Director DePatis stated the following:

Received a 2nd erate award for $4,896.48 for Internet service.

Applied for local government CURE program for COVID-19 expense reimbursements through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

Library app through a PrairieCat group purchase should be ready soon. PrairieCat fine block for the consortium will be moving from $4.99 to $9.99 beginning October 1.

Continuing issues with customer service has resulted in the cancellation of Idemia fingerprinting services. The equipment will be picked up shortly.

The library will be closed until 1pm on August 28 for an all staff meeting. Planning has begun for a possible staff in-service this winter. No date has been set yet.

Grants: The Project Next Generation contract was signed and accepted. Purchases for the Community Foundation grant have been made and installation of some of the pieces has begun in the children’s department with the rest to be made available once COVID-19 lessens.

Work on the new Library website has begun with the preliminary paperwork being turned in and an initial Zoom meeting held on August 6th. A mock-up of the homepage and an inside page should be done by the end of the month. The whole process will take about 3 months.

Browser bins have been purchased to allow face-out shelving of picture books. We initially purchased 40 bins and were able to purchase 30 more gently used bins at a steep discount from another library. This has allowed us to put the Board books and Leveled Readers into face-out shelving as well. We have completed research on shelving picture books by subject and will begin deciding on our own categories.

Summer food services were a great success. The last 2 pantries were held on July 14 and August 5. July served 118 households with 239 adults, 210 kids, and 449 total people. August had 114 households with 234 adults, 231 kids, and 465 total people. For the breakfast and lunch program, we served 8,945 total meals over 10 weeks.

Summer Reading Program recap: Youth Services staff were able to take the in-person program that they had spent months planning and successfully turn it into a virtual program that had nearly the same number of participants as previous years. Staff had to make decisions on and learn new technology to make it all happen. Many of the programs were able to be done virtually with some like Shimmy and Shake on Facebook Live and others like kid’s yoga being recorded and put on our new YouTube channel. We were able to try some new programs like Zoom Cooking Class for Teens and bring in new people. We did virtual field trips in place of our large weekly programs. Staff will be using these new channels to reach patrons even after in-person programming comes back. The buttons that kids were able to earn were a big hit (over 1,800 earned!) that we will do again next year.

Director DePatis attended an HR Source Info Session on EDI on August 6, the annual meeting for the Digital Library of Illinois consortium on July 16, and an Illinois State Treasurer investment webinar on July 30.

COMMITTEE REPORTS: None UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

The Bradley Public Library is planning a mix of in-person and virtual programs for the fall. In- person programs, including children's programs, will be in the larger Drassler room to help with social distancing. This also means the Drassler room scheduling will be more limited for use by outside groups. All in-person program attendance will be limited and will have required sign-ups with Bradley library residents being able to sign up before registration is opened to everyone. We have also purchased some equipment that will help make the virtual programs appear more professional.

The Drassler room will be available soon for use by outside groups. Additional rules be in place during the pandemic including limits on number of people, mask requirements, and no food or drink. Groups will also need to leave earlier at the end of the day so staff can have time to clean tables and chairs.

Because COVID-19 is not going away soon, we are arranging to rent a storage pod to put the soft furniture in until it is safe to bring it back out again. This will free up spaces for meeting and other library uses. Three additional hand sanitizer stations have been installed throughout the library with 2 more on back order.

Trustees were reminded that there is now a vacancy for 2 trustees on the board. Trustee Grace resigned her position due to a recent move out of the district.

NEW BUSINESS:

Moved by Trustee Bayer and seconded by Trustee Rodgers to approve Budget and Appropriations Ordinance 20-02 of the Bradley Public Library for the Fiscal Year 2021-2022.

Motion carried by roll call vote of 6 ayes, 0 nays, 0 absent

Moved by Trustee Rodgers and seconded by Trustee Ponton to renew the current Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance policy with the cost remaining the same to the employees.

Motion carried by roll call vote of 6 ayes, 0 nays, 0 absent

The annual staff/employee recognition celebration has been cancelled for this year due to the Corona Virus.

Communication: None

Trustee Grace moved for adjournment at 7:00PM.

https://www.bradleylibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Minutes-Aug-19-2020.pdf