SCARBOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY
Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Trustees
January 20, 2022 –
Video Conference
Attendees: Bill Donovan, President, Susan Powell, Anne Janak, Joyce Clark, Emily Ward, Lenore Rapkin, Allen Paul, David Dittmer, Judy Johnson, Jon Anderson, Ellen Detlefsen, Jim Kupel, Catherine Morrison, Asst. Director, Nancy Crowell, Library Director
Meeting called to order by Bill Donovan, at 4:33 PM.
Adoption of Minutes, November 18, November 29, 2021.
Motion to adopt minutes made by Anne Janak and seconded by Allen Paul. Motion passed unanimously.
Treasurer's Report - Dave reported that our finances are in good shape. Nancy expressed some concern about building expenses, in light of news that the PUC expects electricity costs to go up in the coming months.
Motion to accept Treasurer’s report by Jim Kupel, seconded by Susan Powell. Motion passed unanimously.
Library Director's Report – Nancy has a tour scheduled for new Town Councilor on February 19th. The Library may begin offering internships for a student in the Library Associate’s program at the University of Maine.
Joyce asked that brown paper bags be brought to the library for use in the February book sale.
Sam Kelley will be offering an interactive program on Zoom. The Town Council has also met with Sam in an effort to foster better public engagement.
AARP Tax Assistance on Thursdays and Fridays—phone 518-8579 for an appointment.
Town Councilor's Remarks – deferred to later on the agenda under Unfinished Business.
President's Remarks – deferred to later on the agenda.
Consent Calendar:
- Building Expansion Committee –Minutes 1/3/2022
- Community Relations/Development Committee -Minutes 1/3/2022
- Personnel, Nominating, Governance Committee -Minutes 9/23, 1/6/2022
- FOSL Board-Meeting report 1/13/2022
Motion to adopt Consent Calendar by Lenore Rapkin, seconded by Anne Janak. Motion passed unanimously.
President’s Remarks – Bill is keeping in close touch with the Town Council these days. There is increasing interest in a community center and seeming waning interest in the library project among councilors. In 2019 the Community Center committee had a very comprehensive report done. Now the Council is trying to coordinate between a community center, library expansion, and the new school expansion (which hasn’t even decided which way to go). Bill has not heard back which way the Council may be leaning, so we need to just keep going and building on the work we have already done. The Council had its goal setting session yesterday (1/19).
Unfinished Business:
Town Councilor’s Remarks – Jon is trying to get the Council not to draw too many conclusions from the recent community survey.
The Downs is thinking of building a community center which would be funded by tax increment financing, avoiding the necessity of a bond.
In their goal setting, some councilors were pushing to put a community center to a . referendum. But we don’t actually know how much work has been done, exactly what a community center would look like (basketball courts, a pool?), nor whether in the end it will be a Town undertaking or a Downs’ project, and we don’t know how large a problem this could be for us. A workshop is being planned for the end of March to include discussion re the schools, the library, and a community center. We need to remind the Council how much work we have already done on our project. Jon reminded the councilors that the Library is free and open to everyone, whereas a center might be more restricted. At least one councilor is against any library expansion, and Jon thinks this is due to lack of understanding. We need to bring everyone up to the same baseline.
Anne questioned whether the library would be overshadowed in a workshop with all three stakeholders involved, and Jon answered that we would need to have structured questions, and that this isn’t about competing needs, but about values.
Joyce asked what the feeling was among the councilors and Jon felt that a vote right now would be a no maybe to both the library and a community center until they are able to figure out exactly what the needs of the community are and how they can best be served.
Allen asked what our best argument would be to make before the Council and Jon stressed better educating councilors as to the full range of what the library does, as well as the fact that the library has donors. Should we show them the plans once again?
Ellen wondered about the reliability of the survey data and Jon agreed that we need to be able to target certain demographic groups.
In answer to Judy’s question about the Hub, their lease of the space in the old House of Lights, is just temporary and there no longer is space in the Town Hall for them.
Bill commented that as stakeholders in the survey results we need more coordination with the Council.
There was more discussion on this whole subject, including a proposal for Trustees to buddy with Town Councilors, and finally Jim proposed we halt the discussion for tonight.
Fundraising Campaign -- Susan reported that we signed a letter of agreement with Demont on December 2nd. Demont has their eye on raising $2 million plus. The Executive Committee meets weekly with Demont, and is approaching people to join the Campaign Cabinet which meets twice monthly. The goal for January is $100,000, and $64,000 has been raised to date. Discussions are ongoing with the Town Council.
Nancy is making a list of things to do with $450,000 if we don’t go to referendum or if we fail. There’s much work to be done getting people to give cash up front and to support us in a referendum.
New Business:
Review of Community Survey results -- Nancy will be forthcoming with a review of the survey results.
Board of Trustees skills assessment, PNG Committee Report – Joyce asked to table the report.
Update of a Citizen’s Campaign Committee – Nancy has gotten the application to form a PAC and will be setting this up.
Trustee Comments:
Joyce reminded us to bring paper bags to the library.
Adjournment – A motion to adjourn made by Jim Kupel, seconded by Ellen Detlefsen. Motion was unanimously approved. The meeting was adjourned at 6:02 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Lenore Rapkin, Secretary