 Okay, welcome to the November 21st, 2023 meeting of the Jones Library, Buildings and Facilities Committee. I see a quorum present, so I'm going to call the meeting to order at 4.01. And then I'm going to ask everyone to signify that they can hear and be heard. Farah. Here. George. Here. And Sharon, who's library director, not a member, but advising Sharon. I'm here. Hi, everybody. And Alex Lefebvre. I am present here too. So pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021. This meeting is being conducted via remote means members of the public who wish to access the meeting and do so by clicking on the live link to the zoom meeting that can be found on the Jones Library website, or by dialing in by phone, the public is able to comment during the public comment segment of the post agenda by raising their virtual hand. Meeting is being recorded and will be posted to the Jones Library website. It's also on the town Amherst YouTube channel if I'm not mistaken, but I see that we have four attendees in the audience. Welcome everybody. Thank you for coming. And with that, I am going to flip to the agenda. So the first item of business is a motion to approve the minutes of October 17 2023. They're a motion. Motion to approve. Second. Any questions, comments or discussions. No. Okay. So voting to approve the minutes of October 17 2023 far. Yes. George. Yes. And Alex is also a yes. Next item on our agenda, sorry, is public comment. Would anyone in the audience like to come into the room and provide public comment. If so, raise your virtual hand and we will bring in. Okay, saying none. We usually also offer public comment at the end of the meeting. So, if you change your mind, we'll check back in with you at the end of the meeting and give you likely another opportunity. Next item on the agenda is the delivery van. George, let's say you. I don't have an update on the van itself, but I do have an update on the charging station. I worked with town hall to split up the PO and make it work so the charging station has been ordered and it is on our way to the facility so when it shows up, we will have it installed and it'll be ready to go when the van gets here. Great. And just as a reminder, not everybody reads the meeting meeting minutes or 10s every meeting, but that is something that once we get into the project can be moved. So wherever we put it now. It's correct. Moveable. Correct. It will be movable. Okay, great. Okay. Any questions about the delivery van. Okay. I think the next item is the North Amherst library building project update. I know, every time I drive north, I, I've seen people on the roof. So hopefully that means good things where what, what, what do we hear from the town? What does the town have to say about things? Yeah, so I, so I've spoken with Petra the branch head. They still don't have a certificate of occupancy, but the lift works. So that is awesome sauce. The roof is supposed to be fixed this week. Floor drops are supposed to be installed this week's and so this, so this is for power for, you know, the computers and the printer and phone and things like that. There is furniture in place. Books are in place because the lift works. They're staff have been able to get, get books in the place. So we still have to do more weeding. And I asked Petra to approximate are we talking about 10 books or 10,000 books and the she was saying about four shelves worth. It's just that we had to shrink our collection in, in order to yeah. So we have more weeding to do some of the shelving got lost in the process so Miguel are awesome Miguel is actually building new shelves for us to be installed. Relation desks are on site and and placed. That was one of the things that Guilford needed in order to know where to put the floor drops. Chairs we're still waiting for chairs to come. Petra the staff still need keys to the book drops so that you know people can start returning books there. And we also need a systems overview, you know, George and Petra need to need to need to walk through with Guilford. So that everybody knows how to use how to use the stuff even though it's a town building. Invariably things happen when no one's around and and so people need to know how to how to get to places and you know turn things off and turn things on that kind of thing. And the other question that we have is signage. Yeah, it would be lovely if there were a sign that said North Amherst library. And, you know, like an open and closed kind of a thing before we had a flag. Am I right, George this is, this is what Petra was telling me. Originally there was a flag and it was what will not be the main entrance anymore it was, you know, at the one door which is not accessible so you know, worst case scenario I assume that the flag could be moved over to the other side with a different mounting but yeah it would be great if there was signage that had the hours and days of service and things like that. That's pretty much everything that I have just that the staff have absolutely done great with a less than ideal situation and so once we finally get the COO I don't think we'll need a full month because they've been able to do stuff so we're still, we're still just kind of waiting on town stuff. That's all I got. It sounds great Sharon a couple of questions one is, where do the books go the overflow. Do they go back to the Jones or. Oh yes yes absolutely it'll go it'll go the Jones will get first or or the months and so it'll yeah it'll all get figured out. Yeah. And what do we need to do about signage is that something we have to do is that something. I'll talk to Paul about it now it needs to be a Paul thing. Okay, thank you and it's, I mean it's often that that signs, you know happen after a project is done so I don't think this is unusual, based on my experience. Oh and last thing is the bench back. Yeah I don't know not that I've heard. Yeah me neither. I'm going to be, I'm going to go there tomorrow to meet up with Petra after our department that's meeting so I'll, I'll check to see if it has returned or not. I had a couple of questions so I don't know how many books for shelves me and like for, I don't know how wide is the shut like yeah why does the shelf how is that are there 20 books to a shelf 100 books to show five books to show. Yeah so it depends on every we're talking children's books and it could be hundreds of books are we talking, you know john Grisham then. Width of shelves would be helpful, at least you can then get it like a visual sense of like are we talking 100 books I'm going to guess. In all that that's yeah in all and that's if they're adult fiction that we're talking about. But if it's a, if it's a combination of, you know, some kids and some adults and it could be more. Okay. And I assume the weeding is based on what gets checked out or what's super old or I mean sort of our usual reading procedures would be followed for that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And then you said we're waiting on chairs or like is that like a chair to sit at the computer is that a chair to sit and read like what kind of chair all chairs. Yeah, no, I have no idea. I assumed when she said it that it was for the two desks, but I could be wrong. It could be because so much of has had to be squished. I don't know if they are patron chairs that we're talking about do you know George. I did order a tall chair for the new circulation desk. Okay. I believe all of the original chairs that were there as patron chairs have returned with the exception of the green lounge chairs because I don't think there was room for them anymore. Better tomorrow I haven't been over there in a couple weeks so I'll know a lot better tomorrow. As far as what's left that can fit in what needs to be brought over to the Jones and possibly deaccessioned but I believe she was talking about the circulation desk chairs, which I ordered today. So, okay, thank you. And then you said that they need keys to the to the book return isn't new book return same book return, like, yeah, no it goes right into the side of the building it's fabulous so we don't have to have staff come in, you know, off hours it'll just all drop into a small closet basically. Yeah, no that's I remember discussions about that that's lovely. Okay, and so that's for town to give us that's kind of like handing over the keys as it were. Yeah, and my guess is that has to do with certificate of occupancy. So, okay, that's I think that's what we're waiting for. So, I wouldn't think that that would happen until after Thanksgiving. Okay, and then if memory serves. So, once we open up the meeting room is a town meeting room that people will reserve the bathroom I believe is the town's responsibility in theory to clean. So do we have all of the procedures. Is that all. So in theory, yes, in theory, yes, but so far it's not being executed. So that's definitely one of the. It's a sticking point. Let's call it. The policy, the memory of understanding has been, I mean everybody's on everybody knows what the responsibilities where they lie it's just, you know, they just haven't been put in place yet. Okay, I mean I guess what I'm wondering is I, I, as one of our concerns were early on, right, is that, you know, a patron's going to come in and they're going to want to reserve the conference room and they're going to go obviously to the human in the building which is the librarian and so they're just keeping the lovely people they are, I'm sure we're going to go out of their way to help people, which then obviously they're scheduling rooms rather than doing other services but I guess I just want to make sure that the staff. The staff knows what their options are they're clear, like, you know, like, do we have a public computer do they go over and schedule it over there and if you like I guess I just want. I'm going to be really clear about what their role is and I guess I want to make sure the town's really clear about what their role is because I just see job creep and I feel like our staff has a full plate already and why I am incredibly appreciative of the extra space I'm also mindful of asking more of people who I don't know any employee in the world it doesn't already have probably. Yeah, I just so there's there's two pieces to that that puzzle one is the bathrooms so that needs to be taken care of. If not daily every other day. And I would argue that you know certainly every time I meet the meeting room is used. It needs to be taken care of before and after. So, yeah, so that so that's going to be new for the town there and based on our experience with the months and. Yeah, so so that's a the bathrooms B is the meeting room and so. All along, you know, for years, even with regards to the months and I've said to the staff you need you need to direct people to town hall because they're going to take care of the the hall but like you said. Alex, you know what librarians do is help patrons. So, so I know we're going to have the same issue at the north that we do with the south and I don't know if there is a process in place for the north meeting room I don't know who people call. And I think that still has to be worked out by the town. So I think there's going to be some growing pains for the town. So, I know I won't be a trustee so I'm just going to put out there. If I were continuing on as a trustee. I guess what I would ask is that, you know, maybe we have some check in points after we open where we're checking in with Petra about and we should probably be doing the exact same thing for the months and quite frankly right is how are things going, what do you need what conversations do we need to have with town because you know I don't. I think it would be good to have the north and south libraries to become the place no one wants to work because you know you're being a librarian half the time and you're doing other you know town, so I just want to make sure that things are running smoothly and towns doing what they're promising and, you know, I've no reason to expect they won't but I think it would be good to have some kind of check in process, especially since it's something new. You know what are things that we didn't expect maybe that are happening or occurring. I just, I'd like to be proactive with the staff so that they feel supported as this opens up. Yeah, I will, because there have already been issues I'll be, I'll be talking with Paul about this and that's really all I can say right now. But yes I'm hearing you and feeling you as are the staff. Okay, well, I mean that's where we're here for them and we want them to be able to be happy in their jobs and successful in what they do and everything we can do to create success for them and feeling good about their jobs that's absolutely we want. So what's the crop is the process not going to be the same as it was before. What is what is different now. There's a meeting room in a bathroom. Yeah, so now so it was already too much for the facility, the town's facilities staff to handle at the months in, and now their work has doubled. Okay, so I, I have not seen. So prior, so prior to this project. You know, when it came to light through research that the North Amherst was in fact a town on building. You know, part of the part of the process of this project happening was, you know, we gave over control of the building to town where it belonged. And it also meant that the town needed to take care of the building. So now that there are public bathrooms, and there's a meeting room. Those are in effect town responsibilities now so there's a bit of a, there's a bit of growing pains is a bit of a change, because the library staff are no longer going to maintain the building itself. There's no new branch deliveries, we still take care of library property and library books and library furniture and things like that but the physical building is now one of the responsibility of the town maintenance staff. And it's, you know, the building is not open yet, but it's just the process of getting it at all. All those responsibilities where they need to be and actually making that happen. Thank you. Okay, I think those were. And then I'm sorry. So we still don't we know we are going to take less time once we get the certificate of occupancy but we still don't know when that's going to be. No, okay. As well as still having, obviously, grant opening notifications or trustees can attend this time because we have notification. Okay, okay, okay. Right. Then I will move on to the building and grounds report. Let me think. What I will say is that the past couple weeks the contractors that were charged with moving the plantings from the Kinsey to the Kestrel Trust have been on site. And they did their thing. They moved several plantings. I know that Carol Pope was on site overseeing some of it, as well as representatives from the Kestrel Trust. They have completed their work to the best of my knowledge. The holes where the plantings were have been filled in. I do not know if they accomplished everything that they needed to accomplish but they have done so far. It's, you know, it's met the needs that we had as far as, you know, leaving, not leaving any holes and, you know, putting things back in place when they were done doing what they needed to do. So I don't think I have anything else on buildings and grounds unless Sharon does. Wait, no. Yes, there's one thing so I just signed a quote for work to be done on our sprinkler heads. Can you elaborate it's a couple thousand dollars. It's a, it's a, it's not an annual inspection I think it has to happen every three years but don't quote me on that. It's an exploratory that they that they pull a sprinkler pipe and they, they check for, they, you know, they check for blockage and pollution and they check for blockage and stuff like that. It's a stay mandated test so it just takes, you know, it's it's a couple thousand dollars I think if, if I remember correctly so, you know, it's just one of those things that it really, it should happen because it's a mandated test even though we are coming very close to potentially being close for for renovation we're just trying to we're keeping up on everything that that is required of us to stay open and safe. Is, is this the same test where so the pipe that broke and close the building for a couple of days sprinkler test it was like, literally the. It was literally next door to the one that corroded and broke. This is the same test. Pretty much yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean it right but it was done but yeah. Yeah, yeah, they picked the wrong pipe to check I guess I don't. Obviously it's a random check but yeah I just want to make sure that was the same. I had the same. Okay. Any questions, comments. I don't have my notes in front of me but I feel like we had go back and look there was there was a there was a. One of the control panels or something that we were waiting on because it had to be designed before it could be purchased are we still. We are still we are still waiting for a quote yes. I actually nudged them last week about it. And, and we're still having your, if I'm remembering correctly is this the work, we've got one control ground is this one where you're having to manually do things like constantly correct correct until we're able to replace it. Yeah, it's not as big of a factor during heating, heating season but it's still a factor you know it's, it's still using a bit more energy than if we had an automatic control so. I don't know how to nudge them to see where that quote is because it's been a bit. Okay, and the feel like the slate roof, there was the area by the spiral staircase that we were keeping an eye on by the staff lounge. Still keeping an eye on on that we're. Yep. Still leaking but not to the point because my recollection is for us to deal with that is a much but it's not. It's not a quick patch it's not a quick patch now. So if we can not tackle that that's probably ideal. I lead preferable yes, yes. Yeah. It's not like the last couple big storms we've had so. Okay. Oh yeah we are watching it. Okay. Not the least of which of course is getting honest anytime you work on a slate roof there's there's potential of damaging other slate route the rest of the roof. Exactly. But then also potentially the magnitude of the work would require us to hire. Like this isn't just us having a roof contact or come out and like replace a few shingles. It's much bigger. It would be very good. It would be bigger than that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. In which we'd have to go to town for funds for that it would be it would definitely be a capital to repair. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Sorry do anything else. Is there are there any other outstanding things that I'm missing that are kind of in the Obviously we still have three boilers that's not changing until we replace our age back system. Three boilers are all working great. And did we I think one of the things we were doing after the firebox we had the issue with the the liner of the firebox was we were going to pay to have the other fireboxes inspected. Is that still to come or has that happened. We did we did have that happen. They didn't do they didn't do a in depth exploratory like they didn't take the boilers apart. They used scope to to look around as best as they could and from what they could tell with those inspections they were all the other three fireboxes were were solid from the best they could tell. It was the most cost efficient way to do it versus pulling all the boilers apart because if you start pulling an old boiler apart you could cause more damage so they thought it was the best thing to do. So that has been done and they are from that inspection they all look still fairly serviceable. So right now on the wood. So we still have so obviously, if the project doesn't move forward we've got the agreement with the town and we've got each back and roof specified but clearly sprinklers got to be there as well because that we can't. Obviously we can't wait on that one I don't know about anything else but those like that's got to be in that part of that conversation as well. Okay, which is in the quotes that we got from Western builders back in the day. Right. Right. And I made that argument the last conversation that we that we have with the town is that it was, it was very hard to prioritize those three items one over the other because they are all equally so important and so vital so. Yeah. Yeah. And depends on the day in the weather. Exactly. You know, can I also, I just, I'd like to say, when, you know, it was discussed at the finance committee meeting. I was really thankful for my Ross speaking up about the importance of handicapped accessibility. You know, we're all, it could happen to any one of us at any moment in time. And I, it's so important that every human being be able to walk into or, or, you know, wheel into or crutch into or stroller into the Jones library. And so handicapped accessibility is not something that we should be seeking a variance on it is something we need to tackle because it's the right thing to do, just like removing the asbestos and fixing the leaky roof. And having an HVAC system that works. It's just not. It's pretty unconscionable actually. So, I just want to state that. Maybe also in the monthly building and ground report. Right. Well, I guess that kind of somewhat segwayed into the backup building project planning, which I'm assuming that it remains with the town. There's nothing new that they've shared with us. Yeah, other than I guess, I guess the only thing and it's not really was the new person whose name is escaping me, the guy who's the run for the capital projects now. Bob parent. Bob parent. Yeah, which is great. I know that he updated the Western builders quotes to, but, but other than that, I don't think anything new. And so to. Yes, he's he toward the building and to clarify. So it's not just the Western builders number. So yes, Western builder created the base document. But then when Q and Riddle took it over. They didn't just slap on their research onto the Western builders they they updated that and I think George can talk more intelligently to that piece. And then added the accessibility information to so it's a pretty good report. I should refer to it as Q and Riddle, not the Western builders and probably. Yeah, because, you know, one of the big things that Q and Riddle did was try to figure out the best way to streamline it and combine things. Whereas the Western builders was just a list. Um, you know, and they they they split it in two at one point, but Q and Riddle went a step further and determine what would be the best things to do together to make it the most cost effective, plus adding in the ADA quotient. Right. Well, I mean, it's, it's asking a contractor to tell you how much your age back is the fix versus having an architect tell you the actual. It has to be designed. We would have to hire an architect and an engineer and do it. So it gets this one step closer. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. And that doesn't even include include gender inclusive bathrooms, right? No, it's not HVAC assess ADA compliance. Partial ADA compliance. No, that was full. I mean to code to code it wouldn't have been above and beyond, but to take care of. It's not universal design. It's just, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, are there any topics I didn't anticipate that you did or that came up? No, this was a good conversation and thank you for the opportunity to clarify. Yeah. Um, so I come into the end of the agenda. So, as we always do, I'm going to open it back up to the public. If anyone has public comment, you are welcome to come on in and. Provide it. I love to hear from you. People a minute to find it because I always have to find my hand. All right. I go on once. All right. So not seeing that. Um, thank you everybody. I hope everybody has a nice weekend and look forward to seeing everybody in person. I think for an extra no to trustee meetings from now. Oh, yeah, the trustee meeting next week on the 28th, that will be via zoom and Vanguard will join us. And then our very last one of the year when we get to get, we get to come together in person and celebrate Alex. It's great. All right. Thank you everyone. Have a good evening. Bye. Bye.