 being recorded and it's possible or will be aired on the YouTube channel for the town of Amherst. So let me bring up the Alex. Do you have the agenda in front of you so that you can read that statement? I am attempting to pull it up a little slow here. All right. Okay. All right. So today Oh, the only one I have is for December 18th. Hmm. I can share screen. I just need you to read the statement that's on that. Off to a flying start. I thought it was. With the extension of Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2021, this meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom or by telephone. See instructions below. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. And so if you just can review the agenda, that would be great. All right. So the first thing is the call to order and we'll move on to reports and comments. And then action and discussion items, including date building maintenance, building updates, building reservations. We'll set a date for the next meeting and then reserve a little bit of time, hopefully for any other topics that we didn't reasonably anticipate 48 hours in advance of the meeting. Then we'll adjourn. Thank you. And if you could just tell us the time that this meeting is starting. Yep. This meeting is starting at 9.04 a.m. Great. So I just wanted to let folks know that the librarian Petra is unable to attend today's meeting. She was hoping that she would be able to come. So you guys could discuss with her any concerns. But I'm going to now ask Alex if you want to open it up for public comments. Yeah, let's open it up to public comment. Do we have anyone in the queue here? Yes, we do. And I'm going to move them in to Maria Kropicki. Hi, Maria. Hey, there. Thanks for the public comment. And I really don't have anything to add. I just want to, I'm happy about your agenda is what I want to say. And I just want to appreciate the site visit that you guys had and that Jeremiah is here. So I'm just always really interested in the building improvement. So thank you guys for continuing to follow up on that. That's all. Thank you. Thank you for joining us, Maria. Any other? No. Okay. So next would be like trustees reports, which are usually if any of the three of you have any comments or announcements that you have that are outside of the items that are on the agenda? I just wanted to thank everybody, Jennifer and Jeremiah, especially for putting together that tour. Was it two weeks ago? That's very helpful. I'm grateful for you taking the time to do so. So the first action item, I know because now you can't see the agenda is the building maintenance. So we can start there. And based off of the tour, Jeremiah, do you have any updates or do any of the trustees have any questions about the maintenance? If there's no questions, I can jump in. That'd be great. Thanks, Jeremiah. So just took care of a couple small items for the library staff that they've asked me to. We took down a door so that there's a greater visibility and access to one of the shelves up in the main library. It's not a rated door, so it can easily come down. We removed some of our COVID safety measures, just so the interactions between our patrons and the library staff is more intimate. Some stuff that's on the horizon, the director of sustainability for the town, Stephanie Ciccarello, and I are looking at applying to a green community's carbon decarbonization grant. It's a grant for $500,000. And what that would do is allow us to really push our efforts to make the Munson Library a non fossil fuel building. So we do have some funding already in our capital, but I think the decarbonization is a great way to take care of all of our weatherization needs as well as the mechanical side of things. So there are applications typically in spring and fall. I don't anticipate us getting that application in for this spring, but I would imagine that we would try to get it in for the fall. It does require a lot of data collection as far as utilities, having energy audits, having some sort of engineering study. So there's a lot of pieces that are needed in order to apply for that. I have recently asked a question. Who is that grant opportunity through? It's through the green communities. Is that a private organization? It's state. Last week I received some equipment for building access controls for the building that will help us with patrons entering, exiting. So if people are renting the hall and try to make things a little bit more seamless, a little bit easier. So there will be badge access, keypad access, and in certain doors that will allow us to program the doors for the library schedule. So they'll automatically unlock and relock for that schedule. And I think the last thing I got going on right now is replacing the the water bubbler downstairs with a bottle fill station. So that equipment is in and now it'll just be getting a plumbing contractor to do the install. And I think that's it for me. Can I have a quick question? I apologize for missing. I really wanted to have the tour and it didn't work out for me that day, but and maybe this has been talked about, but who takes is the outside of the building like the grounds. I know the town takes care of that, but the area between like the libraries on the south side between the library and the church is a mess. And it's full of bad deeds. There's things are climbing up the maple, killing the maple. It's got old facetia bushes and rose bushes. Can that be dealt with? Can that just be plowed up and seeded over and just taken out of there? Because it is a mess. Yes. And you know, my staff and I talk about that. And we were talking about it even this past summer and fall. And it really has just gone out of control with growth. And there's, you know, there, there is some nice shrubbery over there, but then there's some other sort of nonsense trees and weeds, kind of like you say, growing out of it. So it really needs to be trimmed and pushed back and cleaned up. And that is definitely on something that we're going to take care of this spring. Okay. I mean, I know you put, but my worry is everything just gets cut down with a brush hog or something. And it's just going to grow back. That's my, my, my thought as typical often with the town is like shrubs and stuff just get all turned one way. And in a couple years, we'll have a mess back again. So I'm just hoping it's done correctly. Yeah, we will do our best to make it right. Okay. And I would say for the outside, I'm not sure if Claudia O'Brien is still coming over to the Munson and taking care of the flowers and the gargling in the front. No, he doesn't. It's done by a woman, Mary Dunn, myself. And in a woman, I don't know her last name, it's Annabelle. The three of us have been doing it and Mary does most of it. Okay, great. And Jeremiah, is there any updates? So this is kind of like building updates on the door that's facing the church, the renovation of that? Yeah. So in the building tour, I spoke about an application that we sent into the Massachusetts Office of Disabilities, the MOD, they had a grant. There's grant opportunities every year. And we did apply for that grant to redo that entryway and add some a walkway over to that door. Unfortunately, we did receive some notification that our application was not accepted. So it is a disappointment. And I do believe that we have a lot of town support for that project. So what we'll probably do is look to see other avenues to get that work done. So whether it be through grant money or capital, we're going to still try to to get that project taken care of. If it's not this year, then we'll certainly try to apply for those grants again and get it taken care of as soon as we can. I think it would be a great asset to the building. To clarify here, so the door facing the church is not the one that people use right now, right? But that is the one that you were talking about, installing the badge entry? Yeah, if we can make that a suitable entrance for patrons to use. Yeah. Because we're still having a problem with the door that people do currently use to get into the hall. Yep. Yeah. I have all the equipment for that door, the main door to the library, the staff side door and the back door. So it's just I didn't include that side door because if it were, if that equipment would be included into that project. And going back to what Susan asked about the the garden or the outdoor area, are there you know local groups that we could work with maybe to replace some of what's there with native plants? I mean, I know we'll need a walkway area of course, but like to let some of the lawn go to meadow or take out. I mean, certainly deal with if there's like an invasive vine that's killing a tree, we should certainly deal with that. But there's just so many groups around it. I wonder if we could partner with them to help take care of that in a, you know, thoughtful way. Yeah, certainly. I think a good resource would be to bring in Alan Snow. These are tree and grounds. Warden and I would imagine that he probably has some good connections in the community and he could lend his expertise on that. Do you have a timeline for the switch up the main door in the meantime? I don't. I started talking with IT at the end of last week, just letting them know. So we need to coordinate because they need to do some programming on their end and I need to figure out how to run wires through that old building. So it will take a little bit of investigation. I'm hoping that it's not too long and that it's bringing in an electrical contractor to help run wires and setting it up. So unfortunately, it will take a little bit of time. No worries. Thank you. So does anybody have any other questions? And I'm only saying this out because you can't see the agenda or last time you couldn't see the agenda. Yeah, I can see it now. I did have one other comment just about, you know, building maintenance and updates. I'd like to keep the door project kind of as a standing agenda item. So I definitely would like to see that some progress there. I know these things take time, but I feel like this is something we've been talking about for several years now. And I know that it'll once installed, it's really going to help with the reservation process as well and managing use of building. So I think it's pretty important that we keep on top of that. I think that brings us through building updates and maintenance. So now we're talking about reservations. Yeah. Just quickly, when you say the door project update, are you talking about that door facing the church or just the doors in general? Because I think we should keep all the doors in general. You know, the ADA thing being pretty high. But I think getting the cards working on the doors that we're currently using I think is priority one and, you know, at least something we should continue to discuss. And quick question about that system when it is up and running. If it fails, what is the backup? Like how do you get in work? Will keys still work? Yeah, a key will still work. So that'll just require someone to come down and key in to the building. Thanks. I think the Moses on the building reservations. Yeah. So the months and heavily used that's, you know, the folks, there's a reservation in there almost every day. The weekends are pretty much booked up for the next three months. So it's used heavily. I haven't heard any complaints about anything except for possibly the door. And I think that was very similar to like if somebody brushes up against it, that it locks somehow. And I think that was Jeremiah that says if people brush it like up against it, it locks it somehow where the Allen wrench falls out or something happens. But outside of that, and then outside of the yoga group, I think that they've gotten all situated. They have a place to store their items and Jeremiah has put the lockbox back up for them. So I think that they're good. The yoga group had also asked about the outtake event, I think being really full of dust. Do we know if that's been addressed? I don't believe it has not yet, but I will be sure to have that scheduled for this evening. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah, I don't there's unless you guys have questions about reservations, I think maybe once we changed it, I still think keeping them. I don't know what you guys want to do about the fee structure, basically. So thinking about if you want to keep it as is. For the most part, people are okay with the way that the fee structure runs. There's occasionally folks who feel like it should be more of a free space just because right now we've got the Jones library that's no longer taking reservations and then folks are looking for places, but they weren't being charged and now they are being charged. And so I think that that is a little bit of a problem for some folks because a lot of the programming is not necessarily, it's not for profit. There's like a teacher from a school that does a book club with some of the kids and then there's, you know, just local organizers that just want to have their group meet again. So Jones didn't have a fee at all. Jones doesn't charge a fee. The banks doesn't charge a fee either except for the fact that it's not available on the weekends because there's no facilities here. And so I think part of the reason why the months in charge is a fee in Jeremiah, you can correct me if I'm wrong, is there is no facilities at Munson right now and so has to be a way to offset that. But I have a quick question. When they reserve that space, do they reserve the downstairs also? Is it all included? No, someone else. Usually there's only one group. Usually groups either reserve the hall or the downstairs, the meeting space. Asking because they have been there for several things and I thought the upstairs is mostly definitely the main feature or whatever but people were going downstairs and using that too and I just wondered if that was supposed to be happening or if it was included or whatever. So there is one, there are two groups that have been using the Munson for many, many years and they've always used both spaces but usually there's a charge for both spaces for newer folks. We'll say that those two people have been grandfathered. I think one gentleman does the recitals and the other one is the summer camp. Yeah. Okay. So do you guys have other questions about reservations? You know just what I think just so everyone is familiar with the process. I'm on the EmersonMask.gov website and I guess the process, Jennifer, is folks email you for availability and you let them know what the structure is. So I mean in theory that it's kind of how it is but what is usually happening is somebody calls the library themselves and speaks to librarian and then they refer them to me and so I typically tell them if it's available but there is an online form under the Munson Library that they complete and then we move forward from there. And I'm just, I ask because I wonder if the key card system, I imagine there's some sort of schedule or as part of that, I'm just wondering if some of that process of scheduling might be automated a little bit with the card reader. Yeah, leave that one for Jeremiah. Potentially yes, you could if it was something that happened say every Saturday from noon to two that would be easy enough to schedule but if it's more randomized, that's a little bit more of a challenge. What we are looking at doing is including a keypad and reader and it's one single device and what we're able to do is to give unique codes to groups that might be like one-off groups and then they can use that one-off code so it's considered a one-shot code so they're able to get in, use it for their day and then it won't work after that. As far as booking and reservations that is something that I know the town and I don't want to, you know, be too telling I suppose just because it's very in the works but we are looking into, you know, are there options through our OpenGov software where we're able to receive those online fees and have individuals fill out the forms but it's something that we're using for our inspections and some of our other departments within town and so if it's possible that that's something that we are trying to look into to help. Great, thanks Sharma. Right and I think that that would include the North Amherst Library too because right now the community is very adamant about trying to reserve that space and there's, yeah, there's no system put up right now currently for that so I don't think this space is available either so that messaging would be good to get out as well but I think Amherst Rec probably has the most similar thing now where they have for the two pavilions when you can reserve them online and pay for it online so I would think something similar to that. Yeah, I think from my understanding is that sort of look, that deeper look into OpenGov is to assist with recreation so you can sort of book those pavilions fields and whatnot so you know I keep sort of advocating for the libraries and going you know it'd be great if once we have that you can expand it across things like the libraries and all you know. I would second that you know it is a part-time job months and there's I honestly there's very few days that go by that I don't receive inquiry or reservation requests for the months in so it's a high-demand use build space and like since we've been in this meeting I've had two emails about inquiries about the months in so I spend quite a amount of time between that and getting checks and cashing them and shredding key deposits and handing out keys so yeah and so yeah that's it for reservations unless you guys have other questions. Any other questions? No. All right so that brings us to the next meeting date. There's the matter of when we're required to meet next versus when we'd like to meet next to stay on top of some of these things. I'd like to propose maybe meeting in another six to eight weeks from now. Jeremiah would six to eight weeks give us appropriate time to get updates on some of these items yeah okay. Are you looking at the first week in April or the last week in March? Why don't we say the first week of April let's get past that April Fool's Day mark there so yeah I guess so we're looking at the week of April first then that is that a I don't have a checkmate it's children's calendar I'm not sure if that's a vacation time or if anyone's planning any school vacation for the run in April yeah it's a third week maybe in April yeah okay. Mutant school vacation week starts the 15th of April the marathon monday on Friday the fifth is pre-k to 12 early release okay but that's the only school thing that me okay. All right so Jennifer would you mind putting out a poll for that week unless you want to if everyone just wants to look at our calendar right now we could just look right now and pick a date and time. I mean it seems like monday's at nine seem to work for people's schedule so I don't know if monday the first at nine works for everyone uh that would work for me that's fine that's fine with me okay so we'll go ahead and say monday April first and then in the meantime I would think about I know at one point we were thinking about trying to do something to bring awareness and community to the months in so that's something you guys can think about ways to do that in the meantime I do know that this july they will have the south amherst church it's celebrating their 250th anniversary and so they are going to be holding a reading um with some community members of the Frederick Douglass is what's the slave is the fourth of july on july 5th um so that's going to be a pretty large event that's going to be outside on the south amherst common their indoor use will be the church if it you know if it rains but it would be great to save months and could somehow be a participate in that or it'll be a large gathering I think last time they did it they had about 250 people left not more so scripts no thanks for sharing that I I love the idea of doing something jointly there was um last july I think they do like a little children's parade and Mindy dome was there and there was a reading as well I think they read Amanda Gorman's poem um and you know like ice cream and beach balls and stuff for kids um yeah that's on the the fourth the day before yeah that goes back over 100 years that's been going on a long time it's the fourth of july parade yes the fourth of july parade I've been wrangled in as a uh a volunteer for that for organizing that so so we should see if there's a way that months and can help support those efforts I think if I if I could double dip in in double my efforts yeah that would be great yeah well sounds like most of you guys either attend or have attended previously or will attend this year so it would make sense I think yeah I think so let's put that on the agenda for for discussion next uh when we talk on April 1st maybe finally get get something off the ground that would be great yeah just I feel like we've for a number of years we've talked about doing a nice little event um it really would be nice yes that pesky coven thing happened and out of the way well we just we were trying to I think last time trying to create something when the months and was going to reopen like how can we do like a reopening party but all of the efforts we were meeting these different barriers and walls and so yeah and then we didn't and then Jen left and then I don't know yeah but here we are yes energized and focused hopefully yes so okay so I realize I'm the chair so I'm like I'm when I say focused I'm like talking to myself I'm like reminding myself to stay focused on this so that's not a comment on anyone else except me so just to be clear are we we're still recording aren't we oh great all right on the agenda I think uh well we have other topics uh other topics the chair did not reasonably anticipate I think we've I've covered that um is there anyone else that has any other topics may I suggest we adjourn motion to adjourn or need a time it is nine five eight nine thirty five yep perfect well this is like my first committee that we're done in less than three hours I really appreciate that so great that's the advantage of Monday morning everyone's just like rearing to go have a good week all have a great week you too bye bye bye