Minutes for Jan. 9, 2017

Present: Cindy Binzen, Curt Albee, Rachel Kurland, Marty Frank, Rebecca Seibel, Carol Wilson, Miriam Newman, David Webb (for the Friends)

Minutes of the December meeting were approved.

Librarian’s Report: Rebecca said the annual statistical report has been completed and submitted to the state. She is now working on the letter to the Turrell Foundation that will serve as a report for how grant money has been spent and will soon turn her attention to the application for a new grant, which is due Feb. 1.

She contacted Mike Tisdale who told her that adding scanning capabilities to the printer/copier machine should not be difficult. She is also going to ask him about acquiring a new monitor for one of the public-access computers. Rebecca also expressed interest in acquiring a Chromebook or tablet to be used when both public access computers are tied up.

She has contacted Dori Wolfe to get a better understanding of why our electricity bills are increasing at a time when we’re supposed to be receiving credit for energy produced by the solar array developed by her company. Dori indicated that the increases resulted from rising rates charged by Green Mountain Power, meaning our bills presumably would have been higher had we not received those credits. While that explanation makes sense, it still remains all but impossible to figure out exactly how the deal is working out for the library while accounting for changing rates, changing electricity demand and whatever credit we’re receiving.

Friends Report: David reported that the Holiday Sale netted about $6,000 this year. That might be less than last year’s $7,500, but still represents a huge success because the the 2015 results were unprecedented and don’t provide a fair basis for comparison. The July booksale also did quite well this year, bringing in about $2,900, which was up a bit from the previous year’s. Overall, membership in the Friends has declined slightly and, although the Friends no longer receive the $4,000 gift they had enjoyed annually for a number of years, their ending balance was down only $2,000 from the previous year. The Friends believe they have identified a couple of good candidates for serving on their board.

Treasurer’s Report: Rachel reported that the library finished the year with a $5,600 surplus. She will prepare the financial statement for the town report and Marty will write the narrative report.

Next meeting will be Feb. 13.

Submitted by Marty Frank