Library Board Approved Minutes - March 4, 2021

DeForest Area Public Library Regular Library Board Minutes
Thursday, March 4, 2021 at 4:00 p.m.

1. Call to Order and Roll Call
   • The meeting was called to order at 4:00 p.m. by President Van Iten.
   • Present: Englesby, Gorres, Lawrence, Lowery, Van Iten, and Zeimet
   • Absent: Runez
   • Also present: Library Director Berg, Assistant Library Director Tollefson
2. Approval of Agenda
   • Motion to approve as presented: Zeimet
   • Second: Lowery
   • Discussion: None.
   • Action: All approved
3. Approval of Minutes of March 4th meeting.
   • Motion to approve minutes: Englesby
   • Second: Zeimet
   • Discussion: None
   • Action: All approved
4. Public Presentations / Communications
   • Berg and Tollefson updated the board on the library’s endowment fund that is held at the Madison Community Foundation. There is money that could be disbursed this year. Using some of those funds to complete the magazine reshelving project was discussed.
5. Approval of Bills – Berg had emailed out the bill run prior to the meeting
   • Motion to Approve the Bills: Lowery
   • Second: Englesby
   • Discussion: Berg noted that this is a typical bill run made up of mostly books and utilities. There is a big purchase from Demco for MagBoxes. These acrylic boxes will allow us to give face lift to the magazine section and make it more portable as library staff is currently rearranging collections. The MG&E bill was paid early with a run of the village bills. The library had received a late payment notice for the prior month and the current month was combined with it. Berg had the bill paid so the library payment didn’t fall further behind.
   • Action: All Approved
6. Reports
   1. Director's - Berg reported that the process to find and hire Jane Henze’s replacement was underway. The deadline for applications is March 9th. A number of potential candidates have applied. Berg also noted that the annual form that requests South Central Library System to apply to the surrounding counties that owe us a reimbursement for providing library services needed the president’s signature. Those reimbursements are lower than in previous years because no one was moving around much of going to work through DeForest for a good part of the year.
   2. President's - None.
   3. Village Update - Lowery noted it was a busy time at the village. New, accessible playground equipment was doing into Sunny Brook park. Resurfacing of roads is being bid and will be underway when the weather permits. She noted that some moneys for Covid expenses had come from the Federal government and that there would be two new police officers.
7. Old Business
   1. None
8. New Business
   1. Discussion and Possible Approval of the DPI Annual Report
      • Berg stated that this was the document signed by President Van Iten and that the data stands alone without any context. The side-by-side document gives some context but the data for the year of the pandemic is a thing unto itself and doesn’t indicate any trend lines.
      • Motion to approve the Annual Report: Lawrence
      • Second: Englesby
      • Discussion: Christa talked about how program data is now being counted using guidelines that take into account all the virtual programming that happened during the pandemic. There is no data from previous years to make comparisons.
      • Action: All approved
   2. Discussion and possible approval of the Dane County Agreement for Extension of Library Service.
      • Berg noted that this is an agreement approved annually. This reimbursement was based on 2019 data. The library will be getting $18,269 more which is 5.23% increase. This will be helpful because the cross-county reimbursement will be down $8,436. People weren’t travel through DeForest on their way to work this past year.
9. Future Agenda Items
   1. Annual Meeting
10. Adjournment
    • Motion to Adjourn: Lowery
    • Second: Englesby
    • Action: All approved.

Meeting was adjourned at 4:44 p.m. Next meeting April 1st, 2021.

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