South West Illinois News

LaSalle Public Library Board of Trustees met Wednesday, Feb. 24.

The LaSalle Public Library is governed by its by-laws and an appointed nine-member board of trustees. Board members serve three-year terms.

Here are the minutes as provided by Lasalle Public Library:

LASALLE PUBLIC LIBRARY

BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING

February 24, 2016

Call to order and declaration of a quorum: by President Steele

Present: Benassi, Dooley, Klinefelter, Lavieri, Mertes, Pierson, Steele, Waszkowiak and Stupegia

Absent: Arbisi

Guests: None

Public Comment: None

Approval of Agenda: Motion was made by Mertes and seconded by Klinefelter to approve agenda to include the topic of CD for renewal under New Business and ING/Voya investment under Old Business. Motion carried.

Approval of Minutes: Motion to accept the Minutes as presented was made by Pierson and seconded by Dooley.

Motion carried.

Director’s Report: Stupegia has had complaints about the cleanliness of the bathrooms. She is working closely with the janitor about teaching proper cleaning procedures and following up with morning inspections. 

Stupegia reported that we received our fourth quarter payment for the 11th year of the Carus trust in the amount of $81,440 which was deposited into MM2. 

PrairieCat issues have surfaced and caused a crash to the system after they attempted to upload the 8 Quad Cities libraries that had previously withdrawn from PrairieCat. The system was down approximately 7 hours.

These issues have currently been resolved. The West of 47 group is meeting with Representative Skoog at our library on March 23 at 10:00 a.m. All board members are welcome to attend. Motion to accept the Director’s report as presented was made by Benassi and seconded by Waszkowiak. Motion carried.

Youth Services Librarian’s Report: Motion to accept the Youth Services Librarian’s report was made by Waszkowiak and seconded by Klinefelter. Motion carried.

Treasurer’s Report: The February Treasurer’s report was presented by Dooley with $29,993.03 in expenditures including allocated donation/grant expenditures and $29,782.15 in receipts leaving the checkbook balance as of 2/29/16 at $1,000.00. MM1 had a balance of $17,899.62 and MM2 had a balance of $647,067.79 as of 2/29/16. The Carus Fund balance as of 2/29/16 was $1,072,997.87 plus the current balance of the CD’s and Investment accounts.

Motion to accept the Treasurer’s Report and pay the bills for February was made by Waszkowiak and seconded by Pierson. Motion carried.

OLD BUSINESS:

ING/VOYA Investment: The investment option presented last month by Larry Laio was discussed. Waszkowiak made a motion to withdraw from the ING/VOYA investment account and deposit said funds into the new Hometown National

Bank MM#3 account to eventually be deposited into a Vanguard account after Waszkowiak has had a chance to revisit the proposed Vanguard investment options. Motion was seconded by Klinefelter. Motion carried.

NEW BUSINESS:

CD: Dooley made a motion to take the maturing CD of $30,000 plus interest and open a 57 month CD at a rate of 1.35% at La Salle State Bank. The maturing CD was 60 months and the renewal rate for 60 months was only.95%. The motion was seconded by Pierson. Motion carried.

AT&T Contract: Stupegia reported that she received a very large AT&T phone bill for our monthly phone services. She inquired as to the nature of the increase and because we were not a contract customer our rates were increased drastically. They offered her to sign a 3-year contract to decrease our monthly rate to $23.00. The Board instructed her to proceed with the signing of a 3-year contract for the reduced rate.

Officers’ & Committee Reports: The budget committee met and discussed briefly with the board where they were at so far. The City is giving a 2% raise on salaries, so the committee is going to figure the salaries with a 2 % increase.

Waszkowiak made a motion that we put a cap on Carus funds used in a year to no more than an additional $50,000 to help with the budget deficit. The motion was seconded by Mertes. Motion carried. The balance of the budget discussion was tabled until next meeting.

Executive Session: None

Other: None

Adjournment: Motion to adjourn was made by Dooley and seconded by Mertes at 8:30 p.m. Motion carried.

Jo-Ann Benassi

Secretary