9/23/2025 BM HTML

Board Meeting Minutes 9/23/2025 (html)

Tuesday, September 23, 2025
LIBRARY BOARD MEETING
SILVER FALLS LIBRARY DISTRICTSilver Falls Library Program Room
410 S. Water St., Silverton, Oregon

            Board Members Present:                             Staff Present:
            Megan Smith (Zoom)                                     Christy Davis, Director
            Dmitry White                                                  Stacy Higby
            Nancy Miller
            Michelle Sanguinetti                                       Public Present:
                                                                                    Bill Poehler, Statesman Journal
            Board Members Absent:
            Ingrid Donnerstag

CALL TO ORDER
Chair White called the meeting to order at 5:31 p.m.

REVIEW OF AGENDA

No changes
APPROVAL OF MINUTES

On Page 2, under Check Register, replace backslash with period.
On Page 2, item 1, 1st bullet, change “tables” to “tablets”.
On Page 1, under Cash Receipts, add comma to “$1000”.
On Page 6, remove slash through second bullet.
On Page 6, second bullet, change em-dashes to commas in the first sentence.

Motion: To approve the August 26, 2025 Board Meeting minutes as corrected.
            (Motion by: Michelle Sanguinetti. Second by: Dmitry White).
            Vote: Unanimously in favor.

FINANCIAL REPORT, AUGUST 2025
The Board received and reviewed the following reports:

Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Fund Balances (as of August 31, 2025)
General Fund Statement of Cash Receipts (as of August 31, 2025)
General Fund Statement of Cash Disbursements (as of August 31, 2025)
Check Register – Citizen’s Bank (August 1-31, 2025)
LGIP Account Statement (as of August 31, 2025
Purchase Order – Visa (closing date July 22, 2025)
Journal Entries (as of August 31, 2025)

Statement of Cash Disbursements
Question – Why are we at 28% for Telecommunications with only 16.67% of the fiscal year passed? It is because of delayed install of the fiber line by Wave/Astound. We paid for both the new internet phone service and our existing landline for 3 months.
Question – Will we go over budget for Gas/Electric? Probably, our latest PGE bills have been over $1,700/month.
Question – What is included in the $36,945 total for Building Maintenance? The partial roof replacement was over $36,000.

VISA STATEMENT
The rewards and toner refunds are amazing.

Motion: To approve the AUGUST 2025 Financial Report as presented, including checks #18167 through and including #18189, and all EFTs, for a total of $125,451.59.
            (Motion by: Dmitry White. Second by: Michelle Sanguinetti).
            Vote: Unanimously in favor.

PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS
Bill Poehler, a reporter from the Statesman Journal attended and was interested in hearing about the land transfer between the City and the Library.

OLD BUSINESS
1.         Parking Lot and City of Silverton Updates
            Christy took tremendous delight telling everyone at the last full staff meeting that we finally own ourselves. The building, the land beneath, and 11 parking spots to the north of the building were exchanged for our 43% ownership in the Community Center parking lot and approximately $55,000 for upgrades to the north parking lot. Paving upgrades and signage for the north parking lot will be scheduled soon.
Christy gave a brief history of the Library, from the original 1968 building which is now the Gladys Hoyt Youth Services Wing, to the 1993 bequest from Ernest J. Byberg, which funded the construction of the addition. She also spoke of the formation of the Library District with boundaries that are almost identical to the Silver Falls School District and the Silverton Fire District. The City held the 1993 bequest funds in trust and the Community Center lot was purchased jointly by the City and the Library.
Owned by the Oregon Department of Defense, the Community Center is expected to be sold, and the City desired to own the parking lot outright so that it can be sold in combination with the building. The City and the Library will share the costs of the title transfer, which still needs to be completed. We are very pleased with and proud of the Library’s very good working relationship with the City.

2.         C-REP construction grant progress
Christy submitted the grant 3 hours before the deadline with lots of input from Megan, Nancy, Randall from Sunbreak Energy, and Stacy. The grant was 36 pages long with 25 attachments. It was extremely difficult but Christy is pretty hopeful. The community input was important and Christy is so thankful for the survey created by Megan. The grant is for solar panels plus battery storage for resiliency. If awarded, it would pay for 90% of our electricity needs and allow the Library to serve as a community emergency hub. The construction grant is fully reimbursable and very competitive due to federal grant programs being canceled. Megan commended Christy for stretching herself and for pushing for community engagement and increased emergency readiness. It was a good team effort; thanks to Stacy, Megan, Nancy, and Christy;

3.         Review Chapter 3 Policy revisions regarding Purchasing
The Board’s revisions from last meeting are included. Stacy will move the highlighted section in 3.1 to the end of Section 3.

Motion: To adopt the revisions presented for Chapter 3.
(Motion by: Dmitry White. Second by: Nancy Miller).
Vote: Unanimously in favor.

4.         Review Chapter 4, Part 13 updating Bloodborne Pathogen Policy
The Boards’ revisions from last meeting are included.

Motion: To adopt changes presented for Chapter 4, Part 13.
(Motion by: Nancy Miller, Second by: Dmitry White).
Vote: Unanimously in favor.

NEW BUSINESS

1.         Review Workplace Harassment Policy

Part I – The last sentence seems superfluous. Christy will find out if legislation has been passed regarding asking applicants about previous wages.
Part II – The 2nd paragraph is all one sentence. It needs to be broken up or Oxford comma added.
Section B, last paragraph - Add “is” after “assault”.
Section C - Change “his or her” to “their” in two places.
Section D, 2nd paragraph - add Oxford comma.
Section D – Remove extra words “the follow-up”.
Section E – Add Oxford commas in 3rd, 5th, and 6th paragraphs.
Section E – Change last paragraph above bullet points to “We encourage employees to bring their concerns and complaints to the organization. We understand that this may not be the preference of the employee. Below is a list of external complaint options. Employees are encouraged to reach out to the preferred choice to determine the appropriate timelines for their processes.”
Section F – Add Oxford comma.
Added Section H – “Asking for a Date”
Section H – Define “above restrictions”. It should reference dating relationships between supervisors and their direct reports. Christy will review similar policies from other organizations.
Section H - change “would” to “may” in last sentence.
Part 8 – Change discrimination and incidents of discrimination to “perceived discrimination” and “perceived incidents of discrimination” in all cases where appropriate.

2. Oregon Library Association’s Public Library Standards, 2021 edition, pages 33-37, Community Engagement and Advocacy Standards
Tabled until next meeting.

LIBRARY DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Director Davis reported on the following:
Good things:

Some fabulous Summer Reading Program statistics! Christy presented an info-graphic created by Youth Services Librarian Dena Chaffin, which showed some of the statistics below.
620 kids signed up, 459 finished

1,114 kids played Candyland at least once
15,397 Youth Services items checked out
96 adult signups, 1,110 hours read
10,036 books checked out in August
66 new cards made in August, 300 for the summer

Stacy shared our new Hazard Communication Plan with the full staff this past month and reminded folks about safety data sheets.
Our Wednesday, August 27th program with OSU Extension went swimmingly. We had a turnout of 12 people for the “petting zoo” of canning equipment. This Thursday, attendees will learn multiple techniques for preserving fruit. Participants at our events, as well as ones at participating libraries throughout Oregon, will be entered into a drawing to win a food dehydrator. The foundation providing funds for the food preservation events and equipment was started by Gert Doyle (founder of Columbia Sports) and her daughter (Columbia sportswear).
The Friends of the Library have launched another new side fundraiser. They’ve retired the button board for now, and President Kathy Connor has started making handwoven and handsewn bookmarks. I had a conversation with Friends board member Mark Endresen last week, and in early November we are going to create an eBay account for the Friends so that books that are worth $15 or more might be listed for sale. Christy provided financial reports from the Friends of the Library, showing approximately $42,000 in their bank account.
Christy attended the quarterly Oregon Talking Books and Braille Library virtual meeting last week. This is one program that does not appear to have threats from cuts.
Christy turned in the grant to the Oregon Department of Energy. Hurray!
On Monday the 22nd, Christy and Board Member Nancy Miller attended and participated in the City’s 2050 Comprehensive Plan workshop. Nancy did triple duty as a board member for both the library and the shelter, and as a retired teacher from the school district. Our town is likely going to be changing a lot over the next decade, and it is an honor to have an invitation sit at the table, and to weigh in on things that will shape our trajectory. Christy spoke up about the need for a Parks and Recreation / 50+ center district. And there were so many questions for the Oregon Department of Transportation representative at the meeting. So many of our streets’ issues need their cooperation and money to solve or at least improve. Christy shared the City’s 2050 Comprehensive Plan workshop details and asked Stacy and another board member to attend the workshop next Monday as she and Nancy are both unavailable. Michelle will attend with Stacy.

Challenges:

We are still waiting on information from the courts regarding our building break-in. Like most court proceedings, it is a drawn-out ordeal of appeals and delays.
At the full staff meeting, Christy talked to staff about the citizens who conduct First Amendment Audits of government spaces, including libraries. The staff came up with plans about how to cope – if there is time to do so.
- People with cameras videotaping staff and patrons, to elicit a negative interaction for social media.
- They are allowed to video any person in a public space, including children.
- Be polite and friendly. They want a negative interaction, don’t give it to them.
- If a patron is concerned or upset, offer to let them use our phone to call police.

Our new phone system has had a few hiccups but I think that we’re now on solid ground. That said, Wave/Astound’s fiber line went down and we were without phones for almost 30 hours last week. The patrons let us know how they felt about it. It was very awkward to be phoneless – a true drawback of VOIP technology.
Dmitry and I continued to talk about the benches out front and to come up with some ideas about how to keep that bench, plus how to add more seating and shelter from weather for that seating. We have an issue with the traffic obstruction that is caused by the bench in front of the library. Board members looked at bench options, and looked at possible location of elevator for a potential 2nd story on the building.

Changes:

We officially own ourselves – our land, building, and adjacent parking spots. This was so delightful to say in a staff meeting.

Miscellaneous

I will not be here for the October meeting if we opt to schedule it for the 4th Tuesday. The Board looked at options for the next two meetings as they will be the only two meetings remaining in the calendar year. November 4 and December 2 were chosen as the next two meeting dates.

The director used 4.5 hours of vacation leave and 12.5 hours of sick leave in August.

ITEMS NOT ON AGENDA OPEN TO PUBLIC, BOARD & STAFF PARTICIPATION
Questions

What is happening with the proposed LGBTQIA+ book club? Christy sent an email blast to OR/Libs/or, knowing that several larger libraries had similar clubs and received one response from a person who used to run an LGBTQIA+ book club. Their club was library-run at first and became independently run over time, but still hosted at the library. Christy asked Dmitry to talk to PFLAG leaders to see if they would run a book club that could meet here or in other places. If PFLAG agrees, Christy will email the people who signed up at the Silverton Pride event and ask if it’s okay to share their email addresses with PFLAG. The Library would be able to help track down multiple copies of books within the CCRLS system. Dmitry will reach out to PFLAG leadership.
Do we still own the Ames scrapbooks? Yes, they are boxed in Christy’s office with the paperwork. The transfer may be done as early as this week.
Has the lock been fixed? Yes, and it’s still working correctly.
Do we need a hasp and padlock on the basement door? Probably not. The basement doesn’t hold much of value and the stucco may not be sturdy enough. However, the light fixture needs repair the next time Rite Way Electric is on-site.

ADJOURNMENT

Motion: To adjourn the meeting at 7:22 p.m.
            (Motion by: Nancy Miller. Second by: Dmitry White).
            Vote: Unanimously in favor.

__________________________________________

The next Library Board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 4, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. in the library program room.

            Approved: _________________________(date)

            _______________________________________
            Dmitry White
            Chair, Library Board of Directors
            Silver Falls Library District