A meeting of the Board of Trustees was held this date at 4:12 p.m. at the Library with Trustees Buckley, Little, Merry, and Shea present and Trustee Yale present and presiding. Ms. Jackson was present. Mayor Driscoll was absent.
Approval of Minutes of April 22, 2010
UNANIMOUS
Trustee Merry stated that he may not be able to stay until the end of the meeting and asked that the selection of the new Trustee be discussed at the beginning of the meeting rather than at the end of the meeting. The Trustees agreed. The Trustees discussed the qualifications needed for the new Trustee. Since the appointment is for life it would be important that the Trustee be a person who could work well with the current Board. It was also stressed that the person be non-political and have the interest of the Library at heart. Trustee Yale brought forth Dr. Joseph Salerno’s name as a potential candidate. Trustee Yale spoke of Dr. Salerno’s many years as Asst. Superintendent of the Salem Public Schools and of his dedication to the City of Salem. The other
Trustees immediately agreed that Dr. Salerno was an excellent choice and they felt he would be perfect for the position. The Trustees asked Trustee Yale to contact Dr. Salerno and
VOTED: To invite Dr. Joseph Salerno to become a Trustee of the Salem Public Library.
MOVED: Mr. Merry
SECONDED: Mr. Shea
UNANIMOUS
Current Library Use and Financial reports were distributed.
Ms. Jackson reported on the FY11 budget proposal. The Mayor will be submitting a budget of $1,143,516 to the City Council. This includes a 2% raise for all non-union Library employees. Ms. Jackson praised the Mayor on her fair treatment of non-union employees.
Ms. Jackson reported on the library’s boiler. The boiler started to leak again at the end of April and was turned off. The bid for the new boiler was opened in May and the lowest bidder was IBMS (Industrial Boiler and Mechanical Services) from Peabody. The bid was for $30,000 which was lower than expected. Architect Bob Farley checked the company’s references and he and Ms. Jackson met with the representatives from IBMS. Architect Farley accepted the bid and instructed the city to send a letter to proceed.
Ms. Jackson reported on the very successful “5th Grade Read” program conducted by the Children’s Room staff and Witchcraft Heights Elementary School. All fifth graders were reading the same book - “The Lemonade War”. Cheryl Opolski and Courtney Davis visited the fifth graders three times during the year. Once to distribute the books (the Library bought a copy for each student to keep) and to explain the program, a second time when the students had read half of the book and a final time to discuss the complete book and to have a lemonade party. The program was very successful and the students didn’t want to stop discussing the book even when it was time to go home. Cheryl and Courtney thanked the Librarians and teachers at the school for helping make
the program go so well. The Children’s Room hopes to include more schools next year.
Ms. Jackson also reported on the successful Author Day program the Children’s Room held with all fourth graders.
Ms. Jackson reported on the landscaping of the Library and how beautiful the fountain and children’s walkway looked. The Trustees thanked Trustee Little for her very generous support. They all agreed the grounds looked wonderful.
Meeting adjourned at 5:15PM.
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