Library News
Reopening Plans
Before the CDC’s surprise announcement about mask-wearing and social distancing on May 13th, we were making plans to enter Phase 4 of the Library’s Reopening Plan on June 1st. I have updated our Reopening Plan document to reflect our anticipated return to regular hours, most of our regular seating, and continued virtual programming. At this point, all staff who want to be vaccinated are fully vaccinated, so we no longer have to worry about our own exposure for the most part. As Summer Reading is upon us, we need to get back to business as usual, so we will resume our regular hours and reopen our seating areas as well.
The CDC’s May 13th announcement that vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks or social distance came as a surprise to us in the library world. As of this writing (5/15), the governor’s office hasn’t officially rescinded its state-wide mask mandate. Until it does so and we know what that says, we will continue to require masks by all visitors to the building. CCDPH has also issued some very confusing requirements for businesses, parks, and any other entities that intend to allow mask-less entry. Their guidance seems to say that any business that allows people to enter unmasked must verify vaccination status and must keep a written log of each individual mask-less visitor or risk being held in violation of operating in violation of public health protocols. Until we receive some significant clarification from the state and the county, I don’t see how we can move forward with any kind of change.
Even if it does become clear that we can reasonably allow vaccinated people to be in the building without masks, it is unclear if that is the best course of action for us right now. Responses in the library world are as scattered as on any single issue that I can recall in this profession. For the most part people feel that libraries have followed the CDC’s guidelines all along, so we should continue to do so going forward and allow vaccinated people to go mask-less. Others intend to continue requiring them until Illinois reaches Phase 5. Some would like to keep the current mandates in place until children can be vaccinated. Nobody is considering checking vaccination cards and allowing those who can prove their status to go mask-less as that is incredibly intrusive, doubly so coming from a government agency. I can see merit in all of these perspectives and continue to study the issue and try to determine the best course of action for our library.
The Temporary Mask Policy that you approved last year states that we will continue to require masks of everyone until Illinois reaches Phase 5, which is expected to happen in mid-June. Of course, that was written well before we knew what reopening would even look like, so we might want to alter that. But I recommend that we wait until we have a clearer picture of what we are really allowed to do before finalizing any response.
This is another situation that is evolving quickly, and I will have updates for you at the meeting.
Staff News
Circulation: As we prepare to transition back to our regular hours, we have some adjustments to make in terms of staffing. First, Circulation has had an unfilled position sitting vacant for most of the past year. This is the position that was created as we finished transitioning our remaining Pages to Clerks. Those Clerks are actually now working in Technical Services, because that is where their skillsets fit best. They are both doing extremely well in their new roles. But while that filled the vacant position in Technical Services, it has created a gap in hours in Circulation. We were holding off on filling that position until now, so we’ve posted that job and are in the process of making that new hire.
Youth & Teen Services: Also, our Youth & Teen Services Librarian who had a baby a few months back has submitted her resignation. She really tried hard to make it work, and we did our best to work with her. But it just wasn’t working for her. Hers was a 28.5 hour position with IMRF benefits. Tina has kept in touch with the YTS Librarian who had a baby and ended up resigning in the middle of the pandemic last year. She is now ready to reenter the work-force on a part-time basis and has agreed to rejoin us at 15 hours per week. So we are still looking to fill the remaining 15 hours per week with a new hire to bring our YTS Staff back up to full strength. It has been quite a year!
Health Insurance: Finally, after regrouping with affected staff about the state of our current healthcare plan, the group has expressed almost unanimous frustration with the new Aetna plan that LIMRiCC adopted last year. So I am looking into what options are available for us to return to BCBS. The options to join another pool with BCBS are very limited, and I have been turned away from a couple of other pools because we are too small. They were both looking for a minimum of 100 covered individuals for consideration to join their pools, and we are at 11. I’m still pursuing one more pool that offers a BCBS plan. The plan that they offer is much weaker than our current one, but I think we can get into the pool. I plan to proceed a little farther with them before returning to staff to get their reaction to the potential change in coverage. I’m also pursuing options with a couple of brokers for standalone coverage for us. I’m not optimistic about this because I expect that coverage similar to what we have now will cost double, if not more, what we currently pay. There are other more drastic options that I’m looking into as well. No matter where we end up, I expect that a few people will be pretty unhappy. This is an unfortunate situation with no clear good options for us.
Building & Grounds
The YTS Renovation Project is off to a good start. Tina and I have met with the architects a few times now, on April 9th and 26th and on May 12th. We have had in-depth discussion about our needs as well as looking
at various conceptual mock-ups and giving our feedback on those. I’ve included some of the preliminary drawings in this month’s packet. At this point, they are working on fleshing out a few of the designs that we like the most, and they will have a presentation for you at our June meeting.
As the we finish thawing out from the winter, a new year of maintenance issues is upon us.
Alarm System: In March, I told you about some minor issues with our aging building alarm system. We have since had a new controller and new motion sensors installed. We signed a new contract for services with Quality Alarm, so they made all of these updates at no additional cost. The new controller also allows for remote access, so we will be able to better monitor the building’s status when we aren’t here as well. Our monthly cost will go up slightly because of the remote monitoring module, but it otherwise remains the same.
Concrete Repair: We had a bit of damage to the curb over the winter. Some small portions have gradually broken loose over the years. It’s turning out to be a tricky thing to repair. The damage is too large to patch but too small for it to be worthwhile to have someone go to the effort to properly cut and repair it. One solution that has been proposed is to combine with work with repaving the stone circle, which we were talking about doing before the pandemic hit (and still really needs to be done). We got a quote to do both of these things, and it is in line with the quotes that we received before for the stone circle repair alone. I think now is a good time to go ahead and take care of that.
Trees: Davey Tree Experts were here on April 29th for what has become our annual tree inspection. This year they are recommending a lot, none of which comes as a surprise. The big blue spruce near Francine’s Forest is finally succumbing to the needle blight that took the rest of our evergreens. It needs to come down. The alder near the fence has a serious fungal infection and needs to come down. And the four crabapples at the corners of the island in the parking lot all need to come down after years of struggling with leaf disease. That’s six trees total that need to come down. We had Smitty’s come out as well to give us a competing quote, and they pointed out that the other Alder by the fence is also diseased, something which Davey had missed. So I’m playing it safe and having Homer come out as well, so that we’re sure removing what needs to be removed and nothing more. I anticipate that we will take down seven trees in total. I don’t anticipate bringing this to you for approval as the cost should be below $5,000.
I intend to plant new trees to replace all that will be removed. After doing a bit of research on native species of the size, shape, and type that we want, I have settled on a bald cypress to replace the spruce, a river birch to replace the alder(s), and 4 American hornbeams to replace the crabapples. All are native to the area and resistant to most diseases and tolerant of harsh conditions. I think they will all do well for us. The cypress is a larger tree that will complement the other Forest plantings. It has soft, feathery needles that turn a nice red in the fall. The birch is a taller tree that doesn’t have a huge canopy, so it will do nicely to provide some privacy for the neighbors. It also has interesting, flaky bark and large, glossy leaves. And the hornbeams are an attractive tree about the size of the current crabapples with leaves that change from dark red to green, to gold and dark orange in the fall.
All of these species are pretty widely available and at a variety of price points. The price really depends on the age and development of the tree. Many of the small saplings that we planted a few years ago are still really struggling to take root and survive. So I recommend that we spend the money on some more mature plantings, like the ones we purchased last fall. I’m very pleased with the stock that we got from iTrees in Morris. Depending on the number of trees we end up needing and the pricing I’m able to get, I might need to come to you for approval of that purchase in June.
Programming
Our virtual programs continue to be extremely popular. We had over 200 attendees at our Frida Kahlo event and over 100 at the Frank Lloyd Wright program. We also participated in the first multi-library online program with author Marie Benedict, which was attended by almost 500 people. We also continue to have consistent and respectable attendance at our virtual youth programs.
While many libraries are moving toward outdoor in-person programming over the summer, we plan to continue focusing on the virtual events. Most libraries haven’t seen the success that we have with virtual programs, so they are eager to try something different. For us, I think the prudent course is to stick with what works.
Other News
Osterberg Trust – I told you in March that we have been notified that we are a beneficiary of the Harold I. and Muriel C. Osterberg Family Trust. I don’t have a lot of information right now. The Trust is in the process of liquidating assets including the home, so we won’t know the size of this gift for a while yet. Mr. Osterberg was a World War II veteran who used to regularly attend our Veterans Day celebrations. He was also a long-time member of the Palos Sportsman’s Club and donated many of the amazing photos of the Club that we now have in our local history collection. He was also interviewed for our 75th anniversary movie. The Osterbergs were long-time Palos Heights residents and regular library patrons. Mr. Osterberg passed away in January at the age of 98.
Audit Update – I had hoped that we would be approving the FY2020 audit this month, but IMRF still has not released their reports yet. We have been notified that those reports are coming between now and June 1st, so we will definitely have everything in place in time for our June meeting. Everything else with the audit has been smooth. I have seen drafts, and there is nothing surprising or noteworthy in it, which is always a good thing with an audit. Lauterbach has been wonderful to work with.
Fine Free Update – Obviously, the big news from our last meeting was the Fine Free announcement. We got the PR machine going to get the word out as widely as possible. We issued a press release which was published in the regional. I did a PSA on Channel 4 (which wasn’t my finest hour but got the message out there). We sent out a special postcard mailer to each household, in addition to our normal newsletter. And of course we have been shouting from the rooftops on social media and talking to people about it in
person. So far, the transition has been very smooth. Staff love that this negative interaction is no longer a part of their script. Patrons are appreciative of the small financial relief, especially right now. There have been no complaints from tax objectors or the like.
Broadband Upgrade – We have maxed out our current 100Mbps internet speed. Having the dedicated fiber line has been wonderful in terms of the consistency of our connection. But we regularly max out our current connection speed. This is most noticeable with the phone system, where calls through our VOIP line become garbled or the audio drops out entirely. Our IT consultants have taken measures to try to mitigate this issue, but they are now saying that there isn’t much more they can do with our current speed. So I’ve been in touch with AT&T about upgrading our connection. The next tier up is 250Mbps at a cost that is 33% higher than our current rate. I did get one competing bid which was significantly higher than AT&T, so I still think this is the best way to go for us. This change will take effect on July 1st and will take us over our budgeted amount for the year, but we will still be within our amount appropriated for this expense category. Now more than ever, our internet connection is the backbone of everything that we do, so it makes sense that we will need to put more of our resources into it.
Upcoming Events
Thursday, June 17th – Regular Board Meeting, 7pm
Budget Update
I admit that I was getting nervous toward the end of April about our first-half tax receipts. We were only about 80% paid entering the last week of the month, and typically first-half receipts are done at that point. But this continues to be a strange year, and we did receive several significant disbursements in April and May. We are now 94% paid, and that total is coming close to 100% with the normal prior years’ payments that we continue to receive added in. Payments are still trickling in, which is very unusual for May.
Respectfully submitted,
Jesse Blazek
Library Director