Library Board of Trustees

By City Clerk at 1:21 pm, Apr 13, 2023 Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - March 27, 2023 Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Location: Zoom virtual meeting Wednesday March 27, 2023 5:30 PM 2023 Board of Trustees (BOT) Members present: Anne Campbell, Gail Browne, Laurie Cameron, Pam Gilday, Delia Rinaldi, Audrey Proctor, (and Jessica Ducrow who arrived post-vote) APL Staff present: Aimie Westphal, APL Director and Meghan Fahey, Head of Archives 1. Call to order at 5:30 PM by Anne as chair. 2. Vote on National Register of Historic Places Application In-Kind Donation Aimie and Meghan remind the BOT that the process of applying to become listed on the National Register of Historic Places was discussed at past meetings, including at the February Preservation subcommittee meeting. Getting the APL listed on the National Register of Historic Places has been on ongoing objective of the APL and BOT for many months. Gaining this important recognition enables the APL to be considered for additional grants and programs and poses no additional oversights or restrictions above what the APL is already subject to at the state level. The in-kind donation covering the cost and work needed to apply to be on the National Register of Historic Places is very welcome. Prior to this very generous in-kind donation, we had considered applying for a Massachusetts Historical Commission grant and also of using trust funds to accomplish this work. At its first reading, the City Council referred bill 2023-019 (https://www.amesburyma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/3556/2023-019-An-order-to-accept-an- in-kind-donation-for-historic-preservation-consulting-services-for-the-library-for-15000pdf) to the BOT for their recommendation, to be provided for the City Council’s public hearing/2nd reading of the bill. Motion by Pam to accept the in-kind donation of $15,000 from Heritage Consulting Group for historic preservation consulting services to prepare and submit a National Register of Historic Places nomination to the State Historic Preservation Office and to attend a state review board meeting to represent the nomination. Second by Laurie. Motion is approved unanimously. 3. Staff Office Heat To improve heating as well as cooling in 2 areas of the downstairs space (staff breakroom and staff office), Aimie is proposing the purchase and installation of 2 mini-splits. These will replace the either old or non-existent heating systems (the staff office is currently using space heaters as the heating mechanism – unacceptable. In both spaces, the splits would also replace aging window AC units. 1  Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - March 27, 2023 The proposal is to spend $9,700 for the purchase and installation of the 2 mini-splits – to be paid for with state-aid funds. Doing so would leave $28,000 in our state aid account. Note that $18,000 will be deposited to that account from state aid distribution that we’ll receive in April. Rather than vote this evening, the decision was made to allow Gail Browne to review the vendor specs first (deep expertise with splits) so that the BOT can be more fully prepared to vote on this matter at our April meeting. 12. Adjourn: 5:56 PM. Motion to adjourn by Audrey, second by Laurie, unanimous. 2