Library Advisory Board Meetings

Library Advisory Board Meeting Tuesday, December 11, 2018 Boyce Ditto Public Library 2300 SE Martin Luther King, Jr. St. Mineral Wells, TX 76067 940.328.7880 Attending: Troy Stone (Chairman), Gerald Warfield, Coralee Beasley, Jeri Calcote, Nelda Glover, Darleen Garrett, Christiana Rodriguez-Lazo, FOBDL President Mary Alyce Buckner, City Manager Lance Howerton and Library Manager Louanne Noel. Guests from the Boyce Ditto Trust: Judy Caldwell and Beth Henderson. The meeting was called to order at 6:32 pm by Chairman Troy Stone. The minutes from the November meeting were approved as submitted. Judy Caldwell, Boyce Ditto Trust Treasurer, addressed the board about the dissolution of the trust. She took over as treasurer in 2014. They discovered several things: • Boyce Ditto had mineral interests in Archer County; • previous treasurer had never paid taxes so the tax exempt status was lost; • his will had never been probated so Ms. Caldwell had to be appointed as administrator of the estate. Since then she has paid approximately $50,000 in taxes and attorney’s fees. After they pay for the library sign, about $290,000 will be turned over to the city for the library. The land the library sits on as well as the lot to the east will be deeded to the city. Caldwell presented a drawing of what the sign will look like. She and Beth Henderson worked with Bobby Richards of Richards Signs to design it. The name of the library and the new logo (a heart over an open book) will be lighted on top of a computer-controlled neon sign. The message center of the sign is 99” x 41” (approx.. 8 ft. x 4 ft). The total cost is $42,000 plus the electrician’s work, expected to be between $1600 and $1800. A motion was made and seconded to accept the proposed sign design and passed unanimously. Caldwell will meet with Richards tomorrow to order it. Boyce Ditto’s mineral rights will be retained. Caldwell said royalty payments have only been around $137 since she started. The attorneys will draw up an agreement for the transfer of remaining funds to outline several stipulations, one of which is that the monies will only be used for the library. In the City Manager’s Report, Mr. Howerton said the draft agreement should be ready in January for the board to approve. Once the board approves, it will go to the City Council for approval and then the transfer will occur. At that time, the library board and the city will also receive all financial records of the Trust. Stone had no chair report, but thanked everyone for attending. He said the Archival and Digitization Committee had sent 50 plus images to UNT for the Portal to Texas site and they are working on another batch. Warfield said the images are uploaded for them to add metadata before being posted for public access. Mrs. Buckner said the Friends of the Library Jolly Burro party last week was a success and everyone had a good time. The Friends won’t meet again until January. She reported their book cart book sales in the library are on track to raise at least as much as a third book sale. Ms. Noel filed her Library Manager’s Report and wanted to note the statistics indicating foot traffic for the last two months has almost tripled for no explicable reason. She attributed it to a positive atmosphere and is cautious but encouraged by this. She said staff are required to complete some type of training each month and her report reflected several different training opportunities completed by various staff. The board approved moving the meeting location to the City Hall Annex. Board meetings will remain at the same time on the second Tuesday of the month. This will start with the January meeting. The board considered Ms. Noel’s Fine Free proposal. A lengthy discussion covered her motivation for implementing such a plan, possible monies lost vs. items lost and a proposed trial period. The board took no action on this item. It was tabled and will be on next month’s agenda for action. In new business, Stone thanked Mr. Howerton for his service to the city and his support of the library. He wished him well in retirement. Stone also said Palo Pinto will host their Frontier Christmas Thursday evening. Meeting adjourned 8:09 pm.