Present: Dr. Robert Lipp President
Mary Chamberlain Vice President
Mary Gannon Treasurer
Steven Goldman Secretary
Rita Peterson Trustee
Roman Sohor Trustee
Barbara Cannon Mayor
Louisa Colon Mayor's Alternate
Arthur Freihon Superintendent of School's Alternate
Margery Cyr Director
Maria Nowak Executive Assistant

Guest: William Ruggierio Township Attorney
Mario Barone Consulting Engineer

The President called the meeting to order at 8:03 p.m. and announced that the meeting had been advertised and would be conducted in accordance with the Sunshine Law. The Secretary called the roll.

Dr. Lipp welcomed new Board member, Roman Sohor.

Mr. Goldman stated Joseph Nuzzo was appointed to the Board, but had to leave the next morning on a business trip and has yet to be sworn in.

Minutes

Motion: made by Arthur Freihon, seconded by Mary Gannon, to approve the December 12, 2001 minutes as amended. Unanimously approved.

Finance

Motion: made by Mary Gannon, seconded by Steven Goldman, to approve the bill listing in the amount of $90,199.02 as presented. Unanimously approved.

Mrs. Peterson noted that the gas bill for the Central Library was $447.19 as opposed to $161.30 for Laurence Harbor.

Mrs. Peterson asked that a sub-account be added under building repairs for the Library gas leak bills which have already been paid by the library; the Library could then track this expense.

South Old Bridge Branch

The Board tabled this matter until the February meeting.

Statistics

Dr. Lipp stated the graph of monthly attendance statistics illustrates that the Library is not doing badly.

Mr. Goldman said he thought the Library would be doing worse with the Internet becoming more available in patrons' homes.

Mrs. Peterson stated that the juvenile AV in November 2000 was 254; but in November 2001, the juvenile AV is up to 690 which she feels is quite good. Also the 93 monthly discards from November 2000 compared to 1,136 in November 2001 were noted. Ms. Cyr said the selection and maintenance of materials has been divided up into collection development areas by librarians. The librarian is responsible for the evaluation of the collection as well as eliminating old and dated materials and adding new materials.

The Board all agreed the graph was exactly what they were looking for.

Motion: made by Mary Chamberlain, seconded by Rita Peterson, to place the statistics on file. Unanimously approved.

Correspondence

Mr. Goldman was pleased with the list of documents detailing the library's history of electrical problems which Ms. Cyr had put together for the Mayor. The documents do not support the perception that there has been a lack of communication to Council about the electrical problems that the library has experienced.

Mr. Sohor said that as a former Township Council member, the reports the Council receive from the Library are second to none in terms of keeping the Township Council informed. He appreciated that tremendously.

New Jersey Library Association Emerging Leaders Program

The Board congratulated both Tim Niland and Ken Kaufman on being accepted to the NJLA Emerging Leaders Program. Dr. Lipp said a letter from the Board should be given to both of the librarians.

Ms. Cyr informed the Board it is a grant-funded program with only twenty slots available.

Workshop Reports

Mrs. Peterson said Shirley Zuk attended meetings on December 6, 7 and 13 and no reports were submitted.

Ms. Cyr said she has spoken with Shirley Zuk and the reports will be submitted to the Board on a monthly basis beginning at the February meeting.

REORGANIZATION

President Lipp turned the meeting over to Arthur Freihon to conduct the election of officers for 2002.

Mrs. Peterson asked the Board if it is appropriate to have a reorganization with one new Board appointee not present even though he has not taken the oath. Last year's reorganization was not held until March because of the variety of reasons and she thinks it would be appropriate to postpone reorganization until the February meeting.

The Board agreed to hold the elections.

Nominations for Office of President

Rita Peterson nominated Steven Goldman for President, seconded by Mayor Cannon.

Mary Gannon nominated Dr. Robert Lipp for President.

Arthur Freihon asked that since two candidates were nominated, would they like to say something.

Steven Goldman and Dr. Lipp both made statements.

The following roll call was taken for the nomination of Steven Goldman for President:

TRUSTEE VOTE
Mayor Cannon........................ yes
Mary Chamberlain.................. no
Arthur Freihon........................ yes
Mary Gannon.......................... no
Steven Goldman..................... yes
Dr. Robert Lipp...................... no
Rita Peterson.......................... yes
Roman Sohor......................... yes

Mr. Goldman was elected President for the Year 2002 by a 5 to 3 vote.

Nominations for the Office of Vice President

Dr. Robert Lipp nominated Mary Chamberlain for Vice President seconded by Mary Gannon.

Rita Peterson nominated Roman Sohor for Vice President. Mr. Sohor appreciated the thought, but respectively declined.

Motion: made by Steven Goldman, seconded by Mary Gannon, to accept the nomination of Mary Chamberlain for Vice President for the year 2002. Unanimously approved.

Nominations for the Office of Treasurer

Dr. Robert Lipp nominated Mary Gannon for Treasurer, seconded by Mary Chamberlain.

Motion: made by Dr. Robert Lipp, seconded by Mary Chamberlain, to accept the nomination of Mary Gannon for Treasurer for the year 2002. Unanimously approved.

Nominations for the Office of Secretary

Dr. Robert Lipp nominated Rita Peterson for Secretary, seconded by Steven Goldman.

Motion: made by Dr. Robert Lipp, seconded by Steven Goldman, to accept the nomination of Rita Peterson for Secretary for the year 2002. Unanimously approved.

Board Committees

Mr. Goldman said he will make new committee appointees at the February meeting. For now he will leave the building committee as is. Mrs. Peterson asked that a committee be formed to update our By-Laws which have a revision date of 1981. Dr. Lipp felt that this should be handled by the Policies and Procedures Committee. Mr. Goldman agreed.

Mr. Goldman asked the Board members to let him know of any committees on which they wish to serve or he will just use his discretion to appoint committee members.

PERSONNEL

Library Volunteers

Ms. Cyr informed the Board the Mr. & Mrs. Landsnes would be in attendance at the February Board meeting.

Head of Technical Services Position

Ms. Cyr reported no decision has been made as she is still in the process of interviewing in-house candidates for this position.

Part-time Reference Position and Young Adult Librarian Position

Ms. Cyr said she has nothing to report except references for candidates are being checked.

LIBRARY BUILDING

Library's Gas Retrofit Project - Bid Issues

Mr. Barone, the Library's project manager for this effort, reported that proposals have been accepted for the gas piping retrofit. Five candidates picked up bid specifications; four of which submitted bids. The four were: $46,200; $42, 992; $35,500; and $23,700. The low bid was from Erin Environmental. Representing the Library at the bid opening were Mr. Barone, Ms. Cyr, and Mrs. Peterson.

Mr. Barone said he spoke with Alayne Shepler on how the bid award was to be handled. Ms. Shepler said it is to go through the Township Council so Mr. Barone needed to submit a report to her. Mr. Barone is providing the Board with the letter which is to be submitted to Alayne Shepler tomorrow. He was not sure if the Board needs to vote on it or not.

Mr. Goldman asked who owns the building for the gas and electrical projects.

Mr. Barone said that Alayne Shepler told him that since the bids went out under the Township's name, they have to go before the Township Council. He said there has been some discussion between Himanshu Shah, Rita Peterson, Margie Cyr and himself about who is going to control the projects and how the funds were going to be handled.

Mrs. Peterson said the Library has done bids many times, and was quite capable of doing this bid. She would have preferred the bid going out under the Library's name since the Library is paying for it. She does not feel the same way about the electrical system repair as the Township Council is paying for that project.

Since Township advertised the gas line repair bid, all responses were returned to township and not to the Library. The Township will initially pay the repair bill. Mr. Shah told Mrs. Peterson that he will then reimburse the township by taking the money from the library's monthly municipal allocation. Mrs. Peterson felt this added several levels of unnecessary complications to this project and preferred the library pay the contractor directly. Mayor Cannon said Attorney Ruggierio is here to address that.

Attorney Ruggierio asked for clarification as the Board just indicated that the payment for the gas line repair was to be funded through the Library's Operating Budget. Mr. Goldman agreed that the money is coming from the Library's Emergency Fund.

Attorney Ruggierio said the operations of the Library such as the purchase of books are the library's exclusive jurisdiction. He does not think there is any dispute that the library is a Township owned building with the control of it in the hands of the Library Board. When there is a project, such as the gas line replacement, which is a correction of a negative condition at a municipal building, it should be a township project. He feels this way even though the funding of the repair is coming from a library source.

Mrs. Peterson agreed that the township owns the building, but when it came to landscaping the library paid for it; when the library windows blew out due to weather and other conditions, the library paid for the repair and replacement. We do the maintenance like painting, etc., and pay for the basic utilities like water, sewerage, heat, and electric so where is the dividing line?

Attorney Ruggierio said there is no doubt you are right. There has probably not been a consistent thinking about this and it has reflected with the library paying for some things, they should not have, though it really all comes out of the same pocket.

Mrs. Peterson said the only issue, as far as she is concerned, is the autonomy of the library.

It just seems that because the library has done the bids before on projects we are paying for, we should continue to do it. Unfortunately for this project, the ship has sailed since time is of the essence in this emergency. The only option would be for the bid to be withdrawn and re-issued by the library, and that is not practical.

Mr. Goldman said at this point in time the library can't delay this project. He agrees with Mrs. Peterson about the gas line project, but does not feel the library should make a big deal of it at this stage.

Library's Gas Retrofit Project - Insurance Issues

Attorney Ruggierio informed the Board before December 31, 2001, that the township submitted a casualty claim to the township insurance company. It was his understanding that the probable cause for the gas line problem is electrolysis . . . something that was unanticipated.

Ms. Cyr said she had some specific concerns about payment of the gas bill repair which she addressed with Mayor Cannon. Ms. Cyr asked Mr. Ruggierio if the insurance company does pay off, would this mean that: There would be no payment of monies by the library? Will there be any monies deducted from the library's monthly allocations, which Mr. Shah is suggesting?

Mr. Ruggierio said assuming the township is successful with the claim, monies might not be received until the next budget year. Ms. Cyr questioned if it is possible then that the tibrary would pay the gas bill this year, and then next year the township would be reimbursed by the insurance company? At that point she asked if the insurance money would then come to the library? Mr. Ruggierio suggested Ms. Cyr consult with Himanshu Shah about who would get the insurance money.

Mr. Goldman said the Township cannot take the money for the repair twice, i.e., from the library's emergency fund and the insurance reimbursement. The library deserves the reimbursement as it is the library who is paying for the repair. Dr. Lipp agreed saying the township is not budgeting monies to replace the gas lines; the money is coming out of library funds. Mayor Cannon said we are talking about "if" the money comes back from insurance company, then how will it be reallocated. We may not get any insurance money. Mrs. Peterson said we would not be having any of these problems if the library had put out the bid.

Mr. Barone said he was requested to get a report to Alayne Shepler before the end of the week so she could get it on the agenda for Monday, January 14 Council meeting. At that point it will be approved and a contract will be drawn.

Mr. Barone said he checked all four references on Erin Environmental and all were good.

After the discussion of payment and reimbursement of monies for the gas line replacement, Mr. Goldman asked Ms. Cyr to follow this up with Mr. Shah.

Lighting - Current Issues

Mr. Goldman stated the Township will own the electrical project. Ms. Cyr and the library staff, more than the Library Board, will have to be a unique part of this project as the staff knows about the problems.

Mr. Ruggierio said he finished drafting an architectural contract and recognizes exactly what Mr. Goldman means. In order for Mr. Barone to do a proper design, he has to get feedback and guidance from people who are in the library. On the other hand, Mr. Ruggierio said, at some point, you proceed from design to advertising documents and specifications for the job. In terms of sophisticated construction jobs he thinks the township has a better awareness of how to run these kinds of jobs, then the library.

Mr. Goldman said it is important to remember the township supervised the construction of the library. Mayor Cannon asked Mr. Goldman if he wanted the township to walk away. Mr. Goldman said no; as long as he is convinced the library staff will have input.

Mr. Ruggierio said he has completed the contract for the electrical project and has incorporated into the contract the new Township Engineer as the owners' liaison. Mr. Goldman informed Mr. Ruggierio that new board member, Joe Nuzzo, who is an electrical engineer, is going to volunteer his time to work with the township on this project.

Ms. Cyr asked Mr. Ruggierio if Mr. Barone has seen the changes in the contract. Mr. Ruggierio said not as yet. Ms. Cyr said Mr. Barone will meet with the library staff on January 10 to hear their concerns.

Lighting - Other Issues

Ms. Cyr reported she received a call from a Carmine Marchianda, a new architect with the Goldstein Architectural firm who designed the library. It seems Mr. Marchiana had originally spoken last spring with one of our librarians at the NJLA Conference where he introduced himself as being from the Goldstein firm. Mr. Marchianda has made a request to meet with Library Board as he has been reading in the papers about our lighting problems.

While Mrs. Nowak was putting together the information to fulfill the Mayor's request for documentation of the lighting problems, there was a reference to a document that could not be located. Mrs. Nowak called the Goldstein firm and asked if they had a copy of the document. Mr. Marchianda called back and said they also did not have a copy.

He spoke with Mr. Goldstein about this document, and according to Mr. Goldstein, the contents of the document indicated that the Township of Old Bridge had agreed to collect dollars from the electrical contractor who did the electrical design of the building. The money was to have been kept by the Township to be used for electrical repair in the building and to finish and repair the problems with the electrical. He indicated that Mr. Ruggierio was heavily involved with this. Ms. Cyr said she spoke with Alayne Shepler and Mr. Ruggierio about this yesterday. Mr. Ruggierio said his office is on the search for this document.

Mr. Sohor thinks this is how the library purchased the furnishings that were needed as the Township Council did not want to continue funding anything additional for the library. Mr. Sohor is very sure that the furnishings came from some other funds related to the building.

Mr. Goldman said if that is the fact then where are we going with this?

Mr. Ruggierio said the low bidder electrical contractor on the library building was an inexperienced contractor; at that time, low bidders could get surety bonds very easily. There was a problem with the low bidder's electrical contract so Mr. Goldstein recommended the contract be awarded to the second lowest bidder.

The lowest bidder, Jet Electric, sued the township saying the contract should be awarded to them because they were the lowest bidders. Judge Bachman agreed with them and ordered the contract awarded to the lowest bidder. It turned out Mr. Goldstein's concerns were well founded because they could not get a surety company to give them a performance bond under the relaxed standards so a contract could not be signed. H&H Electric received the job under the new bid.

Mr. Ruggierio said H&H Electric posted a surety bond that says you can sue an insurance company if H&H did not perform. The township paid them progress payments as they went along. Mr. Ruggierio said Joe Rondinelli, who ran the oversight of the construction, kept very good control over the finances of the job. Mr. Rondinelli must have said do not pay H&H Electric: we have X, Y or Z problems. Mr. Ruggierio could only speculate as to what could
have occurred. There could have been a residual amount that was never paid to H&H Electric for deficiencies that were identified by Mr. Goldstein in this report that we will try to find. The money stayed in the bond.

Mr. Ruggierio said you can change the bonded purposes; if it was a lawful purpose on the bond, the money could have been used for furnishings.

Mr. Goldman asked the Board members if they feel Mr. Goldstein should be involved with electrical programs again as this is why Mr. Barone was hired.

Mayor Cannon said she does not know where Mr. Goldstein is coming from; and we do not need any more pointing of fingers, but Mr. Barone may want to choose to use him as a resource in regard to the design of the system. Mr. Ruggierio said it would not hurt to listen to him.

Ms. Cyr said Mr. Goldstein and Mr. Marchianda visited the library this afternoon with an electrical person and would like to put together a report which will address some recommendations and implications for corrective actions. They do not wish to get paid. They would like to meet with the entire board or a committee of the board to discuss their findings.

Mr. Goldman told Ms. Cyr she could put Mr. Goldstein in touch with him.

Mr. Sohor said in his opinion he would like to hear what they might have to offer.

Ms. Cyr gave the board a list of dates to meet with Mr. Barone. The board all agreed on Wednesday, January 16 at 8:00 p.m.

Dr. Lipp said it is his feeling it is a waste of the board's time to meet with Mr. Barone on what the board thinks should be done with the lighting; if he meets with Ms. Cyr, staff and the electrical people what could the board possibly add? Mr. Goldman would like to meet with Mr. Barone.

Café

Ms. Cyr said she spoke with Stan Sinofski and will be meeting with him tomorrow. The cart is now stocked with teas, coffee and other items he will be carrying. Mr. Sinofski informed Ms. Cyr he should have it ready to open within ten days.

Mrs. Chamberlain asked if there is more than one person hired. Ms. Cyr said no.

Mayor Cannon asked if he has the rubber mat needed. Ms. Cyr said he is ordering the mat and will pay for it himself.

Mrs. Chamberlain said she does not like the large coolers as they do not belong in a library.

Mayor Cannon asked if something could be built to hide them.

Lifts

Maria Nowak presented the proposal she received from Atlantic Rentals on an AC lift in the amount of $6,895.00 plus $425.00 for the maintenance agreement. Ms. Nowak said she is in the process of determining that the vendor is a state vendor as he originally indicated.

Mr. Goldman said he would like Joe Nuzzo to look at the bid. Perhaps the library should consider waiting to purchase a lift until we see how the electrical system is changed in regard to the high lighting fixtures. He instructed Ms. Nowak to follow up on whether the vendor is a state vendor or not.

Mr. Goldman suggested to Ms. Cyr that Mr. Barone see the lift.

LMxAC

Ms. Cyr informed the Board that LMxAC has hired a consultant and is waiting to receive the consultant's report as to how LMxAC is going to proceed with an upgrade or replacement of the automated circulation system. Ms. Cyr said she presented a request to the Mayor and the capital projects committee for $21,000 to fund the purchase of fifteen PCs, five printers and two scanners. The library needs the upgrade in order to stay operational with the software needed to run the automated system.

Mrs. Peterson said while speaking with Mr. Shah on the gas bid, they spoke about a variety of other topics, one of which is LMxAC. Mr. Shah believes that the CARL system and some of the services LMxAC provides to the members is less than ideal. Mr. Shah would like to have a dialog with the Library Board about perhaps using his group to help the library with some of the problems we're having with LMxAC. Perhaps he could help save us money and improve services. Mrs. Peterson told Mr. Shah the library would be quite willing to have any kind of a dialog with him.

Mr. Goldman asked if he has discussed this with the Ms. Cyr. Mrs. Peterson said Mr. Shah told her he has discussed this with every director the library has had.

Mr. Goldman said he is not talking about every director, has he discussed this with Ms. Cyr. Mrs. Peterson said she had no idea. Ms. Cyr said Mr. Shah has never raised this issue with her.

Mr. Goldman said he will not discuss this with Mr. Shah until he discusses with the director. He said he wants a new pattern set where everything has to go through the director and that is the way it has to be.

Ms. Cyr said there are real advantages to the citizens of Old Bridge to have their library participate in a consortium that provides access to most of the library catalogs in the county. The residents of Old Bridge can freely make use of any of those materials at those libraries and that goes both ways. Should we choose to leave the consortium and go to another automation system, we would lose that advantage and not be able to offer that service to our residents any longer.

Ms. Cyr said she does not like the CARL system and is hoping LMxAC chooses to leave the system and go with another. She would not like the library to develop an automation system that is not specifically designed for libraries. There are a number of vendors around the country who do this specifically for libraries. If we get to the point where we are really wishing to engage in this type of conversation, we will discuss companies who design projects for libraries, are well known, and have a history of providing good service. Choosing to go another route will give us more expenses, longer range problems, and not be able to service our customers the way we should be servicing them.

Mrs. Peterson said she'd like the board/Ms. Cyr to speak with Mr. Shah to see what he has in mind. We don't even know what Mr. Shah has in mind and we, the board, owe it to our taxpayers. Ms. Cyr said it would be her preference at this point to wait until LMxAC has results back from the consultant.

Mr. Goldman understands her point, but asked Ms. Cyr to speak with Mr. Shah.

Mary Gannon said she thinks the board should honor the way Ms. Cyr wants to handle it. Now we are telling her what to do again. Mrs. Gannon feels Ms. Cyr should decide what the timing should be. Mary Chamberlain agreed with Mary Gannon.

Mrs. Peterson said she was approached by Mr. Shah on this issue and she feels there is nothing wrong with talking to someone, plus he asked to speak with the board not the director. Mary Gannon said Mr. Shah did not approach Ms. Cyr; Mary Chamberlain reinforced what Mary Gannon said. Mr. Shah did not approach the director.

Dr. Lipp said the request was brought back to the board and director so now it is up to the director on how she wants to handle it. Dr. Lipp said he feels we should not leave LMxAC.

Mr. Goldman said Ms. Cyr will handle this.

Department Reports

Dr. Lipp asked if patrons can now place holds on books by telephone calls. Dr. Lipp asked that this be checked into as someone tried to put a book on hold and was told it had to be done through the Internet. Ms. Cyr said reserves are taken over the telephone.

Mr. Goldman asked for a report on this issue next month.

The Board reviewed and accepted all department reports.

Library Bookends

Mary Gannon said the Bookends were fantastic. The board all agreed with Mary Gannon.

Ms. Cyr said Tim Niland is doing a good job.

Adjournment

Motion: made by Mary Gannon, seconded by Arthur Freihon, to adjourn the meeting at 10:00 p.m. Unanimously approved.

Respectfully submitted,

Rita Peterson, Secretary
Library Board of Trustees
Date Approved: March 20, 2002