Wide Awake Club Library Board
December 6, 2022, 4 pm
Members present: Rod Bennett, Carole McGlynn, Karen Williams, Judy Robertson, Shawn
Hotchkiss, Rebecca Rowley, Brad Wilber
Others present: Roxanne Baker, Marriah Propert
Karen moved to accept the minutes from the previous meeting. Judy seconded. Motion carried.
Rebecca moved to accept the financial reports. Shawn seconded. Motion carried.
Roxanne reports that we have received $1,519.50 in state aid. Additionally, the grant proposal and materials have been submitted for our summer concert series.
Holiday recap: we hosted over 500 trick-or-treaters at Halloween, and we had an incredible gingerbread house float in the town Christmas parade under the direction of Tonya and her dad.
When Valley Bread and Bounty launched a holiday-décor contest and raffle to add a ramp for accessibility, the library was a secondary beneficiary of the fund-raising.
Rebecca moved that the library acquire its own landfill tag in 2023. Judy seconded. Motion carried. (Don Barber will still be doing the transport of garbage.)
By law we must have fire monitoring/security, but we must have a reliable company and we must replace our Siemens fire panel, in the absence of anyone even remotely local will service it. We have a quote from CASCO, who are currently monitoring us but who can’t work on the panel. Brad moved that we accept CASCO’s quote, draw initial money from savings, and represent it now and in future on the budget line Equipment and Capital Outlay. Rebecca seconded. Motion carried.
Rod moved that we enter executive session. Shawn seconded. Motion carried.
As we do every year, we have to consider whether to ask the public to approve a budget increase for the upcoming year. A resolution with specific language needs to be ratified and adopted for us to have the latitude to ask for any more than a 2% increase. Rod moved that we approve the tax cap override as outlined below. Karen seconded. Motion carried. (This only gives the board permission to consider a range of budget increases; it doesn’t always mean the request will exceed 2%):
Whereas, the adoption of this 2023 budget for the Wide Awake Club Library requires a tax levy increase that exceeds the tax cap imposed by state law as outlined in General
Municipal Law Section 3 c adopted in 2011; and
Whereas, General Municipal Law Section 3 c expressly permits the library board to
override the tax levy limit by a resolution approved by a vote of sixty percent of
qualified board members; now therefore be it
Resolved, that the Board of Trustees of the Wide Awake Club Library voted and approved to exceed the tax levy limit for 2023 by at least the sixty percent of the board of trustees as required by state law on Dec. 6, 2022.
***
At the conclusion of budget discussion, Karen moved to exit executive session and Rod seconded. Motion carried.
Karen moved that we accept the proposed budget for 2023, which involves requesting an increase of $9,500, for a total operating budget of $95,500. Shawn seconded. Motion carried.
Respectfully submitted,
Brad Wilber