Library Board Minutes 01/08/2024
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Board Meeting Minutes – 1/8/2024
The meeting started with a moment of silence for former Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly who passed away last month, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
Item 1- Call to Order: The meeting is called to order at 10:04 AM.
Item 2- Members Roll Call: Present are Board of Trustee member Matt Morris, Board of Trustee member Dee Mounts, Board of Trustee member Dave Ochenreider, Vice Chairman Brian Shoemake, and Chairman John Shewalter. Also present are Library Director Vanja Anderson, Assistant Director Shanna Gibbons, Head of Youth Services Alysha Wogee, Head of Reference Services Andrew Karneges, liaison Commissioner Frank Carbone, and Michelle Nelson from the District Attorney's office, along with Ms. Nelson’s colleague Danielle Kruse. In addition, members of the public are present.
Item 3- The Pledge of Allegiance was recited prior to the call to order.
Item 4- Trustee/Director/Liaison Comments:
Trustee Dee Mounts says she met with Library Director Vanja Anderson, Head of Youth Services Alysha Wogee, and Youth Services Supervisor Julie Butland about the therapy dog reading program and Ms. Mounts says she wants it to be on the February agenda because it takes four months to go through training and get everybody ready. John Shewalter asks Dee what she wants on the agenda. Dee responds that the costs and all of the details need to be approved by the board before the program can move forward. Shewalter asks Dee if she's going to draw up the resolution and she responds that she will. John Shewalter says that once the resolution is completed he wants it to be sent to Michelle Nelson so she can have input on it. John Shewalter asks what the agenda item is going to be approving. Vanja Anderson responds that it is to approve the start date, which will be in June. John Shewalter asks Michelle Nelson if an agenda item is needed for that. Ms. Nelson responds that once Dee Mounts and Vanja Anderson finish working on the item to give her a call to discuss how best to proceed.
Item 5- Approval of the Agenda: Item 7 (Emergency Items) is stricken from the agenda. The agenda is approved.
Item 6- General Public Comment:
Helen Schneider- She says since it's not on the agenda, she wanted to mention that the Pahrump Valley Obedience Club is getting its act together and can help out with the Reading with Rover program. She says there's going to be expenses associated with the program including making sure people have no criminal records and the cost of training.
Tynia Dickson- She says she is representing The Sassy Trainer and that she was in the process of starting a reading with children program called Reading with Dogs. She offers to partner with the library on a reading program and wants to inform the board about things they need to consider during the planning process. Where will this program happen, at the school? At the library? Or both? When will the program take place, before school? After school? During school? Summer? Tracking, who maintains the records of the children? Maintaining paperwork. The training is a 20 hour certification course. What are the goals of the program? Who is going to accept liability? Who maintains insurance? Who is going to pay for the background checks?
John Shewalter says that Helen Schneider has been in contact with Vanja Anderson and Dee Mounts and asks Ms. Dickson if she has been in contact with either of them and she responds that she has not. John Shewalter suggests that Ms. Dickson speak with Vanja and that any help would be appreciated.
Kelly Green- She says she's been reading the minutes of past board meetings and thanks Trustee Dee Mounts for persevering with the Reading with Rover program. She says that from reading the previous minutes she can see that Dee has been working for years to get the program started and thanks her for persevering because it's going to be a great program.
After public comment is completed, John Shewalter announces that he's going to change the order of the items and open Item 12 next so that it can be completed before a “time restriction,” that Shewalter has been informed of, happens.
Item 12- For Possible Action: Discussion and deliberation to (1) approve, amend and approve or reject the Authorization to Pre-Pay Pahrump Community Library Bills Under Specific Circumstances; and (2) Execute the Authorization to Pre-Pay Pahrump Community Library Bills Under Specific Circumstances.
Dave Ochenreider makes a motion to approve the Authorization to Pre-Pay Pahrump Community Library Bills Under Specific Circumstances; and (2) Execute the Authorization to Pre-Pay Pahrump Community Library Bills Under Specific Circumstances.
Brian Shoemake seconds the motion.
Public comment:
Tynia Dickson- She asks what the Specific Circumstances are. John Shewalter tells her to look in the backup. Michelle Nelson mentions it's the last page in the backup.
Board comment:
Matt Morris says he is all in. He says he thinks it's an important thing to do.
John Shewalter says that this is to reauthorize what was done last year.
Measure passes 5-0.
Item 8- For Possible Action: Discussion and deliberation to approve or amend and approve the meeting minutes for December 11, 2023.
John Shewalter makes a motion to approve the meeting minutes for December 11, 2023.
Matt Morris seconds the motion.
Public comment:
Kelly Green- She says in the minutes for the previous board meeting, the public comments were summarized and she requests that the comments be written verbatim in the minutes because the comments she (Ms. Green) made were important and should be quoted and not generalized.
John Shewalter explains that there is an audio recording of the entire meeting but the minutes are just a summary and is not going to have everyone's comments verbatim.
Michelle Nelson clarifies to Ms. Green that if she wants her comments quoted verbatim in the minutes then she needs to specify that fact when she gives her comments, and then the comments will be quoted verbatim in the minutes.
There are no board comments.
Measure passes 5-0.
Item 9- Presentation of the Treasurer's Report: Library Director Vanja Anderson presents the treasurer's report on expenditures for December 2023, as found in the backup.
John Shewalter mentions that the report is improving regularly. He says that it is getting better and easier to read. Shewalter asks why there's no monthly amount listed for Other Contractual Services on page 12. Vanja says that there were no expenses from that category for the month. Shewalter asks why there is a small discrepancy between the total amount listed for Salaries and Benefits on page 12 and the amount listed for Total Labor on page 14 Vanja says she might have pulled the reports on different days.
Item 10- Approval of the Vouchers
Dave Ochenreider makes a motion to approve the vouchers for December 2023 through January 2024 and Dee Mounts seconds the motion.
John Shewalter asks about the $960 charge for Jon Aire. Vanja says that it is for the quarterly service. Shewalter asks if they gave Vanja a report. Vanja says she has an invoice with the description. Shewalter asks Vanja to make a copy of the invoice for Trustee Matt Morris and asks Matt Morris to request a report from Jon Aire since providing a report is part of the contract.
Shewalter asks Vanja if there is anything unusual in petty cash. Vanja responds that plastic library cards were purchased, enough to last several years, and they were expensive. Other expenses included in the petty cash are the Christmas party and reimbursements.
Measure passes 5-0.
Item 11- Presentation of Librarian’s Report:
Vanja reads her report that can be found in the backup.
John Shewalter asks Vanja if she is compiling a list of things to take care of. Vanja says that as things happen she calls the numbers that she has but sometimes they're no longer the correct number. But as she gets new numbers she replaces the old ones.
Shewalter asks if we have a contract with the alarm company. Shanna Gibbons replies that we do. Brian Shoemake asks if they're supposed to be maintaining the alarm battery. John Shewalter says he will have Matt Morris deal with the alarm company.
Shanna Gibbons reports the statistics for December 2023 which can be found in the backup.
Alysha Wogee reads the statistics for the children's programs which can be found in the backup.
John Shewalter asks Vanja how the search for a security guard is going. Vanja replies that we are conducting interviews this week and hoping to hire next week.
John Shewalter asks if A & H Insurance is part of POOL/PACT. Vanja replies yes. Shewalter asks if Vanja is working with them to figure out insurance relating to the therapy dog reading program and fine tune the program guidelines. Vanja replies in the affirmative. Shewalter asks Vanja when she plans on starting the therapy dog reading program. She replies that the plan is to start in June because kids will be out of school and they can work on improving their reading abilities before the next school year starts. Shewalter asks about how tutoring is going. Vanja says she has been talking to homeschooling parents and that she has been trying to contact a person from a particular website but has not had any luck getting ahold of anyone so far. Vanja says Alysha has been learning how other places have done tutoring programs. Vanja concludes by saying it is a work in progress. Shewalter asks Vanja if she has tried contacting Great Basin College. Vanja replies that she has sent emails to the director at GBC but has received no response.
Item 13- Trustee/Director/Liaison Comments:
Frank Carbone- He apologizes for being late. He says there's a delegation from Washington DC in town that he was having discussions with. He says he's happy to see that the library is doing so well. He says he would like to know how the library has been doing in the past two years as opposed to the two years before that. Have we had more participants in the last two years as opposed to the two years before that? He says he is just trying to understand a little bit more about the library.
Matt Morris thanks Vanja Anderson and Shanna Gibbons for being communicative with him. It allows him to have a better understanding of what is going on. And he thanks the members of the public for coming.
Dee Mounts says it was because of Kelly Green that helped her get in touch with Helen Schneider for the obedience class. Ms. Mounts says that there is a meeting about the dog therapy program right after this board meeting and she says that she has answers for the questions that Ms. Dickson asked earlier in the board meeting and invites her to the meeting.
Dave Ocenreider thanks everyone for coming and says that everyone's input is appreciated and considered.
Brian Shoemake wishes everyone a happy new year.
John Shewalter says he hopes everybody had a great new year. He thanks Helen Schneider and Kelly Green for their involvement in the dog reading program. He says this is exactly what should happen. There are members of the board and members of the community coming together to make a program work. He said these kinds of programs can have very good results.
Michelle Nelson wishes everyone a happy new year.
Item 14- Adjournment at 10:57 AM.