Library Board Meets on June 17 and again June 21

The Pleasant Valley Free Library Board of Trustees met for its regular monthly meeting on Thursday,June 17.  There were several items of particular concern.  In no particular order

• Although it is important to win a 414 funding vote in November so that the Library will have sufficient funds for operating in 2011 and beyond, the funding issue will not be on the ballot unless sufficient signatures from Pleasant Valley voters are collected.  The petition drive is off to a very slow start--ideally we need about 500 more signatures by July 1 than we have now.  All the Trustees present at the meeting eligible to sign petitions took blank ones with them to gather signatures in their local neighborhoods.  We hope to have more of a petition presence at the Library in the next two weeks as well.
• The Library now has a new Young Adult section where the reference section used to be.  Because of the Internet, fewer students or other patrons actually use reference books to seek information. The most useful reference titles have been shelved among the nonfiction and for the first time are available for checking out by patrons (for one week at a time).
• The Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus has removed the payments that the County has in the past provided to individual libraries.  For Pleasant Valley, this means a loss of $6,000 during 2010 that will have to be somehow replaced in the remaining six months of the year.  The Finance Committee will meet soon to seek ways to solve this unexpected problem.  It should be noted that in the past the Children's Programs at all libraries were required to say "Funded by County Executive William Steinhaus" in all announcements.  This year the Library Directors have agreed to change this to "NOT Funded by County Executive William Steinhaus."
• The Building Committee requested a special meeting to consider major changes in direction for the Library Expansion program. The special meeting on this topic was set for Monday, June 21.  As with all Board of Trustees regular meetings, residents of Pleasant Valley may attend if they wish.
• The Library expects to participate in Pleasant Valley Days this September in various ways, perhaps including a Float as well as a table and a Friends book sale.  More details later.

The next regular meeting of the Board of Trustees will skip July for a summer vacation and take place on August 5.  But don't forget the special meeting on June 21.

Our New Second Floor

On July 24, 2008, members of the Board of Trustees, Friends of the Pleasant Valley Free Library, and Trustee spouses gathered to assemble the bookcases that were the finishing touch (so far) on a complete renovation of the second floor of the Manse.  If you have not climbed the stairs to see it, you should do so.

This work was largely funded by a $25,000 grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation through the good offices of our neighbor in Salt Point, Charles Pierce, recently retired director of the Morgan Library in New York City. Perhaps Mr. Pierce heard gossip that the Pleasant Valley Free Library was approaching foundations for help in raising funds for our planned building expansion.  We were delighted and excited when he contacted Maryelen Brown, then president of the Board, to discuss this grant.  It was Mr. Pierce who chose the Children's Room renovation for the target of the grant.

Our Library Director, Daniela Pulice, and members of the Board studied the Children's Room.  It needed new carpeting, windows, and bookcases, but it also was separated into two rooms unnecessarily by a wall.  Space was also lost to an unused closet and kitchen sink. Fortunately we had already arranged to replace most of the windows in the Manse (this will be the subject of a later post). Bids were taken, engineers were consulted, drawings were made showing exactly what needed to be done.

One Saturday late in May, members of the Board, Friends, a Trustee spouse, and Library Staff efficiently moved the entire children's collection and all the bookcases into the meeting room, also on the second floor of the Manse. The bookcases were cleverly arranged so that children and Julie Poplees, our Children's Librarian, still had access to all the essential books. Then the carpenters went to work.  Not only did they carry out the plan, but also along the way they discovered structural defects in the beams that they repaired. Meanwhile a design for new carpeting was chosen and the new carpets ordered. Although the Fairchild grant did not cover improving the meeting room, the Board elected to buy matching carpet for that room as well. 

The carpet in the completed Children's  Room was installed on June 18. On June 21, another team of the usual suspects gathered to move all the books and old bookcases out of the meeting room along with any meeting room furniture so that carpeting could be installed in the meeting room.  Then, a few days later, the meeting room furniture had to be moved back and placed on the new carpet.  All this preceded the arrival of the new bookcases.  All in all, it was quite a task, but a visit upstairs should show you that it was well worth it.

You can learn more about the children's various Library Programs, which are based on the second floor, by visiting our Web site: www.pleasantvalleylibrary.org.

We were very lucky that the Sherman Fairchild Foundation paid for nearly all of the work and new materials. Beyond that amount, the trustees were forced to dip into the capital reserve to cover carpeting the meeting room and correcting structural problems.  The new windows also were only partially funded by New York State, with most of the money coming from capital reserve funds.  Because all of these improvements were coordinated with changes needed to renovate the Manse when expansion occurs, they properly should have been paid for out of our Building Fund--but the Building Fund is just getting started and could not sustain those amounts.