Public Library Board October 16

The highlight of the meeting was the approximately 25 citizens from Petersburg and Bellevue Bottoms who came to protest the continued closing of the Chapin library in Petersburg, which has been closed since February 2021. Although the library is scheduled to “re-open” at the end of the month, the concern is that it will not be staffed. It will be set up as a locker with online access. The technology of this setup requires seniors and young people to utilize the library via internet access and most have no access to internet and computers. 

The residents have compiled 600 signatures on a petition regarding the need for a fully staffed or partially staffed library in the Petersburg area. The residents have already contacted the media, and a copy of the petition will be sent to their state representatives also. The residents presented their concerns to the Library Board as far back as July 2022, but their concerns have still not been addressed. Although the Library Board rotates its monthly meetings and manages to meet at each of the branches during the library’s fiscal year, they’ve never gone to the Chapin branch. 

The residents also alluded to a contract between the church board in Petersburg and the library. Where is it? It’s never been seen, and one of the residents has been a member of the church board for ten years. This contract was supposed to be renewed every year. 

The residents at the meeting also read articles under the Board’s mission statement indicating that skilled library staff was to be used to staff the library and that programs and hours of operation would be based on the needs of the community, so the residents have requested a needs assessment.

In addition, the residents consulted with the Boone County property evaluation administrator and determined that property taxes designated for the library from their community (real property taxes only; no tangible or intangible taxes included) comes to about $105,000. The residents would like to know where these funds have been used as apparently not for the Chapin library. 

In addition, apparently there are some valuable historical artifacts that belong to the church in Petersburg that are being held in the main library and they would like those returned to the church. 

The Board couldn’t provide clear information about how the residents can contact the main library via phone for assistance under the current “locker” scenario. The Board indicated they would look into that further and promised to visit the Chapin branch. The volunteer who submitted this report noted the Board did not address the property tax concerns. 

The Hebron property of 2.296 acres now has a contract to purchase by the individual property owner and will be closing soon. 

The library Board went over a few policy reviews: 

·  a study room policy was created designating that usage should be consistent among all branches;

·  the Director also proposed a change to the library’s current unattended child policy.  The Director proposed to raise the age to 13 as there have been numerous incidents with unattended children, such as pulling towel dispensers off walls in response to a TikTok challenge and skateboarding in the library itself.  However, the policy change was tabled to November for more data on incident specifics as one of the Board members felt increasing to age 13 was a little stringent.  The Kenton County library restricts only to age 12. 

·  tuition reimbursement for employees of the library system was proposed.  Eligibility requires an employee to have made minimum payment for the last ten years on the loan.  Tuition would be reimbursed for loans being paid from March of 2020 through May of 2025.  However, the Board has requested that the Director research the liability to the library before the Board would consider pursuing. 

Board member Dr. Jackson has proposed a temporary subcommittee be formed to design the Archive and History Center at the main library comprised of two Board members and two community members.  This proposal was approved by the Board though June 2024.

The November meeting will be held at the Scheben branch.