8.18.25 Library Trustees Meeting Minutes

August 18, 2025 Library Board of Trustees Meeting Notes

Attendees:
Board Members- Laura Lawson Tucker, Jeannette Tokarz, Judith Serkin, John Shaw, Joshua
Nelson
Library Director, Amber Hunt
Friends of the Library representative, Davida Bagatelle

o Accept Minutes from June & July meeting.
Make any additions, corrections and/or deletions as necessary.

Laura called the meeting to order.
Jeanette moved to accept the motion, John seconded, and the motion passed to accept the
minutes from June and July meetings.

o Librarian’s Report – Amber
Amber provided her report to all present.
Amber noted that in the budget that the Fiber Optic line item looks a little odd but she is working
to make it more understandable (the line item indicates the amount of the grant money provided
for Fiber Optic)
Amber passed along thank you notes for Trustees to sign.
Amber pointed out she had a visit from the State Librarian and two consultants (one for rural and
small libraries) and the visitors noted how clean and dry the basement was.
Laura pointed out how great Amber was during the visit.
The State Librarian and 2 consultants cautioned against expanding too much.

o Co-Chairs Report – Laura & Judith
Nothing specifically was added by Laura but Laura praised Amber and the work she has done.
Co-chair Judith did not add anything.

o Treasurer’s Report – John
John pointed out that we are at the beginning of the new financial year. There isn’t anything to
point out about the budget. John mentioned that the Fiber Optic grant is a placeholder and thinks
that based on the monthly rates, the grant will cover only about five of the ten years that were
originally hoped for being covered by the grant.

o Old Business
▪ Replacement for Sandra’s term, her term is ending in 2029, trustees need
to select someone to recommend to Selectboard to appoint to serve until
town meeting 2026.
Sandra has officially resigned as a Board of Trustee. Now the Board can appoint someone to
replace Sandra until the town meeting 2026 in which

▪ Executive Session to discuss the appointment or employment or
evaluation of a public officer or employee per 1 VSA § 313 (a)(3).

Laura moved that trustees go into Executive Session and John seconded the motion. The motion
passed.

Laura then amended the motion in order to invite Amber to the session. Jeanette seconded the
motion and the motion passed. Josh moved to end the Executive Session; it was seconded by Judith and the motion passed.

▪ Vote on library trustee replacement to recommend to the Selectboard
Jeanette moved to vote for offering the trustee position to Meghan Ohstrom, it was seconded by
John and the motion was passed.

o New Business
▪ Library building planning with town –
Amber said that Erika is wanting to meet with her and a couple of trustees to review the capital
management asset plan and how the work requested by the library will be handled in terms of
timing, cost, etc. Josh volunteered to be a part of the 1-2 trustees along with Judith and Jeannette.
Late morning was mentioned as a possible time (Mondays or Fridays). Amber anticipates that
there will be talks about HVAC. Amber said that the energy audit and the work done to complete
the MERP grant has cost estimates and valuable information that has been previously researched

Davida added that the Friends are focusing on their first fundraiser for the Guilford Fair. Davida
reported that there were a lot of great donations for the Fair raffle. Might set up a couple of times
to hang around with the basket in order to get people to buy raffle tickets.
Patrice Pennington (Treasurer), Albright (Secretary) Laura Carter (Vice President) Davida
Bagatelle (President) are all the officers of the Friends of the Guilford Free Library.
Davida mentioned that the library trustee minutes and notes are not easy to find on the town
website.

Laura suggested that we add in a time for the Friends to be a part of the Trustee meetings,
appearing after the Treasurer’s Report.

Next Trustees meeting is scheduled for September 15th.

The Hot Dog roast has been rescheduled for September 10th and said that we will have to be
flexible for this event based on weather.

The meeting was ended at 7:12pm.

Meeting Audio Recording: