Report of the Ad Hoc Capital Committee

Background
This committee was charged with looking at the potential capital expenditures facing Granby over the next ten years.  We were asked to accomplish this by using, where possible, past studies of the buildings in Town, updated for current conditions, and informal cost estimates.  The purpose of this study is to give the Town a broad perspective on all the major capital expenditures the Town could resonably expect to be facing within in the next decade. 

We expect that there will be a relatively limited amount of funds tha taxpayers will make available for capital expenditures during this time.  This will not allow Granby to create ideal solutions to the Town's problems.

Furthermore, the sheer monetary cost of potential projects make it clear that the Town will have to find some solutions that in many instances are far from the ideal choices for the problems the Town faces.

 

Granby Public Library

The Granby Public Library is the municipal facility most in need.  The minimum recommended size for a Public Library for a Town with Granby’s population is 10,500 square feet.  The current library building has 2,500 square feet.  It was built through a Carnegie Grant in 1917 for a population of fewer than 1000 people, with a projected capacity of 5,000 volumes.  The Library building has remained fundamentally the same since 1917.  Today, ninety-three years later, Granby’s population is over 6000, and the same building with the same square footage serves as its Public Library, with a collection of approximately 27,000 volumes.  This insufficient space has had a definite impact on Library services.

The State of Massachusetts has agreed to support Granby in building a new Library with a grant of almost $1 million if Granby were able to include the Library in the secondary school building complex.  That particular plan has recently been rejected by the committee looking at the problems of the School buildings.

 

However, this indicates to us that the State is aware of the current situation, and that the Board of Library Commissioners has funds to support library construction.  Our estimate is that they would provide approximately a 50% reimbursement for a free-standing library building.  So a $2.0 million investment by the Town could build a library worth almost $4 million.

The Library’s current location at the end of the common does not lend itself to expansion.  The Town does not own enough land there to accommodate a larger building of the required size and provide the required parking.  Informal discussions with an architect have told us that it is very difficult to try to add to a Carnegie Library and have the addition blend into the original architectural design.  Additionally, the land itself, because of ledge, would not be easy to build on.  Those four problems, at least, would have to be overcome before an addition could be considered.  There would certainly be additional costs.

 

Another possibility has recently arisen.  With the purchase of a building for the Council on Aging, the Aldrich property will soon be available.  If the buildings currently on that property were razed, there could be enough room to locate an appropriately sized Library building and accommodate the necessary parking.

We would recommend that the Town explore locating a new Library building on the Aldrich property.  This could be a near-ideal solution for one of Granby’s larger capital problems.

 

The full text document of the Report of the Ad Hoc Capital Committee can be found down the page under "Trustee Meeting Minutes." 

 

Board of Trustees

Trustee Meetings

Held in the lower level of the library.

The next meeting is set for Monday, August 2nd. The group will be meeting promptly at 6:30 p.m.

Meeting Minutes

 

July 2009 Trustee Meeting Minutes
Posted on Dec 29 2009
Board of Trustees >>

Granby Free Public Library Trustee Meeting Minutes

 

 

 

Meeting Date:  July 13, 2009

 

Present:           Virginia Snopek, Dianne Barry, Carol Battersby, Leah Condon, Amy Kimball, Renee Still, Jennifer Crosby

 

Absent:            Nancy Evren, Gwen Morrissey, Bridget Roy

 

Visitors:           none

 

 

The meeting began at 6:40 pm.  Minutes from our previous meeting of June 1, 2009 were read; Carol made a motion to accept them with corrections; seconded by Amy.

 

The report from the nominating committee: The following recommendations were made:  Library Director: Jennifer Crosby, Trustee Board Chair: Virginia Snopek, Secretary Nancy Evren, Co-Secretary: Dianne Barry.  Amy made a motion to approve them with a second by Carol.  The motion passed unanimously.

 

On June 24^th Renee, Virginia and Jennifer met with Rosemary Waitos to discuss the status of the grant for the library in light of the defeat of the override vote for the school building project study.  Renee reports that Rosemary was truly helpful and interested in our project.  There will be e-mail coming soon regarding the extension of the grant through June 15, 2010.  There is a possibility of a new grant round in 2011.  The question of expanding our current building came up.  We do not have enough land to expand and provide parking.  The Long-Term Plan was brought into the discussion.  Virginia e-mailed Emre Evren asking that the library be remembered in the master plan.  (E-mail attached.)

 

The handicapped parking space lines will be painted by James Kicza, Jr. as soon as the weather cooperates.  Chris Martin has promised us a handicapped parking sign.  Virginia has e-mail from Chris Martin about paying for the parking lot seeding out of the fund for paving.

 

Virginia read a letter from Carol Kent thanking the Trustees for the donation made in Charlie’s name to the National Memorial Cemetery.

 

Virginia read a letter she wrote to Chris Martin regarding the return of fencing materials.  Virginia and Renee and her husband Wayne brought the materials back to Home Depot.  With the help of our new friend George, the return was completed.  Both Virginia and Renee’s credit cards will show refunds.  (Letter attached.)

 

Virginia read the letter written to Chris Martin to encumber our funds for FY 2010.  (Letter attached.)

 

Carol Battersby updated the Board regarding her volunteer coordinator status.  She reports that it is going well.  All volunteers have gone through the CORI check process.  There are new teen and adult volunteers.

 

We need to update our Five Year Long Term Plan.  Virginia, Renee, and Dianne will serve on this sub-committee.

 

Library Director’s Report: 

 

We went over the personnel evaluations and next year’s goals for Jeanne Crosby and Janice McArdle.  The Board discussed the need for a review of Janice’s and Jennifer’s yearly goals at the six month mark.  The Board will review Director Jennifer Crosby’s goals.  As Director, Jennifer will review Janice’s.  This motion was made by Virginia and seconded by Amy.  All were in favor.

 

Waste Management has made a $2,000.00 donation to the Summer Book Club.  This will be enough to cover all of the costs.  The Adult Summer Book Club has begun.

 

Cleaning and re-organizing efforts for the storage areas and the space used by Jeanne are underway.  Renee and Virginia have begun the task.  We are looking for a monitor in the storage space.  This will be traded to Chris Martin for a different communication system.  Renee and Virginia will be meeting with Jeanne and Jennifer on Wednesday, July 15^th to plan the re-organization of the space.  Part of the plan is to remove the computer and printer, and the table that it sits on, the shelves and the door.  The idea is to have a tall table for work space with room underneath for storage and the printer.  Jennifer will check supply catalogues for such a table.

 

The surveillance system is still not working.  One camera is fuzzy, one is blank.  Alarm Works took the entire system back to fix it at the end of June.  It should have been back last week.  There has been no word from the company.  Jennifer will call them tomorrow.  This situation displeases us.

 

All requests for work done by Dave Turcotte must be put in a written request form and turned into Chris Martin.  He will prioritize the jobs and give Dave his schedule.

 

Janice McArdle has injured her hand.  She will be out for a while.  A doctor’s note is required for absences of more than a week.  Jennifer will follow up on this.

 

The ARIS Report is due in August.  Jennifer is compiling her data for this.

 

Bob Lussier of Earth Scapes will seed around the pavilion in the fall.

 

Leah has been pulling older books out and feels that some of them are worth money.  She wants to try to sell some of them on e-Bay.  She feels they are too valuable to just let them be thrown out.

 

Some of the birds from the collection will be brought to the Springfield Museum; the rest will be thrown away.  Carol will take care of this.

 

Warrants in the amount of $2,137.21 and $1,416.68 were unanimously approved. 

 

The next meeting will be on August 3, 2009 at 6:30.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 7:55 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted by Dianne Barry

 

Never Falter, Never Quit!

Last changed: Dec 29 2009 at 2:17 PM

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