Video Description:
Library Board Meeting – May 3, 2021
Note: The following is the output of transcribing from a video recording. Although the transcription, which was done with software, is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or [software] transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the meeting, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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Unknown Speaker 0:00
fact I’ll call the meeting to order at. I got 701 on my computer clock.
Unknown Speaker 0:07
Can I just ask who’s taking notes?
Unknown Speaker 0:10
That’s the first order of business.
Unknown Speaker 0:12
I’m sorry.
Unknown Speaker 0:14
So since Katie is not with us tonight, do we have any volunteers to take notes?
Unknown Speaker 0:24
You want me to do it?
Unknown Speaker 0:27
Well, somebody has to do it. So
Unknown Speaker 0:31
I don’t I mean, I can do it. I don’t mind. Okay, great
Unknown Speaker 0:34
chance I may have to duck out because I don’t have a super childcare tonight. So
Unknown Speaker 0:38
that’s okay. I’ll do it. Yes, this
Unknown Speaker 0:41
time thing.
Unknown Speaker 0:43
Well, we’d better get through all the important stuff before you duck up. Do we have anybody from the public? Oh, assume that’s No, no. Approval of last meetings minutes. Do we have any questions or concerns on last meeting minute. We have a motion to approve.
Unknown Speaker 1:18
I move to approve the minutes from last meeting.
Unknown Speaker 1:21
Second.
Unknown Speaker 1:24
I’ll second. All in favor. Proof meetings, minutes are approved. Okay. Here’s our normal stuff. Nancy, you have the floor.
Unknown Speaker 1:42
Okay. And I see the feasibility study comes later. So I’ll just give you a kind of quick update. And I’m happy to say that it’s relatively quiet on the first floor. Only a modicum of drilling going on the eight foot by five foot hole that was in children’s up until the last few days has been filled. So at this point, most of the work on the first floor has been complete there still, they’ve had to do some retiling of public washrooms, as there were cracks that ran right down the middle. And some other kind of, there’s cracks everywhere. Oh, and at this point, the work around the keyhole area both inside and outside and children’s is still ongoing, that’s the place where they had to put entire Edo entirely was a full depth repair. So that was a new beams underneath and everything else. So that work continues we are waiting to hear about what happens with the upstairs. So what that means is that there are one of four possibilities for the upstairs, we could have no need for any repair, leave it alone. That’s first second could be repairs in small repairs small cracks in small areas small enough that they just needed some epoxy and they would take the carpet up epoxy what needs to be done put it right back down. third case scenarios a little more complex. Probably more likely there that there would be some cracks that need repair in a few selected areas where they would probably be severe enough that they would have to read carpet, at least some areas of the upstairs so fit the carpet off, you know buffed the cracks right down the concrete, do the epoxy do the glass stitching like they did downstairs and put some new carpet in those areas. And the worst case scenario is that it’s potentially bad enough that we would have to remove all of the carpet upstairs and do the whole thing we did downstairs which is take all the carpet off repair everything move all the bookshelves move all the books do the whole thing and then put the put new carpet back in. So we’ve been waiting and waiting for the structural engineer to finish his analysis of upstairs to see what that’s going to be I’m we’re expecting it pretty much yesterday, pretty much any day now. I was in Sunday working on some budget things or attempting to and at that time, there were our salaries, our project manager and some folks were the construction team were in doing some vibration tests still. We had when we had everything off downstairs, all the carpet and, and the furniture out and the degree of vibration when someone would just walk across the floor in especially in the back area of our building was something that was of concern. And so they’re still doing tests on that to see if they need to add any poles and pillars to make that more stable. So it does seem to us to be a lot more stable. And we’re not before literally we could have if you had one of our staff members that maybe would Is 100 pounds, it would mean a walk across the floor and you could feel it jiggle. So I’m still still doing some testing. But carpet looks good. A lot of the areas look good. And probably the most exciting area is still the I think it was just happened after our last meeting, that we that the team area, we now have an expanded children’s and teams area. So I had jokingly commented all through the construction to the construction team that wouldn’t it be great if you guys could just knock down a few walls for us as long as you’re here in the teen area. Actually the old computer lab area downstairs because we hate that area for a computer lab for various reasons. And it’s you know, it was dark, it was enclosed. We had some bad behavior there. And so what happened was the the structural engineer found that the teen collection weighed too much for the space that was in and needed to be spread out. And so it wouldn’t cause any more problems with the floor. So it was cheaper to for them to knock the walls down in the old computer lab and make our teeny area for us than it would have been to double reinforced the floor. So so we have a newly expanded teen area, which we think is awesome. So
Unknown Speaker 6:17
that kind of business. As usual, curbside is still incredibly busy, we’re getting a ton of questions about when we are going to be open, we are planning quite a bit of summer reading program, most of it is still online, and some of it is outside, we are going we are preparing a tentative opening plan not with dates on it, because we don’t know when that’ll be for us, but kind of going backwards from what we did when we were closed. So looking at you know, if the COVID iF COVID numbers are this, this is what we plan to do, etc. and working on the budget. So that’s that’s kind of what we’re doing to stay busy right now.
Unknown Speaker 6:58
A couple questions, Nancy, it’s the worst case. And you have to do to the second floor what you did to the first floor, the stat push back your mid summer opening.
Unknown Speaker 7:13
I don’t know, um, it may or may not depending on how bad the my parents would have to be or how complex but I don’t think that anyone even if we have to do that we but the construction folks, even if construction has to do quite a bit of repair upstairs, I don’t believe any of us believe it’ll be the extent that it was downstairs as far as the severity of the cracks. And you know, there were multiple cracks downstairs that needed epoxy and stitching and metal plates. And you know, it was a five or six step process. And we’re also looking, if that does happen, the worst case scenario, there are some moving companies that have kind of these hydraulic, what have like a hydraulic jack thing, but it’s long, and they can actually lift up to a 30 foot library shelf with the book still on it, move it back, you can carpet and repair and then won’t get back down without ever taking the books off the shelf. So multiple options, which obviously, you know, taking the books, taking all the books off of all of those shelves upstairs, you know, 84 inch shelving holds a lot of materials. And that’s what’s the most time consuming is taking everything off the shelves trying to keep it an order and moving it back. So well. Hopefully not a big delay. But we’re we’re still waiting to hear the there are multiple calculations going on. But the structural engineers, and we have those four foundations I talked about before that are downstairs. And apparently they’re not exactly above each other upstairs either. So we still have four different kind of platforms upstairs. So different thicknesses of floor and a few funky things going on. So
Unknown Speaker 8:54
then it can you if it’s bad upstairs, can you still operate the first floor? Or is it too dangerous?
Unknown Speaker 9:03
I don’t know yet.
Unknown Speaker 9:05
So it’s I don’t think it’s a matter of being structurally unsound. Or it being a dangerous situation. I think it’s just more it is really, really loud, and really, really smelly, and really, really nasty. So, as far as having patrons in the building, then you can’t hear anything. I mean, you can’t. We’ve we’ve spent a couple of months dealing with it. But we were choking on Justin. And you know, you can’t hear anything. So just depends. But we’re hoping is not that long. We’re kind of itching to be open as soon as possible. So
Unknown Speaker 9:44
can I ask a question to you and you’re sorry, forgive me if I missed this in the previous minutes. But so is all the funding for this coming out of your budget or is it going out at all? Oh, good.
Unknown Speaker 9:56
No, this was a this is a 2018 bond measure? Oh, no, there was, um, I don’t remember the exact number. And oh, Tim does it’s two point something million dollars that was allocated toward library infrastructure repair. So as far as I know, last time, I talked to the project managers, we were still under budget.
Unknown Speaker 10:16
Yeah, I don’t remember the number either, Nancy. But there was a, there was sufficient contingency reserve. Yeah, for these kinds of, you know, possibilities. So, yeah, so
Unknown Speaker 10:27
then if, if in the eventual plan that you’re in the process of coming up with in terms of library expansion, this, like investment into this space isn’t going to tie you to that space in any way, like,
Unknown Speaker 10:42
just has been, but you know, but on the other hand, you know, even if we were to decide to build a new library, or be part of that, the 17 complex or something like that, that’s gonna be years down the road. I mean, it’s just, yeah, I’ve been in new building projects, if we, you know, we’re not anywhere near anything. At this point. If we, if we decided on it today, it’d be five years minimum before you were, you know, even thinking about being inside of the building. So we’re gonna be in this building for a while. And I think you know, that the intent was to make it structurally sound, but it actually looks really, with the new carpet and all been freshly painted and do some areas, we move things around and kind of tried to refurbish some things. While we’re, while we’re at it, and I think it looks really nice.
Unknown Speaker 11:29
Great. Any other questions for Nancy on this one? Okay, at the end, do you have anything else? On your general directors report? Nancy, is mostly
Unknown Speaker 11:41
about feasibility studies. And that’s a separate category. So
Unknown Speaker 11:45
okay, so I’ll just push on thanks. Friends of the Library report.
Unknown Speaker 11:51
Yes. The friends met March, they were supposed to meet March 24 2021. But they it was cancelled due to the shooting at the boulder King soopers. I did receive a little bit of sales reports. I’ll update you on that. The bookshop sales for February were $46.63. online sales for February were $545.75. The Gift Shop sales were at $64.51. And there were no sales to that dream world books company. Since it was cancelled, there were there was an outstanding funding request that we needed to address or that the board needed to address. And then also another one came in so the they passed an email around and took an email vote and both of them were passed. First was a request for $8,200 from Claire studholme for the summer reading program. The other request was from Penny Burris for $2,240 to expand the library of things and renew the software that’s needed to track reserve and check out those materials. So both of those were approved. There was a meeting scheduled for April 28, which occurred while I was out of town, so I have no report on that meeting.
Unknown Speaker 13:18
That’s it.
Unknown Speaker 13:20
Any questions for Kathy? Okay, seeing no hands. Councilman waters. Do you have anything for us tonight?
Unknown Speaker 13:32
I know you’re just dying to hear full complete report on everything the city council has been up to. But but but I’ll wait to see if you have questions or anything you need from me. Because I think the real interesting topic on this agenda is the feasibility study. And what comes next. the only the only thing I would say from from as your liaison is that I I was fortunate enough to be invited by library staff to attend a little event last week. That was the staffs expression of their appreciation for Nancy and her leadership during the pandemic, the remodeling in all that is associated with it in it was a fun hour or so to spend in the library getting a chance just to peek in on the staff and their connection with their director. And, and their appreciation for her leadership. So good on you, Nancy. It was it’s well deserved. It was fun to be there and be part of the the acknowledgement and celebration of your leadership.
Unknown Speaker 14:37
Yeah, it was a big surprise. They faked a meeting. Jason and Donald said, we have to meet with you right away about computer stuff at that point, and I said, Well, why don’t we just go meet in the conference room. There’s more room and they’re like, No, you have to go to your office. So they were it was very nice. They made it they made me a great minute. I’m
Unknown Speaker 15:00
so wonderful and well deserved.
Unknown Speaker 15:04
Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 15:05
I have a question for you counseling, but I’ll hold off on that till we get through the feasibility study. That’s okay.
Unknown Speaker 15:15
Mr. Chairman, I show up to these meetings, hoping you’ll have a question.
Unknown Speaker 15:22
I’ll take that positively. Nancy, you want to update us on the feasibility work?
Unknown Speaker 15:29
Sure. And Mark participated and our our library friends, President, prudence also participated in the interviews for our consultants, we had three firms interview, and one was a firm that was an offshoot of library strategies, a firm from Minnesota. One was any Seager of Seeger consulting that I had worked with who I had worked with previously in Bellingham, Washington. And the other one was Weber Inc, who is an owner’s rep firm who has worked with many libraries in this area. So interviewed all three of them, ask them a series of questions. And it was it was almost unanimous. We chose Annie Seeger of Seeger consulting, and we have the purchase order through purchasing, which is a lot faster than it happened last time. And the contract should be out to Annie, she is she is so excited about working on this project that she had contacted me already and said, Do you think it’ll take a long time for the contract? Do you think I could get a an authority to proceed before before we have the contract? So so I know she’s already gathering some information. So the series of questions was pretty telling, I think that we asked, and we really emphasized some different areas than we had for the first consultants, you know, we ended up after the first study was about 100 pages of various stuff, info that was gathered by both library staff and the first consultant. But it really wasn’t since at that it synthesised in any way. So the objective this time is to take the information that there was when we gathered it. And I know and he’s gone through it with a fine tooth comb. And she said, she has found some holes that she thinks need to be filled by by Some more additional meetings and community serving. And at that point, we’re ready to do or she’s ready to do with our some of our input, some financial modeling. So looking at those level of service standards we talked about before, as far as space and staffing and technology and those various topics, see where we compared to those level of service standards, and then seeing where the pure library is compared to those levels of service sort of standards. And then, you know, creating those scenarios that say, if we need X amount more space, you know, this is what this is, what it would take at financially. And this is that these are some of the mechanisms by which we could get there. And the other question, of course, is governance, it’s, you know, looking at different models of governments looking at remaining a municipal library, looking at what it takes to be a district library, looking at what it takes to be a hybrid, it’s more similar to pooter River, for example, where they have a district library at this point, the contract back with the city for HR, facilities, facilities, maintenance, several other aspects of running a library. So looking at governance, looking at looking at those financial models, and then coming up with some presentations for Council, that that say, you know, this is, this is what needs to happen, if you if you decide that you need to move forward into a different level of providing laundry service. And I think one thing that impressed us in her interview, was when she said that, you know, everyone needs to realize that status quo is a is a conscious choice that people can make, but it will eventually lead to degradation of service. So, you know, we were at the point after the first study where we know we’re 750 to a million dollars, sorta where we should be every year. And that’s for now, not for the future, even is looking at you know, if the library continues to be underfunded, like libraries in most areas that at some point service will suffer, you can only do more with less until you do less with less. So I think that’s where we are, but very interested in, in jumping in I don’t think it’ll take more than a few months for her to do this. I know she’s really efficient because I’ve worked with her before. So I did speak with Weber which is the local consultants that’s out of Fort Collins, the ones that are the owners reps, and they followed up just to see what they what they might have done differently or better. interviewing I’m always happy to do that with an individual or a firm. So I think they’re still interested in, in the project because we’re close to home and keeping in touch with us in the future. But I don’t know if you have anything else to add mark. But we should be in hopefully within the next few weeks we should be into the study.
Unknown Speaker 20:22
Now, the only caveat is that based on the requests for quotation that you put out, which I thought was very thorough, that the winning bidder probably answered those questions more directly than the other two, that’s, in my mind, really helped her position in terms of prevailing against the other bidders, and given a different set of circumstances. And the requirement for different expertise at Meijer worked out differently. But But where we’re at now, I think she she was the best choice. Did Were there any other follow up questions from the committee or from the city? Um,
Unknown Speaker 21:13
no, not really. We just got, you know, just over logistics, we were just going back and forth with purchasing on on the contract and getting that all all squared away. But I mean, I know that Karen also felt that Karen Maroney also felt that her responses were extremely thorough. I mean, she laid everything out there every step of what she’s going to do and how she’s going to do it. So
Unknown Speaker 21:38
did to get started, you have to have a feel at this point is to one a kickoff point.
Unknown Speaker 21:44
I think it’s gonna be Well, I mean, it’s it depends on when purchasing gets the contract out to me. And I think it’ll be pretty quickly. So,
Unknown Speaker 21:53
so it, may you think as soon as I do,
Unknown Speaker 21:57
I do. I think it will be sometime this month.
Unknown Speaker 22:01
Okay, great. Any other questions for Nancy on this? Now, well, good start a lot of work. Looking forward to seeing how it all works out. A couple items that we had as sole business. One was the subcommittee report on the guidelines for the use of the Moser and emson funds. Katie did turn in some slots, which I think have all been sent out to the board. I would hope you got a copy as well, Councilman. But because she is not here tonight, I’d like to defer that for our next meeting and a couple three weeks, and then she can be part of the discussion and help us through her thoughts on that. If that’s if that’s acceptable. Can I get a show of hands? Okay, so we’ll postpone that. Mark. I
Unknown Speaker 23:08
did notice that, you know, Katie had said as her friends are first thing that we should make a list. And we have an I will, I would like to bring that or send that out before the next meeting. Before we discuss it, because we have a list with quotes, numbers. Do we have a list? So? And also, I did find out from Jim golden that as of the end, end of 2020, the motion funds balance is 594 that can be spent is $592,325 or 43 cents.
Unknown Speaker 23:41
Mark, I didn’t I don’t think I saw Kathy’s thoughts. So if you want to share him, I’d be happy to.
Unknown Speaker 23:47
I’ll send it out. Katie,
Unknown Speaker 23:54
Councilman, the the intent of this is just to try and create some structure within the advisory board. When we’re dealing with such large sums that we have have some protocols and some pre stated guidelines so that that were acting responsibly and fiduciary manner.
Unknown Speaker 24:17
I think it’s a good idea.
Unknown Speaker 24:21
So I’m going to push forward then. And and this will also have some implications for the motor and MC funds, I guess, the little free libraries. Kathy, or Nancy, do you want to talk about or you may not even have anything new to report on that from from the friends. They’re still waiting for guidance from us in terms of where we would suggest putting these and then they’ll act accordingly?
Unknown Speaker 24:56
Well, I think that, you know, that’s probably a question that they have. I mean, I think They would do the entire thing if we want them to do that. And otherwise, you know, we can certainly suggest locations. But I guess I wasn’t clear whether, you know, we were going to come up with locations or I was going to come up with locations and and kind of hand them over and then they would fill them, or if they had some ideas as well?
Unknown Speaker 25:18
Well, that’s a good question. I don’t think we ever, as a board decided how we were going to. I mean, it was, it was a delight that they wanted to step in and take some of the responsibility over for that, because that’s a great benefit to this board. And being a generally responsible for it, I’m comfortable with them taking the lead in terms of where they want to put them. But I would hope that our board or the library would have some influence somewhere in that process, if we wanted to recommend something else or wanted to provide some different thoughts on some of the selections that we would have input into that process?
Unknown Speaker 26:20
Do you think originally we had tabled it slightly, because when we were talking about it earlier, nothing was really reopened yet, because we were talking about an indoor location. And most of the facilities were not yet reopened. So I think it’s a good time to start that conversation again, with the friends.
Unknown Speaker 26:41
Okay, cuz it’s like, might be just a naive question on my part, but do they know, all the choices that that might benefit the people that need the service more in the community? Do they have a feel for that? Are they looking for input? Because you’re gonna talk to some people in the city? Where to Nancy to? Yeah, I
Unknown Speaker 27:12
mean, we had mentioned some things we had mentioned this allude clinic, we had mentioned that our center, etc. So, you know, I, I think I just need to communicate with the friends about this and see if they’d like me to make those contacts or if they’d rather do it themselves.
Unknown Speaker 27:27
It is the very Youth Advisory Board that I’m remembering with the city. That might be a place where we could also get some ideas in terms of, you know, where teens are hanging out.
Unknown Speaker 27:40
We don’t end up with a lot of teen materials for these little free libraries. But they might still have some good ideas on that though. I think having you know, having had them, our old little free libraries destroyed, repaired three times, we were hoping for an indoor location, which is going to be you know, a better better deal now that lead of indoor spots are now open. Before I can certainly broach this at the next Friends Meeting, or else
Unknown Speaker 28:11
Yeah, can you I mean, I’m, I’m just grateful that they’re willing to step in and take a lead role on this. And I think that’s wonderful. I just hoped that they wouldn’t shut out the library nor the board, this board from making suggestions as they proceed down
Unknown Speaker 28:29
to this point yet had a lot of access to their materials to do anything with them. And that should be happening shortly. The garages be the garage area has been construction Central, and the friends things the friends stuff, their stash of books, was all moved out kind of into the open areas out of the rooms, they were working on the garage covered with, even though his inboxes covered with just a ton of dust. So I’ve been told by the by the project manager, that they’re going to use their big blowers and blow all the dust off of the friends boxes and clean them up. At that point, I think the friends will be able to access their materials so they can actually do something with them. So they’ve not been allowed, for the most part in that part of the garage. When you go down there. There’s sparks flying and lots of construction things. So we’ve tended to stay away from the garage outside of just putting things down there. So it’s a good time to reopen the conversation now because they’ll actually be able to get to their materials
Unknown Speaker 29:30
pretty quickly.
Unknown Speaker 29:33
Okay, well that sounds like it’d be a good time to talk about their their little free library and how we all manage this together going forward. Any other questions on the little free library or the front?
Unknown Speaker 29:49
Yeah, just one question. Um, would it be possible also to maybe have a contact people that they could get in touch with for say saluted clinic or the hours Hmm. So that they, they would have someone to contact and say, Hey, we’d like to set this up.
Unknown Speaker 30:07
I have, I have contacts with
Unknown Speaker 30:09
contacts, okay for me, but that would be a good time to pass it on them. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 30:13
And those were just two things that we had brought up as possibilities. So definitely if they have other ideas, yeah, does it also be welcome? Okay, taking several boxes over to a housing authority site, just because they had requested before, but then they didn’t want anymore so
Unknown Speaker 30:32
well, that this may actually be another outlet for the friends in terms of reducing their inventory of books rather than just selling it to a discount wholesaler. And they can actually put it back into use for the community. So that would be positive as well. Okay, having said all that, I’m going to start the section on new business. And the big issue here is the electronic participation policy. You want to brief us on what you were thinking, Nancy, what’s the city’s
Unknown Speaker 31:14
actually this is not something that I came up with, this is something that was sent out to all boards and commissions from the city, it’s just basically saying it’s okay to do what we’ve been doing for months, which is, which is meeting online rather than in person. So I sent it out, so everybody could look through it. And at some point, it will need to be signed. Basically, it’s just it’s just a formality that they need to have on file.
Unknown Speaker 31:39
Alright, scientists aboard are signed individually. I
Unknown Speaker 31:42
think it’s just signed as a board. I haven’t.
Unknown Speaker 31:50
Any questions on the policy?
Unknown Speaker 31:56
I was just curious. We switched from WebEx to zoom. Is that like city wide? Or do we do that for some particular purpose?
Unknown Speaker 32:03
Yeah, in WebEx, I mean, there, there are different reasons. But WebEx is is used, for the most part for some of the larger meetings because you could host a lot more folks a lot more people in a room and in zoom is a little bit easier to set up an easier to manipulate for smaller groups. So we as teams, we use zoom, we use WebEx, we use all of them in different instances. So the platform doesn’t matter, whatever we’re consenting to is okay. Now that you can meet electronically. Got it.
Unknown Speaker 32:34
I was curious about the mention of taking votes by roll call.
Unknown Speaker 32:40
And try to remember that.
Unknown Speaker 32:44
How does some of the other boards handle
Unknown Speaker 32:51
voting?
Unknown Speaker 32:56
I think it probably depends on the size too. But I mean, I’ve been to a few other meetings where it is a roll call vote where they will, you know, call everyone’s name and ask for an individual vote. And most of them that are smaller meetings like this, we’ll go like this.
Unknown Speaker 33:09
Okay. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 33:15
Well, I would propose that we keep doing what we’re doing, unless we’re in violation of something that we’re misunderstanding what the policy, see how it rolls out. See if we get challenged. So is anything else on the electronic participation policy? Okay, that that takes care of the prepared agenda. I did save that one question for the Councilman for this part of the meeting. And mine is more like just inquiring minds kind of want to know sort of thing. But I did take advantage of the opportunity that you mentioned, I guess it was last meeting, last meeting when we were all together, that you had mentioned that the council was going to talk about the Cultural Center and the cultural center proposal. And I look, I you know, I wanted to dial in because I know you had expressed thoughts that it might be great to combine the library’s feasibility once once we’re so far along with the cultural center, and maybe that does make sense. What surprised me I think in in all of that was that I think the cultural center numbers and there were different different looks. Were $150 million up front That might have been the full blown plan, and $10 million a year of support. Said, sound like I’m in the ballpark. Yeah. And I was just curious how
Unknown Speaker 35:16
how that
Unknown Speaker 35:19
well actually occur when the poor library can’t get. Its its meager budget each year. I mean, that’s a level of of substance and sustainability that I just haven’t seen come out of the community. And I was curious as to your take on that. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 35:40
Well, so can I do? Can I just ramble about a couple aspects of it?
Unknown Speaker 35:44
I just did. So you can.
Unknown Speaker 35:47
First of all, I’m glad you had a chance to watch the presentation. Hopefully, you took some notes on, you know, in the spirit of an after action review of what happened, what did you learn? And how do you get better going forward, there are some there are some things to learn from that presentation, that you’d want to make certain that you you took into whatever presentation he gets made. When we have a feasibility study ready to present. Here are my observations. In that presentation, there was no context provided whatsoever. To help understand, this is a this is a proposal that actually makes assumptions about locations and surrounding environments, no reference to that there was no reference to the a year’s worth of visioning work that occurred, that set the stage for locating or for proposing or envisioning where this would be located. There was no there was no reference at all, to what was a extensive discussion about parking capacity and facilities between a performing arts facility a university or post secondary campus, and in the performing arts center. So we got into this discussion immediately about parking, which took us right off focus, that even the agenda that night was sequenced wrong, bad, badly, poorly, non strategically, there was that we had a transportation issue on the agenda, we should have addressed that first, because we wouldn’t have dressed a whole bunch of parking issues before we ever got to the feasibility study. So and I think it goes on from there, I think there were a number of things that, you know, you know, you know, in like, what would you do differently, a number of things. So pay attention to those things, as you think about the library feasibility study context is going to matter, history, etc. Number one, number two, you’re right markets, the study is is a two phase or the proposal is a two phase project, if it gets approved. The the first phase would be $105 million project capital costs. As you recall, there are five areas of decision making, that the consultants identified that that had to be addressed. In considering the whole proposal one was have to get to after you get deal with the capital issues, governance of the property, management of the property, the business plan that goes along with the property, the fundraising that would be required to fill in the gaps, and then on and then kind of the ongoing maintenance and in relationship to other properties like the steward auditorium. So in my opinion, there should have been some a little more detail, or, or at least hints about the the thinking about what who would come around those issues. What did they wreck? Who did that? Who would they recommend being involved with those decisions? On what kind of a timeframe? Right, so there was a whole bunch that was left unsaid that that should have been added to this. And, um, you know, we the meeting, probably ran longer than it should have, I don’t know, it was just so there’s a bunch left. In addition, there was really no specific ask of the Council. This is what we would like you to do. So a motion was made to accept the proposal and investigate it. I don’t even know what that means to investigate it. It’s like, Oh, are you kidding me? So going into this there should it should have been laid out, in my opinion, where here’s the proposal here are over this kind of a timeframe. Here. The net here are the six steps that we think the city ought to consider going through to give serious consideration to the heart and thoughtful work. That’s been done on this feasibility study. Now, I will tell you this mark, just in terms of the scope and breadth of it, I don’t think anybody assumed going in the city is going to bite, swallow that that’s an elephant, right? The city’s not going to eat the elephant. By itself, the city’s going to take bites of it. But la vie, the Longmont Performing Arts Initiative that’s gonna, they’re gonna have to step up, they’re gonna have to have a capital campaign to raise a big chunk of the capital on the front end of this.
Unknown Speaker 40:30
What I’ve said, I’ve said it repeatedly, I will say it again, if there’s a point in time where I could just shut up as well, if it’s if it’s not going to make sense. But what I’ve said to the performing arts, folks, is you because because we have the library feasibility study in the queue now, and maybe by the end, what I’ve said is, and maybe this, maybe this works, maybe it doesn’t, I’ve said, I think by the end of June, we would have the second phase of the library study, ready to present not maybe that’s too soon. But that’s the but until tonight, I didn’t know where we stood in terms of the timing of the June is when I suggested, what I did say is, before they get any further, they need that law pie needs to come together with Harold Domingo, Tony shikonin, and others, Joni and others who are involved in planning and get real clear on what does land acquisition going to look like? You know, who owns property in the area that was proposed? in what’s the strategy just for acquiring the land? explore the possibility of investors, it sits in an opportunity zone. Are there relationships within the pie that would bring a developer in potentially to make a huge investment? right in that area? How much of a bite do they need the city to take in terms of the capital campaign? And the answer to that question sets up the potential connection with the library feasibility study, is what I’ve said is, first of all, they’re not going to be ready to be on a ballot. If the if the city’s going to going to gonna assume debt, to come up with a big pile of cash to invest in a in a performing arts facility that’s going to require a vote of the public. It’s, it’s impossible in my mind, that they could they there’s no way they’re going to get the five areas of decision making, they have to get clear, completed, they’d have to have it done by the first week in August, for the council to approve a ballot question in November of 2021. That is just not going to happen. So I think they’ve accepted the likelihood that there’s no way a ballot question or a question would get on a ballot till November of 2022. So then I’ve said, Imagine this, you’re on the ballot, asking the public to create debt, to invest in a performing arts center, on the same November ballot, where the Friends of the Library, have a question on the ballot, asking to create a Library District.
Unknown Speaker 43:06
I thought the last thing you want to do is be on the ballot at the same time as the Friends of the Library and not have a really coordinated approach to this. Because if there’s one asset in this community that gets the highest ratings, year after year, in terms of the most highly valued amenity and service in this in the city, it’s the library. So if I was going to place a bet on who’s whose ballot question is going to win favor with the community, I know where I’d place my bet it would be if and I and by the way, I with them. I’ve said there’s a whole bunch of if then scenarios here. If the library feasibility study produces a recommendation to you to either create a dedicated sales tax sales tax, and keep the library inside the municipality, or here’s the other thing, if there’s a recommendation that it becomes a separate district, you’re going to have to deal with that. Right. I’ll be as supportive as you want me to be. But you’re going to have to make that judgment, whether or not you want to go to council with the proposal to create a Library District. Because here’s what I’ve said. If that’s the scenario, then the council is going to have to make a decision to put about a question on the ballot. If the city does that, then what the lapide group ought to do is approach the city to say, if the public approves that ballot question, could we get on that same ballot? And would the city council dedicate the money that goes right now to the library, dedicate that part of the general fund to servicing debt for the city share of the capital campaign for a performing arts facility? Now you have two questions on a ballot. One is with the city approved the creation of a Library District with whatever with whatever sales tax or or property tax would be required to Meet the budgetary requirements for both for construction and operations and etc. and separate ballot question. If ballot question one passes with it with the public approve the dedication of that sales tax for the general fund, currently going to the library to cover to finance $60 million, just pick a number of debt as the city share of the capital campaign for the Performing Arts facility. Right, you could have two questions, you could get two amenities for one for one tax increase in the probability of this library succeeding with that, I think way better than then than a performing arts facility or simply certainly better than two tax increases, right. So there’s a whole there’s some if then scenarios, right. So it makes it’s complicated, probably more complicated than some people would want it to be. But I but I do think oh, by the way, I’ll add one more. I got a briefing this morning. On Saturday, starting this Saturday, the museum will begin a public engagement process. To to present to the public where the status of our thinking about a strategic plan for the museum. You saw that the steward found Family Foundation donated a million dollars to the library just recently, the Stewart Family Foundation, I’m told has more money to donate to the I said to the library to the museum. They want to know if they’re going to put more money into the museum, what’s what are we going to do with what’s the longer term vision and strategy for the museum. So the second part of that whole proposal mark, right, which was a smaller 500 seat venue, I know that discussion is going to be part of the strategic planning for the museum. So the potential is that we could go to the public with a with kind of a three part pretty grand strategy. If you recommended a Library District, if the city council accepts it, if the public approves it. If the public foot in order to approve the the service of debt without a tax increase for the Performing Arts facility, you can lay that out where the city gets the library, you know, state of the art library Performing Arts Center in an updated museum for for one tax increase to support the highest most the most valued asset and resource in the community, the library. That makes sense.
Unknown Speaker 47:37
Well, yeah, I appreciate you’re laying it out. I mean, I just it just seems Well, what it seems bold, it’s it’s it’s very bold, it’s it’s very audacious, audacious for the community. But it’s also more money than I’ve seen, thrown around for civic investments. And
Unknown Speaker 48:03
well, the city’s not like I understand this is gonna get on, there’s no way that the city of Longmont, it’s gonna come up with $105 million to build that facility.
Unknown Speaker 48:14
And that’s just the first half or the first two thirds.
Unknown Speaker 48:17
Well, but but I but I’d be surprised if, in fact, I’m gonna, I will strongly support the city, coming up with some of it, if we can put together the kind of plan that the community would approve. Right, not all of it, there’s going to have to be private sector investment in this, for it to work. Different from the library, I don’t think we need to private sector investment to make to do what we need to do for the library.
Unknown Speaker 48:44
Well, I don’t know, there’s been models put forward for the library that has as a hybrid component between the library and some retail access or something like that, where that’s a dense
Unknown Speaker 49:01
a different you’re talking about a mixed use property to
Unknown Speaker 49:04
do on the first floor, and then the library sits on the second and third floor. So
Unknown Speaker 49:08
I’m just saying I don’t I it’s hard for me to imagine to put you in a position where the Friends of the Library to have to wage a capital campaign to cover the cost of construction of adding 35%, you know, or however many square feet it would be even to get to average in terms of in terms of cavitating the square footage for the library
Unknown Speaker 49:31
would have to be a district before that. Before that question. bubbles up. Okay. Well, I was just curious. I mean, I found I found that that was, as I say a very ambitious study and general acquiescence to the kind of numbers that were being thrown around and I having sat through some of the The agony over the budgets and support for the library. I just found that refreshing and startling.
Unknown Speaker 50:10
There’s a lot there’s a long way to go Mark settled on this. But like I said, I think I think that it’s like swallowing an elephant. And how many bites of it is the city going to take versus other private sector investment and you know what comes from a capital campaign. But I don’t see anything on if there’s going to be items on a ballot. I can’t hard for me to imagine anything on a ballot before November of 2022.
Unknown Speaker 50:42
I can see that.
Unknown Speaker 50:45
And just so you know, to our we did include Kim, the library, the museum director, rather, on our interview panel for the consultant and hope that she’ll continue with our core group as we work with the consultant moving forward, because I think there are a lot of synergies there to be found.
Unknown Speaker 51:07
Yeah, hopefully, it’ll all get worked out. That’s, that’s all I had. Anything else that the board wants to talk about, or council wants to talk about before we move to adjourn. next meeting is set for May 24. Just down the road here, so we’ll be back at it in three weeks. Having said that, I will move to adjourn at 752. Thank you all to see you. Thanks. Thank you.