District Library Board to wait until 2022 to take millage to voters

The Belleville Area District Library Board decided to wait until the August primary election in 2022 to take the renewal of its millage to voters.
The board’s regular June 8 meeting was held in person in the library’s first-floor Cozadd Room, with everyone wearing masks. The only audience was the Independent.
Treasurer Tanya Stoudemire said the finance committee met the night before this meeting and discussed the millage renewal. She said they discussed the renewal and she recommended putting it on the ballot at the August Primary election in 2022.
Although it could no longer be technically called a renewal, language could be placed on the ballot that describes the millage as replacing the operating millage that expired in 2021.
Stoudemire said they didn’t think the library should pay to hold a special election this fall and committee thought it could go on the ballot next year with the state election.
She said if for some reason it doesn’t pass in the primary election, it could go on the November election.
The board took no action on the report.
Stoudemire said by March of next year they would work on the ballot language.
“We’re of one accord on how we are going to do this,” said board chairwoman Sharon Peters.
In other business at the one-hour-and-30-minute meeting, the board:
• Held a public hearing on the 2021-22 budget of $2.138 million, with no public speaking, and then approved the 2021-22 budget, the 2020-21 amended budget, and a fund balance allocation per GASB 54, putting $1.16 million for use in the FY 2022, as required. A fund balance of $3,876,391 is expected at the end of the 2021-22 fiscal year;
• Heard Joy Cichewicz give a report on the building committee, noting there are final details being attended to in the new building, including a couple of leaks in the skylight and curtain wall by the staircase, irrigation needs to be turned on, a tree is dead on Charles Street and needs to be replaced, redoing of a trench drain, adding people counters at both doors and adding mailboxes for employees. Matt is reaching out to Hennessey on the refund on the deposit for the city permit;
• Heard chairwoman Peters say the biggest item is the HVAC updates to make the air even healthier in the future. She said it is taking a long time to order and supplies are slow because of COVID. She thinks it won’t be complete until late summer or early fall. She also said signage should be finalized in the fall;
• Heard Linda Priest ask about the closed-circuit television proposed to watch the three full hives of honeybees on the roof. Library Director Mary Jo Suchy said they were working on that and the images could be seen on any monitors in the building. Peters said the vegetative roof is very vibrant and it changes as different plants bloom. Priest said the blooms are food for the bees. At the end of the meeting, Dawson said Therese Antoinelli who donated two hives and paid for services of Bees in the D for a year, and Janis Vanaken who donated a hive, along with John Juriga, who had the idea for the bees on the roof and worked to get them there, are assets to the community. There were about 40,000 bees when they were placed in the hive and the number will vary;
• Heard vice chairman Mary Jane Dawson ask if the library’s dish washer is fixed and Suchy replied it was fixed and now it has the same problem. It is a Bosch. Dawson said it could just be a lemon;
• Discussed meetings of the marketing committee and art committee, with Peters pointing out the Jackson Pollock style oil painting lent to the library by Sheena Barnes is now hanging just outside the Cozadd Room door. She said they are going to hang a sign next to the painting to explain what it is;
• Was informed there will be a 6 p.m., July 13 dedication of the bench furnished by the Rotary Club in memory of Peter Quenet at the Sumpter branch library;
• Heard Suchy say as of July 1, masks and social distancing will no longer be required indoors by the state. The library has restored socially distant seating in several areas and in-person programming is taking place on the second-floor outdoor terrace; and
• Heard Juriga say he is pursuing charging stations for the parking lot with the help of Congresswoman Debbie Dingell and State Rep. Ranjeev Puri.