Library Director Mary Jo Suchy gets high praise, 2.5% raise

Mary Jo Suchy accepted a 2.5% raise and lots of praise after her evaluation by the Belleville Area District Library Board at its Zoom meeting Jan. 12.
Suchy, who has been Belleville’s library director since May 2015. In 2020, she earned $83,709.60 in pay and $24,332.43 in benefits.
Linda Priest, chairperson of the board’s personnel committee, said they postponed the director evaluation from December until January. Each director filled out evaluation forms except Tanya Stoudemire, who was newly elected.
Stoudemire combined the scores and shared them with Suchy.
Priest said the scale on the forms was 1-6 in the categories, with 6 being outstanding. The results were above average in all categories, she said.
Suchy discussed her goals in this challenging year as part of the evaluation, Priest said.
Suchy gave a 2.5% salary raise to staff and would feel uncomfortable if she got more, Priest said, so the committee recommended a 2.5% raise.
“We’ve had trouble getting Mary Jo to take her raises,” said board chairperson Sharon Peters. “She deserves more.”
Priest said she does deserve more, but they are respecting her wishes.
“She will have to take it or we will fire her,” said Mary Jane Dawson with a smile.
Suchy commended her staff for the work it does.
Stoudemire, who said she saw all the evaluations, said everyone gave Suchy high marks and it was very impressive.
The board voted unanimously to approve the 2.5% raise.
“Last year we gave our director a standing ovation … That’s not as possible now,” said chairperson Peters. “I’d drop my computer on the floor… As chair of the board, working with Mary Jo is a joy.”
“It’s been a pleasure working with you,” Suchy responded. “You are interested and engaged… In 2021 I hope to be able to use the library the way it should be used.”
In other business at the one-hour-and-40-minute meeting, the board:
• Witnessed the new 34th District Court Judge Lisa Martin swear in via Zoom the newly elected board members: Joy Cichewicz, Alma Hughes-Grubbs, John Juriga, and Tanya Stoudemire;
• Reelected Sharon Peters as chairperson, Mary Jane Dawson as vice-chairperson, and Alma Hughes-Grubbs as secretary. Tanya Stoudemier was elected treasurer, a position she held before losing reelection in 2018;
• Was informed the 2019-2020 Audit was a “good audit with no findings.” Stoudemier said she read it three times. She said their balance is $500,000 better than anticipated and they got $86,000 in interest. She said they will have to monitor property taxes because the pandemic may impact property taxes. Peters thanked Stoudemier for studying the audit and said it is often called a “clean audit” and to have a “squeaky clean audit is important”;
• Heard resident Barbara Miller ask about use of the Sumpter Media Center, whether recordings of the meetings are made and posted, how many employees work at the library, and soil test borings for the new library building that she said weren’t done properly and resulted in not being able to have a basement. She was told the media center is open and attendance is low because with COVID rules only six people can be in the building at a time: two staff members and four members of the public. The meeting videos are posted on the library website and there are 40 library employees. The question about the soil borings was moved to the building committee meeting report for a response;
• Heard Cichewicz give a building committee report starting with Miller’s question. She said the soil would not compact for holding a building, so they pulled out a lot of soil and put in stone and clay so it would not compact. Dawson said the reason the basement got cut was because they had to spend more money on the dirt. Suchy said the soil issue came before the basement. “Since it was being dug out we thought we could add a basement, but we couldn’t afford it,” Suchy said. Miller asked if the architect shouldn’t have ordered soil test borings before starting the building. Peters said the architect did that, but they had to wait until the project was a go before doing the next round of borings. Juriga said taking out five feet of soil and replacing it with clay was quite costly. Dawson emphasized the basement was not a part of the original plan. “When O’Neal gave us the estimate, it was $2 million more and the basement went away,” Cichewicz said. Peters said they did more detailed soil borings and did what they had to do so the building wouldn’t sink. “We got a wonderful price from Blue Ribbon to remove the soil,” Juriga said and Cichewicz said it still was a third of a million dollars. “We thought we would do better with a building that wouldn’t sink,” Peters said. Miller asked if there was inadequate storage now and Suchy said she thinks they are OK with storage, although a 10’x20’ room is needed for storage of carpet tiles and other building supplies. Miller asked if it could be stored offsite and Peters said if it was necessary they could do that, but this is only the beginning of using the library;
• Heard Cichewicz report the painter is doing touchups, the state inspector said the boiler is fine, a rooftop safety harness is being put in for the live roof that’s coming, and the electric pole saga continues. She said the switch over of lines and removal of poles goes
“on and on and on and on and on.” She also said O’Neal will talk to the city about a refund of deposited funds not used and part of the donor wall has been installed by the front door. Also, the art committee needs to meet about the displaying of art and a Zoom meeting of the group was set for 3 p.m., Jan. 21;
• Learned the status of the Fourth Street project is being questioned by the library and they will be calling contractor Blue Ribbon for information. Suchy said the Belleville Downtown Development Authority was waiting for tree grates to be installed. Peters said they were told this would be done “after the holidays” and Juriga asked which holiday that was, “the Fourth of July?” Peters said they didn’t say which holidays. Fourth Street has been closed in front of the library since October, cutting off access to patrons from that street; and
• Heard that Juriga has suggested installing power stations for electric cars at the back of the new library parking lot next to the old post office and the building committee will look into it.