District Library to ask city to help share cost of maintaining parking lot

Shortly after John Juriga was sworn into being a temporary member of the Belleville Area District Library Board, he broached the subject of maintenance of the library-city 90 space parking lot between the library and the new city hall.
This was at the March 10 meeting of the board, which had just approved a very detailed landscape service proposal with low-bidder DC Lawn and Snow of Carleton. The first year of the agreement is $5,600 and the second year is $5,920. DC is the library’s current snow removal and lawn care contractor.
The other bidder was DJ’s Landscape Management of Romulus which bid $8,283 for the first year and $8,531.49 for the second year of the agreement.
Library director Mary Jo Suchy said the library has been in place for six years now and the trees are growing. The new service proposal was prepared after the boxwoods were removed because they weren’t doing well.
Juriga, who served on the library board for many years, chose not to run for reelection last fall and was replaced. When one of the board members died, Juriga was brought back on the board to temporarily serve until the end of the year.
When approving the accounts payable, Juriga also commented on the $6,375 cost and snow removal by DC, the library vendor. He was reminded that this was an unusual winter.
During discussion of the lawn care agreement, board president Sharon Peters said they did not expect city hall to be where it is now when the parking lot was being built. Now, she thinks the city should at least take responsibility for sealing cracks in the parking lot because part of the parking lot belongs to them.
Director Suchy said a piece of the grass at the end of the lot may belong to the city.
Peters said she would sit down and talk with them about it.
She recalled when the former library was being replaced, the site chosen was a city-owned parking lot. She said there were negotiations and the city and the library agreed to have joint responsibility for the new parking lot.
“It’s appropriate and worth discussion with the city,” she said.
Juriga said the EV charging stations at the end of the parking lot by the new city hall have been hooked up for a long time. He said the interim city manager told him that DTE has been dragging its feet by not powering them up. He said the city got them installed and will be getting some income from them.
In other business at the one-hour-22-minute meeting, the board:
• Heard a report from Michele Montour, the non-board member chairwoman of the Art Committee. She also is curator of the library’s gallery. She said she invited herself to be on the Belleville/Van Buren art sculpture committee and they met earlier that day to choose the art which will be installed in May. She gave board members a printout of the planned exhibits for 2026, 2027, and 2028, with four exhibits per year for three months each;
• Heard Suchy report that Standard and Poors Global Ratings conducted a review of the library regarding general obligation debt. S&P upgraded the library’s rating from A+ to AA- based upon its surpluses, reserves, and stable outlook. The board applauded. Suchy said if they ever decide to go out to borrow this would be helpful;
• Heard Peters report that it has been at least 20 years since the Friends of the Library have raised the prices of the used books they sell and they are planning to implement a new price schedule soon;
• Heard Suchy report on upcoming events at the library and showed pictures of the recent stuffy sleepover and pajama storytime. She said the children came in their pajamas and brought along a stuffed toy that they left at the library overnight and the children went home. The toys were in brown bags, which were their sleeping bags. In the morning they were able to pick up their toys and see the pictures of the toys having fun overnight;
• Learned Suchy has notified Otis Elevator to terminate its maintenance contract effective June 1. She said she is securing maintenance quotes from two other elevator companies;
• Heard Suchy explain the three-month budget report in the absence of treasurer Tanya Stoudemire. Peters said, “We are good stewards of the dollar.” Then she went on, “Our treasurer is doing heavy lifting for the city of Detroit.” Later she explained that Stoudemire is CFO of Detroit, which is a big job. In her experience, she said, that position is often filled by people who are “all puffed up.” But Stoudemire brings a calming influence. She said she saw Stoudemire on television the night before this meeting and she was standing next to the mayor for a budget story. “We want everyone to know she is very special not only to Belleville, but to Detroit and the state, as well,” Peters said; and
• Heard board secretary Joy Cichewicz say she was mistaken when she previously said she lost all her bees to the harsh winter. She said she has bees that make it through the winter. She said it got warm and one of the hives came out. She said the hives are dependant on the queens and one of the hives didn’t survive.
The meeting started with a bare quorum with Dan Fleming, Tanya Stoudemire, and Joy Cichewicz absent. Cichewicz arrived 25 minutes late.