By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Library trustee Becky Bhaer has great things to say about library employees.
She along with the other trustees approved a pool of $53,306.32 that will be used for employee raises. She and the board also approved a 3.9 percent raise to $105, 780 for Library director Michael Penrod and a 9.2 percent raise to $37.39 an hour for Financial Officer Linda Joseph, who works 22.5 hours a week.
Of Penrod, Bhaer said: “You are always organized and give us the information we want before we know we want it usually.”
“We’ve always appreciated our clean audits,” she said of Joseph, and expressed hope that Joseph will still be the fiscal officer when the next audit is conducted.
And the staff continually “goes above and beyond” in their service to the community.
Beyond acting as a trustee, Bhaer also dipped into her own funds to make two contributions to the library. One was in honor fellow trustee Greg Esposito for all the computer knowledge he has shared with the library.
The second donation was in honor of the entire staff for “their dedication to serving the WCDPL patrons with competence, respect, and caring.”
Penrod also announced another anonymous donation that was given in honor of the trustees. The money is to be used to buy books, so they were asked to specify what category of books they’d like their nameplates in.
It could even be a specific book, Penrod said. That wouldn’t show favoritism, since his policy is if a patron requests a book that the library doesn’t have, then it should be purchased because more people are likely to want to read it.
The trustees’ honor books, could very well be in electronic form, though he wasn’t sure how the recognition would be handled.
On a seasonal note, Penrod put in a plug for purchasing a book in honor of someone who doesn’t need more stuff.
Bhaer wasn’t the only one handing out praise.
The newest trustee Kris James, from Northwood, praised Joseph for doing the work of a full-time position in a part-time position.
Ellen Dalton praised Penrod’s handling of the recent change in the financial arrangements for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. The project needed to find a new fiscal agent after the United Way of Greater Toledo relinquished that role.
[RELATED: New chapter for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library]
Some people, Dalton said, would have “just thrown up their hands.” Instead, Penrod took the lead in finding the new arrangement.
Brian Paskvan praised the library staff’s “bright and smiling faces,” which they maintained even during the mess involving the closure of the parking lot.
The trustees also approved the library’s $3,861,975 operating budget, a 15.6 percent increase over last year.
The big project facing the library is a new heating plant. Bids are due in January. The estimated cost is $350,000.
The budget transfers $400,000 into the capital improvement fund. The board also approved moving $400,000 into a Star Ohio Fund, which is paying 5 percent interest.
Penrod noted that the budget line for debt service is zero, as it has been since 2018, when the library finished paying for the Walbridge Library’s expansion and renovation.
He also said the new bookmobile, which will be delivered early next year, has been paid for out of the 2023 funds.
Also, at the meeting Ken Frisch was re-elected to a second term as president. Ellen Dalton was elected as vice president, taking over for Bhaer, and Mike Sibbersen will serve as secretary.
