===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Public Library Trustees of Lunenburg Public Library, Meeting Minutes March 19, 2026 Sudolnik Conference Room, Lunenburg Public Library Members Present: Muir Haman (Director), Harry Kubetz, Laura Boussom, Robin Venezia, Stephanie Trudel, Glenn McLeod (Select Board Representative) Members Present Remotely: Jana-Lee Balish, David Niose Members Absent: Maia Wentrup The LPLBT meeting was called to order at 6:50 p.m. by Chair Harry Kubetz. Public Comment ● Robin said Representative Margaret Scarsdale secured $75,000 for Lunenburg to help with the cost to complete the bridge replacement project on Flat Hill Road. Agenda Items ● Approval of Minutes of February 19, 2026 ○ Robin made a motion to accept the minutes of February 19, 2026, as amended. The motion passed unanimously by roll call vote. ■ Harry Kubetz Aye ■ Laura Boussom Aye ■ Robin Venezia Aye ■ Stephanie Trudel Aye ■ Jana-Lee Balish Aye ■ David Niose Aye ● Director’s Report ○ FY2027 Budget Update At the Town Manager’s request, Muir will be preparing a balanced budget. This will be a 5% cut from our FY26 budget, putting us just above the library funding requirements stipulated by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. The cut in the budget of 43K will come from staff salaries. Muir has decided to put hiring a Young Adult Librarian on hold so that he does not need to cut the hours of our current staff. Muir presented a level services budget to the Finance Committee on March 5. He received questions about sources and uses of the outside funding the library receives. He is preparing a detailed handout to answer these questions. The outside funding we receive includes: ● State Aid to Libraries - received about $34,000 for FY26 ● Revolving Fund - lost book replacement fees and printer usage fees ● Gifts received - was about $200 for FY26 ● Grants ● Library Trust Funds ● Friends of the Library from their operating budget ● Friends of the Library from their Endowment - received about $66,000 for FY26 Most of the funds received from these sources have restrictions placed on them by the donors and can only be used in accordance with those restrictions. They are not available to the library or the town to cover operational expenses. ○ FY2026 Budget Update The numbers in the FY26 report do not include the latest batch of bills and one period of payroll. The Finance Department has changed the schedule of when paperwork needs to be submitted for payment. This lag in reporting will work itself out in the next few weeks. 1 ===PAGE 2=== ○ Staff Update Joslyn and Muir each visited a school classroom to read to a class as part of Read Across America. Muir met with Herlin Jaime, Lunenburg Conservation Agent, to discuss Earth Day partnerships. The library will set up a table at her Information Fair on April 22, and were requested to purchase a license for “The Amazing Caterpillar” documentary film which we will show in May. Joslyn and Muir met with Kim Sarfde, the new Director of Teaching and Learning at the Lunenburg Public Schools, to discuss partnerships. Currently we are running a Minute Madness challenge for the 5th grade to incentivize reading. In May, we will once again have 5th grade visits to the library. In July, they plan to meet with the incoming principal of Turkey Hill Elementary School to plan a full year of 5th grade visits going forward. Library and school staff have also created a “One Community, Many Voices” poetry recitation event for the 8th grade ELA classes that will be held on April 3 at the library and will include guest readers. Muir will be meeting with Victoria Leger, a videographer with Lunenburg Public Access. She will be making a video featuring the library to help people learn about what we offer. ○ Programs Update Children’s programs during school vacation week were very well attended. We held another puzzle race and a music clinic, both for adults, and they were well-attended. Book groups also continue to have steady attendance. ○ Outreach Update Melanie will be making a presentation to the Lunenburg Women’s Club. Other upcoming events include an Earth Day Information Fair, Fitchburg State University farmer and food security fair, Seven Hills Info Fair in Devens, Cruise Night, Lunenburg Business Association Vendor Fair, and the Artisan Markets this spring and summer. Muir and staff are still working on how to track books for Meals on Wheels delivery. ○ Technology Update Sherri’s workstation will be replaced with Lydia’s all-in-one, and Lydia will get a new laptop. The IT department will do a scheduled replacement of the two older literacy stations. ○ Cisco Umbrella (filtering) discussion Muir will be meeting with a representative from Cisco for a demo of their Umbrella software. He has received answers to most of our questions from last month. Umbrella labels websites according to the type of content they contain. Cisco Talos judges the content of websites and assigns the labels. Umbrella can be set for a high, medium, or low level of filtering. A white list can be created, and library staff can control this list. We do not have an answer as to whether or not we have liability if we choose not to censor. The Umbrella software costs $2,100/year. Muir will have more information for us after the demo and further discussion with the Cisco rep. ○ Building & Maintenance Update Work on the card entry system has started again. Passes will need to be distributed to employees. The walls in the Children’s Room near the chapter books have been repaired and painted. Jean Proctor gave approval for a bench in memory of Regina McGee to be installed in the Proctor Memorial Garden on the library grounds. ● Trustee Handbook Discussion ○ We reviewed Chapter Four, Policy Making. We are considering reviewing policies on a continually rotating basis, but need to come to agreement on how frequently this should be done. ● Conroy Memorial Garden Update ○ Muir has chosen engraved stone as the medium for the memorial plaque. Leominster Monument will be doing the work. The gift Susan Conray and family gave to the Friends will be used to pay for the stone. 2 ===PAGE 3=== ● Policy Discussion(s) - Gift & Investment ○ Gift Policy We do not currently have a gift policy. After reviewing the proposed policy, we questioned whether every gift would need a written communication from the donor, especially for small gifts. We also questioned whether all monetary gifts should be turned over to the town for accounting purposes, or if some gifts could be deposited into our Edward Jones account. Discussion will continue at a future meeting. ○ Investment Policy This policy was last updated on December 15, 2022. It is outdated and no longer accurate. It was also repetitive and too specific in some sections. Robin presented us with a version updated with changes from our last meeting. Robin made a motion to approve the Investment Policy as amended, seconded by Stephanie. The motion passed unanimously by roll call vote. ■ Harry Kubetz Aye ■ Laura Boussom Aye ■ Robin Venezia Aye ■ Stephanie Trudel Aye ■ Jana-Lee Balish Aye ■ David Niose Aye ● Brooks House Update / Discussion ○ No update. ● Friends Update ○ The Donor Box application is working to accept membership payments. The Friends discussed how they will get the word out about this new digital way to join and renew your membership. Facebook and newsletters will be used to spread the word. ○ The Book and Bake Sale is scheduled for June 5 and 6. ● Lunenburg Town Caucus Update ○ Harry and Jana-Lee are the Caucus nominees for the two open trustee positions and will be on the ballot for the May election. ● Board Comments ○ Jana-Lee will be at a writing conference next month and will not be able to attend our meeting. ● Other ○ Harry let Muir know the water fountains outside the Sudolnik Conference Room are still not working. ● Adjourn ○ A motion to adjourn was made by Stephanie, seconded by Robin. The motion passed unanimously by roll call vote and the meeting was adjourned at 9:10 p.m. ■ Harry Kubetz Aye ■ Laura Boussom Aye ■ Robin Venezia Aye ■ Stephanie Trudel Aye ■ Jana-Lee Balish Aye ■ David Niose Aye ● Attached Documents ○ March 2026 Director’s Report ○ March 2026 Youth Services Report ○ March 2026 Adult Services Report 3 ===PAGE 4=== ● Additional Documents Referenced ○ MBLC Trustee Handbook (2018 edition) ○ Draft Gift Policy ○ Select Board Gift Policy (Adopted September 2, 2025) ○ Draft Trust Funds Policy 4 ===PAGE 5=== LUNENBURG PUBLIC LIBRARY DIRECTOR’S REPORT March 19, 2026 FY26 Budget Update FY27 Budget Update This topic is near the top of the list for a number of boards and committees in town. Nothing specifically new to the library at the moment, but TriBoard, Selectboard, Fin. Com., and School Board are all discussing. Staff Update We have performed two rounds of interviews of candidates for our YA Librarian job. With the budget uncertainty, the decision is more complicated than usual. Joslyn and I both visited a school classroom to read to a class as part of Read Across America. I met with Herlin Jaime, Conservation Agetn, to discuss Earth Day partnerships and programs. We plan to have a table set up at her Information Fair on April 22, and were requested to purchase a performance license for “The Amazing Caterpillar” documentary film, which we will show in May. Joslyn and I also met with Kim Sarfde the new Director of Teaching and Learning at the Lunenburg Schools to discuss partnerships, especially the 5th grade visits. We are currently running a Minute Madness challenge to incentivize reading for the 5th grade. Our current plan is to offer a preliminary visit for 5th graders before the end of the school year, then to meet in July with the incoming THES principal to further plan for next year and full launch of 5th grade visits. Out of this initial contact, we FY26 Budget Budget Expended % Expended Calendar Completion LIBRARY DIRECTOR SALARY 97,076$ 64,718$ 67% 71% ASST LIBRARY DIRECTOR SALARY 69,627$ 47,887$ 69% LIBRARY STAFF SALARIES 272,757$ 167,768$ 62% LONGEVITY 850$ 850$ 100% BLDG REPAIRS & MTC SEWERAGE DISPOSAL 1,300$ 793$ 61% ELECTRICITY CHARGES 22,500$ 15,443$ 69% HEATING CHARGES/NATURAL GAS 18,500$ 8,330$ 45% WATER CHARGES 1,150$ 574$ 50% NETWORK MAINTENANCE 500$ 140$ 28% BOOK SERVICE 4,500$ 4,476$ 99% PROGRAMS 16,000$ 8,244$ 52% CONTRACTED SERVICES 2,500$ 0% CWMARS NETWORK 20,571$ 20,571$ 100% POSTAGE -$ OFFICE SUPPLIES 8,000$ 4,007$ 50% CUSTODIAL SUPPLIES 300$ 233$ 78% LIBRARY MATERIAL 96,000$ 48,317$ 50% MILEAGE REIMBURSEMENT 4,000$ 278$ 7% TOTALS 636,131$ 392,627$ 62% ===PAGE 6=== LUNENBURG PUBLIC LIBRARY DIRECTOR’S REPORT have also created a “One Community, Many Voices” Reading Event for 8th ELA classes that will be help on April 3 at the Library. I will be meeting with a videographer from LPACC to discuss a short film featuring the Library. We’ve been seeing even higher numbers of teens many days after school. Last Monday and Tuesday it was between 30 and 40 kids. A handful of students have also been staying longer than we usually see into the evening, sometimes until around 5pm. Programs February Vacation turned out to be very successful for out Children’s programs. Winter Painting with Julie was full, 21 attended the Afrobeats dance class, and 28 the STEM Olympics. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with our rescheduled Winter Salve workshop. Adult programs that have been noteworthy include the Puzzle Race, which brought in 17 participants, the Music Clinic with 15, and the Virtual Women in Jazz talk with 16 attendees, though we shared this opportunity to other libraries and many attendees were from other communities. Book Groups continue their steady engagement. Our Community Read Brunch was 3/16 and there was a nice discussion, though attendance numbers were low. Coming up: 3/20 Financial Planning with Edward Jones, 3/21 Final session of Bride W’s Mixed Media WKSP, 3/24 Green Screen Movie Making for Teens, 3/26 Minecraft Madnes Show for Kids, 4/6 Tween Beadmaking, 4/7 Social Security and Retirement Planning, 4/9 Incredible Worms!, 4/17 Spring Tincture, 4/14 Ukulele Meet-Up, 4/14 Teen Paint-your-pot, 4/15 Women of 76 Outreach Upcoming Events: 4/4 Lunenburg Women’s Club presentation, 4/22 Earth Day Info Booth, 4/27 FSU Farmer’s Fair booth, 5/18 Seven Hills Info Fair at Devens, Cruise Night in May, 5/23 Vendor Fair, Artisan Market on 5/24, 6/7, 6/21, 7/19, 8/2, 8/30. ▪ Building & Maintenance This week the card entry system work has started again. Al has also been working on repairing and painting the walls of the Children’s Room near the Chapter Books. ▪ Technology Comcast network upgrading affected the town for two days last week. Sherri’s workstation will be replaced with Lydia’s current all-in-one and Lydia will get a new laptop. The IT department will also perform scheduled replacement of the older two AWE literacy stations. ===PAGE 7=== March 2026 Youth Services Trustee Report Children’s Stats (Feb 10 - Mar 12) Activity Participants Around the World Story Time (3 meetings) 54 Winter Painting w/ Julie 16 Afrobeats Dance Class 21 STEM Olympics 28 LEGO Club 3 Toddler Yoga 30 Kids Comic Club Kits 2 Sounds and Music Story Time 27 Bookworms Book Club 5 Kiddie Music Time w/ Monument Square Music 56 Beginners Book Club 4 Tween/Teen Stats Activity Participants In-Betweeners Book Club (2 meetings) 11 Metalsmithing Bookmarks 11 Tween Minecraft Tournament 20 Teen Cupcake Decorating 16 Patron Quotes: Budget Stats: ===PAGE 8=== Children’s Highlights: FEBRUARY BREAK: Winter Painting, Afrobeats Dance Class, and the STEM Olympics were all a big hit! Tons of adorable winter bears (and proud faces), dance moves, and gummy bear ingenuity :) TODDLER & PRESCHOOL FUN: Toddler Yoga and Kiddie Music Time continue to be highly attended and loved. Many returning faces and many new faces for both! I’ve now got a core group of kiddos for Around the World Preschool Storytime that come pretty much every week (even in the snow!) and are always a riot! Plus, last week’s meeting had a bunch of new faces so maybe it will grow even more... ===PAGE 9=== Tween/Teen Highlights: TWEEN MINECRAFT TOURNAMENT: HUGE success! I had about half of the attendees (or their parents) ask me to do it again soon! Despite it being 3 hours, hardly any of the kids were restless and probably could have kept playing for a couple more hours... TEEN METALSMITHING AND CUPCAKE DECORATING: A good size group showed up for both programs, with only a bit of overlap in attendees. The metalsmithing bookmarks involved a lot of concentration and creativity, and they all left with smiles on their faces. It doesn’t take much to get teens to like cupcakes (or anyone really), but every single one looked both adorable and tasty and sparked some happy munching. We also had a lot of new faces for cupcakes, including some older teens! Upcoming Events: Candle Making for Kids 3/14/26 Sounds and Music Story Time 3/16/26 Drop-In Craft: Leprechaun Traps 3/17/26 Around the World Story Time 3/18/26 Sounds and Music Story Time 3/23/26 Green Screen Movie Making 3/24/26 Around the World Story Time 3/25/26 Minecraft Madness Show 3/26/26 Toddler Yoga 3/28/26 Sounds and Music Story Time 3/30/26 ===PAGE 10=== LEGO Club 3/31/26 Candle Making for Tweens 3/14/26 Homeschool Family Craft 3/16/26 Joslyn Davis, Children’s Services Librarian Minna Scholten, Library Assistant (Children’s Room) ===PAGE 11=== Trustee Report Adult Services Department March 2026 Summary of Last Month ➢ The yoga and breathwork classes really took off in February! We had two full classes and lots of positive feedback from participants. ➢ Our final Adults Only Make It Monthly crafting sessions were also big hits this month, drawing a total of 29 people to the library between the two events. ➢ On February 13th we held a silent film screening of “Girl Shy” with live piano accompaniment. There were nine people in attendance, but the program was fantastic and something I would highly consider booking here again! Though it wasn’t a huge draw, the audience was engaged and the presenter was talented. ➢ February’s Monthly Music Series concert was on February 18th featuring an evening of Scottish music, which was another big hit, and saw 44 people join us. ➢ We finished the month with two puzzle events: the winter swap on February 21st and the puzzle race on February 25th. Both are popular annual programs that drew 55 and 17 people respectively. Our next puzzling programs are scheduled for May. ➢ For our virtual program offerings, there were 22 total registrations across the six programs held this month. Some were more popular than others, but it is encouraging to see the engagement rising. There are eight virtual events planned for March, so we will see if the trend continues or starts to dip as the year progresses. Recurring Program Updates ➢ Book clubs went well in February. I informed both groups that March may be the last meetings I can attend before maternity leave, and we made plans for how to proceed until I return in June/July. o 100 Books Bucket List is discussing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll at the next meeting on Tuesday April 7th o Between the Bookends is discussing The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict at the next meeting on Wednesday April 8th ➢ No significant changes to our drop-in tech help sessions with Melanie, though her tech-help appointments at other times of the week seem to be increasing. ➢ The Saturday morning music clinics with Jason Graham have also been growing in size lately. We routinely see between 15-20 people drop-in to this program that is part instruction and part open jam session for players of all skill levels to improve. ===PAGE 12=== March Programs ➢ A Lunenburg Cultural Council funded series will be hosted at the library this March: Community Mixed Media Art Workshops taught by Bridie Wolejko! There will be three sessions: Sunday, March 1st, Friday March 13th, and Saturday March 21st, open to artists of all skills to create mixed media artwork as a group. Selected pieces will go in an art exhibit for the month of April. Currently, Bridie has chosen some of her personal pieces to be displayed in the Wallace Room for March in an exhibit titled: “Harmony and Discord: Nature’s Beauty, Humanity’s Impact” ➢ For the Monthly Music Series this month, we have a virtual concert “Women in Jazz” by Flutejuice Productions on the evening of March 5th ➢ The biweekly yoga and breathwork classes will come to an end this month on Thursday, March 5th and 19th ➢ The annual Community Read partnership with Deb Goodsell at the Lunenburg Adult Activity Center continues with a book club discussion and brunch on Monday, March 16th. The title selected this year is Food Inc, 2 edited by Karl Weber – a series of essays that are companion pieces to the segments of the documentary by the same name ➢ John Hedly will visit on Wednesday, March 18th to give a presentation on beekeeping 101 ➢ We also have several virtual programs running in conjunction with the Ashland Library on March 2nd, 3rd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th, and 31st Programming Financial Report ADULT PROGRAMS AS OF 3/1/2026 BUDGET LINE TOTAL % SPENT % ENCUMBERED % REMAINING TOWN $4,500 68% 30% 2% FRIENDS - PROGRAM $3,000 84% 16% 0% FRIENDS - SUPPLIES $1,000 23% 19% 58% MUSIC SERIES $6,600 59% 22% 19% GRAND TOTAL $14,600 58% 22% 20% Respectfully submitted, Lydia Paolilli, Assistant Library Director