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Library board asks for more custodial hours and clearer maintenance ticketing; board seeks feasibility study support
Summary
The Library Board chair told the budget board current custodial coverage (16.5 hours per week) is insufficient for a public library open roughly 60 hours weekly and asked the town to fix a ticketing system and consider an additional maintenance position and a feasibility study the town administrator has included in his budget.
Anne, chair of the Library Board, told the budget board the library’s current custodial staffing level is not adequate for a building with heavy daily traffic from children and seniors and requested either more custodial hours or better scheduling and a functioning maintenance ticket system.
“Sixteen and a half hours doesn't cut it,” Anne said, describing routine problems the board faces: clogged toilets that sometimes go unrepaired until Monday, overflowing trash on Saturdays, and light bulbs that can remain out for weeks. She said the library’s custodian typically works a short period while the building is open and that the town’s existing ticketing system for maintenance requests is “broken” or not yet implemented in ways the library can rely on.
Library board members and budget-board members discussed options including changing the custodian’s schedule to give coverage at different times of day, splitting shifts between the library and the senior center, using contracted custodial services for exceptional incidents (for example, when biohazard cleanup or rug cleaning is required), and clarifying which maintenance tasks the custodian may perform. Anne said the town administrator told the board he would address reported problems and that the public works director will appear at a subsequent meeting to discuss maintenance coordination.
The library board also said it supports a feasibility study the town administrator placed in his budget; the study’s inclusion in the municipal budget was presented as a town-administrator decision. The board said grant-funded or town-funded capital items (like an access-control door opener recently installed at the receiving door) and health-care funding for staff should be tracked by the town’s finance office and that the board receives monthly financial reports but sometimes sees health-insurance allocations lag in those updates.
No formal votes were taken; the board requested follow-up with public works and the town administrator to make the ticketing system reliable, to review custodian scheduling, and to consider whether an additional maintenance position or overtime budget adjustments are necessary.
