Englewood library board reviews five‑year strategic plan, approves August meeting time change

The Englewood Public Library Board on Wednesday reviewed a near‑final five‑year strategic plan and implementation dashboard, heard staff updates on operations and personnel, and approved moving its August meeting to Aug. 21 at 7 p.m.

Consultant JR Glanton, who led the planning process, told the board the plan was built from community and staff input and is designed as a five‑year guide to how the library should invest money, people, time and space. "The goal of this was to create a 5 year strategic plan," Glanton said, describing community surveys, task force meetings and staff workshops used to form the document.

Board members were shown the strategic plan's vision, mission, core values and a set of "roles" that are meant to guide future investments and requests. Glanton said the plan includes measurable goals and called for annual action plans and a Power BI dashboard to track implementation and link the plan to budget requests.

Library Director Rachel Fuehl and Library Operations Manager Carrie Watson described next steps: staff will finalize the document, coordinate a public rollout with the communications team and present the plan to Englewood City Council in mid‑August. Fuehl said staff expect to publish a printable version and to maintain a related implementation dashboard that will initially be used internally and may be made public later.

Staff also outlined building work tied to the rollout. Council and staff coordination is planned for facility improvements that include a temporary closure of the building from Oct. 6–12 for carpet, meeting‑room furniture and entry‑door work, followed by a grand reopening planned for Oct. 13. Watson said the north entrance will be opened on a trial basis and that teams are coordinating sight lines and service‑point locations with the city's facilities staff.

On operations, Fuehl reported two recent medical incidents in the building: one fall in a restroom that required emergency personnel, and one death in a men’s restroom. Staff engaged EPD victim support and a therapy dog for immediate support, Fuehl said. The board was told the deceased person was not identified as a regular patron and that age or other identifying details were not provided.

Staff also reported a single staff chair found to have bed bugs; the chair and four additional similar chairs were removed and destroyed, the library arranged a deep clean and a double pesticide treatment, and an expedited furniture order is in process to replace staff seating.

Personnel updates included the resignation of the collection development librarian (identified as Matt in staff remarks) and the hire of a new adult services supervisor, Kirsten Hennigan, who started work this week. Fuehl and Watson said the new supervisor will help the adult services team, which has shouldered high operational demands in recent months.

The board heard consortium and outreach items: staff attended the Marmot Council meeting (the library consortium), met with the Englewood Chamber of Commerce, and participated in a South Broadway public meeting about a possible pop‑up library. The board was also given information on CalCon, the state library conference, and told the library receives an annual state grant (about $11,000 this year) that helps collections; staff said the grant is funded this year but state staffing and funding pressures could reduce similar support next year.

Votes at a glance: the board approved its May meeting minutes by voice vote with no opposition, and later voted to hold the August meeting on Aug. 21 at 7 p.m. (the adjusted time was requested so City Council liaison Chelsea Noonan could attend a concurrent "conversations with council" session). The record does not include roll‑call tallies for those voice votes.

Board members asked for more detailed action plans tied to the strategic plan; one member requested the implementation work plan (the detailed action list that staff are refining) ahead of or alongside the council presentation. Staff agreed to share the refined action plan and to provide periodic highlights rather than every line‑item update.

The board received notice of a library card design contest and a planned reveal at the block party, and that communications and facilities teams will coordinate a public rollout tied to the strategic plan and building refresh. Staff said some dashboard elements will remain internal at first and that they will work with the city on what data to publish externally.

The meeting ended with housekeeping: the board will confirm the August agenda and the adjusted 7 p.m. start time, and staff will circulate reminders. No new budget requests were brought forward at the meeting.