Leah, speaking for the Marathon County Public Library, reported a series of completed and in-progress projects intended to improve visitor experience and staff safety.

She said a donated 650-gallon saltwater aquarium replaced the old exhibit and that the aquarium was redesigned to prevent future leaks. The library is renovating restrooms; first-floor bathrooms are expected to be completed by the end of next week, while second-floor restrooms remain open to the public. Leah said new toilets installed into older residential plumbing have experienced clogging; the facilities project manager is testing pressure-flush models as a potential fix.

The library implemented upgraded Microsoft Office access through the Wisconsin Valley Library Service (WVLS), added Princh wireless printing (with credit-card payments at 10'cents per page) and is exploring countywide Cisco phones with emergency buttons to improve branch staff safety. Leah noted that some branches lack immediate law-enforcement proximity, so panic-button routing requires appropriate local coordination.

On programming, Leah highlighted the LENA early literacy cohort starting in February for caregivers of children from birth to 4.5 years: a free, 10-week program that uses wearable recorders to measure back-and-forth language interactions and coaches caregivers on conversational strategies shown to support school success.

Leah also described the library's participation in the Central Wisconsin Digitization Project, which makes historical materials (yearbooks, historic maps and township evolution documents) available online, and trialing the Canopy streaming service for cardholders.

When supervisors asked about security incidents and funding stability, Leah said incident levels have remained "steady" but that an on-site security presence has improved staff and patron comfort; she said Marathon County Public Library does not currently receive federal grants directly and that statewide funding is administered at the system level.

Next steps: library staff will continue oversight of the restroom remediation, pilot pressure-flush toilets, complete IT migrations with CCIT approvals and promote upcoming LENA cohorts.