By T. Scott Boatright
Repairs, legislative tours, policies and procedures were all matters of discussion as the Lincoln Parish Library Board of Control held its September meeting on Thursday in the George Byrnside Room of the library.
The first order of business was creating a committee of board members to discuss improvements and repairs at the library.
That committee will be comprised of Board President Jan Canterbury along with Richard Pyles, Bill Jones and Sandra Dupree.
LPL Director Jeremy Bolom explained why he wanted the Board to be involved in the decision-making process.
“There are big ones and there are small ones, so that’s why it would be good for (the Board) to be part of this to help me prioritize,” Bolom said. “You need to be involved because some of these things might have to go out for bid anyway.
“We have bad carpet issues. We have air conditioning repairs that are already in the pipeline because we got a grant for that. So, the chiller is ordered and that is coming, but we will have to put extra money in that because of course, the bid came in higher than the grant funding.
Bolom said lighting and Events Center improvements are other things that need to be considered.
“It would be good to get a list together that you all can look at and help prioritize,” Bolom said.
The Board also agreed to accept board member Bill Jones’ suggestion to schedule tours for legislators representing Lincoln Parish to see firsthand what the library has to offer.
“It’s apparent after the latest legislative session that our elected representatives are not familiar enough with the library,” Jones said. “I have talked to all of them, and what we need to do is get them to commit to come over here for one hour. I will coordinate with Jeremy, and we can circulate it around so that anybody who can, it would be great to have whatever board members come to join us. The whole board does not have to come but the more that come, the better.
“I want to give them a tour. I want them to understand how many people use this library and the things that we do, and that we are a public body that serves the public for people from 100 or older to people one or even younger if their parents come to get books to read to them. They need to know how many people walk through our doors every month. They are going to be flabbergasted, they honestly are.”
Jones said the primary purpose is to get legislators to understand the library and what it offers.
“I want them to understand what we do,” Jones said. “I want them to understand who works here because when the subject of libraries comes up, I want them to think of faces. I will set it up. It is a personal mission.”
As far as policies and procedures are concerned, the Board decided, again at Jones’ suggestion, that it should find an employment lawyer to review the manual used by the library.
“Our employment handbook and our policy manual should be reviewed by a lawyer who specializes in this kind of thing and listens to their advice and critique. I will volunteer to find one. Unfortunately, most of the ones I know are like me and retired, but I can find someone. Among all of us, we can do a great bulk of the work, but we really do need to have an employment lawyer look at all of it and give us their recommendations.”
Jones had Bolom explain why they felt the matter was important.
“The way it’s set up now, the policy manual and the handbook are intertwined, and they should be two separate documents,” Bolom said. “A handbook should be a summary that gives an employee a vision — a picture — of what their job is and what to expect from the job and our expectations of them. It may refer to policies, but they are not included in the handbook.
“That way we can have a separate policy manual that can refer to. So, if I need to update the policy manual, all I have to do is update that by itself and not have to go through the handbook and make sure it all works hand in hand. So (the policy manual and employee handbook) need to be divorced instead of intertwined. Right now, we are trying to kill a lot of birds with one big rock, and that is not the way we should do it.”
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