Record of Proceedings
Adams County Public Library
Board of Trustees Regular Meeting
North Adams Public Library
October 8, 2025– 5:30 p.m.
The Adams County Public Library Board of Trustees met on October 8, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. for a regular meeting at North Adams Public Library.
Phil Rhonemus called the meeting to order. Members present were Linda Worley, Elaine Lafferty, Linda Stepp, and Holly Johnson. Kayla Bowman and Sarah Shelton were excused. Others present were Executive Director Nicholas Slone and Fiscal Officer
Steven Harris.
There was no public participation.
Minutes of the previous Board of Trustees meeting were reviewed and discussed. Motion #1 made by Elaine Lafferty, seconded by Holly Johnson to approve the minutes of the regular board meeting held September 10, 2025. Motion carried. All yeas.
Report of Fiscal Officer
Steven discussed the September 2025 financial reports and asked if the board had any questions regarding the reports.
Steven informed the board that the Federal Forms 941 were not filed for tax years 2022 through 2024. Those filings have been completed and Steven told the board that the late filings would not result in a late filing penalty as the taxes had been paid. The issue is the tax payments for tax years 2023 and 2024 were paid monthly but should have been paid bi-weekly with each payroll. We have received IRS notices requesting the additional tax liability information for tax years 2023 through 2024.
Motion #2 made by Linda Worley, seconded by Elaine Lafferty, to accept the financial reports of the Fiscal Officer and approve the payment of bills. Motion carried. All yeas.
Report of Executive Director
Nick reviewed the September 2025 circulation statistics. Imagination Library enrollments are up but so are graduations as more participants are reaching kindergarten age. The after-school crowd has grown at Peebles which has also increased the consumption of the leftover food from the summer lunch program. Circulation is down some due to the discontinuation of the hot spots. Family programs have really taken off. Manchester has seen the largest increase in teen traffic mostly due to Janice Johnson’s outreach efforts with the schools. Julia started a book club in West Union.
Nick may look into some sound dampening materials for the “glass room” in West Union as sound carries out into the library from meetings in the room.
The North Adams Friends and Arts Council combined event at the North Adams Library was successful and well attended.
Josh has been updating all the computers as Windows 10 is expiring. Nick, Josh, and Steven have been attending cyber-security webinars in order to prepare for the cyber- security mandates in House Bill 96 that was passed in June. Our cyber-security plan
must be in place by June 30, 2026. All staff will be required to attend training.
We received our Memorandum of Understanding from the Ohio Digital Library for 2026. The fees were raised .5% based on 2024 collections budget. The additional cost is about $2,000 for 2026. We had to sign an addendum regarding a potential loss of federal
funding by the Ohio Digital Library. The addendum said they will come up with three options we can vote on regarding the additional cost after which we could withdraw from the Ohio Digital Library if we did not like the option chosen. We would be allowed to keep all the titles that we have purchased through the Advantage Program which is about 80% of the funds we have spent with them.
Baker and Taylor, one of our book distributors, will be closing their operations at the end of 2025. Amy is in the process of changing our orders to Ingram, one of our other suppliers. We will use Amazon for short term needs.
The FCC formally voted to end the E-rate hot spot program on September 30, 2025.
We will host Ohio Goes to the Movies on March 20, 2026 at West Union High School. It will be a carnival type event with the movie Avengers playing. We are receiving a $3,500 stipend for this event from the Ohio Historical Connection. We are also hoping to involve other local businesses in the event.
A question was asked previously regarding what the national Dolly Parton Imagination Library covers. The national level covers all overhead and administrative costs, the book ordering system database, the Blue Ribbon Book Selection Committee, and coordinates monthly book order and fulfillment.
Motion #3 made by Linda Stepp, seconded by Holly Johnson, to accept donations, acknowledge volunteer services, and to approve library support group activities as requested. Motion carried. All yeas.
Old Business
There was no additional old business other than the Imagination Library information.
New Business
Motion #4 made by Linda Stepp, seconded by Holly Johnson, to accept the $3,500 stipend from the Ohio History Connection for the Ohio Goes to the Movies project, taking place March 20, 2026 at West Union High School. Motion approved. All yeas.
Motion #5 made by Elaine Lafferty, seconded by Linda Worley, to approve the renewal of Deep Freeze software that protects and maintains the longevity of the public computers for five years at a cost of $8,312.50. Motion approved. All yeas.
6:07 p.m. Motion #6 made by Linda Worley, seconded by Holly Johnson, to enter into Executive Session to discuss the employment and compensation of employees [ORC 121.22 (G)(1)]. Roll call: Phil Rhonemus—yea, Linda Worley—yea, Elaine
Lafferty—yea, Linda Stepp—yea, and Holly Johnson—yea.
6:09 p.m. Reconvened in regular session.
Motion #7 made by Linda Worley, seconded by Linda Stepp, to approve assignment changes for Ginger Breitenbach to .35 FTEs at North Adams and Anna Piatt to .65 FTEs at Peebles, effective 9/29/2025. Motion approved. All yeas.
The board decided to tentatively move the November 2026 board meeting to November 9, 2026 as the normal meeting would be on Veteran’s Day.
Adjournment
Motion #8 made by Linda Worley, seconded by Elaine Lafferty, to adjourn the meeting. The board will meet in regular session at the Peebles Public Library on Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at 5:30 p.m.