Library Board Talks Energy Management, Summer Reading Program

Wednesday's meeting of the Board went over a number of topics that pertained to both past and upcoming events.

After the opening of the meeting by board president Michael Turner, Director Carol Probeyahn presented details from the upcoming calendar, saying that the library was holding events for kids and young adults every day of the summer. They’ve also reported record number of participants in the Summer Reading Program, which has proved to be popular within the community.

Upcoming events are as follows:

• Field trip for kids to the Hempstead Plains on Aug. 13 at 10 a.m.
• Concert featuring the Homegrown String Band on Aug. 26, hosted by the Friends of the East Meadow Library.

Probeyahn also mentioned the success of their on July 16, which was the date of the release of the final film. They had storytelling, Harry Potter lookalikes and other activities that drew a large crowd.

Other Library News

• Also during her report, Probeyahn said that the e-commerce program, which allows patrons to pay fines online, has kicked off and already without any publicity has begun to bring in late fees.
• Assistant director Rocco Cassano announced that the construction in the atrium was officially complete as of the end of July. The new area has several carrels which are proving to be very popular. “We’re reminded at 9:02 a.m. to turn the lights on in the carrels,” Cassano said. He also told the board that the painting in the entrance was recently cleaned and restored, having been re-hung on July 13.  
• Stuart Albert of DR III, a company located within East Meadow, questioned why a company from Suffolk county was awarded a contract with the library for some recent work. Albert was told that while his bid was taken into consideration, they eventually decided to choose Precision Microproducts of Ronkonkoma. While Stuart was unsatisfied with the board’s answers, they maintained that their decision was made based on several factors, chiefly the quality of the work done.
• Cassano then made a request regarding the hiring of an engineer to aid in the completion of the library’s energy management system. Cassano said that their architect recommended the hiring based on the complexity of the project and because it is federally funded. Probeyahn commented on the project’s importance, saying, “This continues our endeavor to run the library at a lower cost.”  Cassano then noted that as the project has progressed, both oil use and electric use have gone down. Upon this appeal to the board, it voted unanimously to hire an engineer to oversee the implementation of this project.

The next library board meeting with be on Sept. 7.