Library Board explores new roofing options pending approval

After consulting several experts on the state of the Putnam County Public Library’s roof, director Matt McClelland reported to the Board of Trustees that the current roof was poorly installed.

There are both modern and outdated design choices that combat one another, including concrete gutters and rocks as the top layer.

“It’s a challenging project,” he said, sharing photos of the roof. “Certainly the leaks have been extensive, too.”

New roofing is no small expense, and because McClelland and the board “didn’t realize how big the estimates would be,” they will need to appear before the county council to seek an additional appropriation of library rainy day funds, as the projected costs exceed the library’s $50,000 budgeted amount for unexpected expenses in 2023.

The board approved of choosing Landmark Design as the vendor, and on behalf of the library and its visitors, the board will request up to $175,000 in additional appropriation for a new roof from the library’s rainy day fund.

Board member Kristin McClellan also recommended a facility study conducted by library-specific experts to assess the building and future projects big and small. The experts would create a report of the library’s assets, then outline how many years until the next improvement would need to be made. Because of the financial proactivity, the board approved of exploring a facility study in the future.

In other business:

- The financial report outlined recent expenditures including new Evergreen Indiana Library Consortium cards which the board predicts will last the Library for the next five or so years, and new HVAC updates which, while needed, have already depleted a large portion of the building maintenance budget. But the ending budget still made for “a good month,” Treasurer Jane Hazelton said.

- Summer reading is also going well, McClelland said, and the Hedgehog Hannah program was a wild success, bringing the event “back to over full capacity.”

- The children’s room is being repainted with the help of volunteers, and overall, “we have pretty ambitious goals,” McClelland said.