The Dublin Select Board says they need to further review a memorandum of understanding the Dublin Public Library Board of Trustees brought to them to sign on Sept. 14.
The memorandum simply seeks to clarify the duties of the two entities to avoid future confusion in the event of board member turnover, Trustee Nancy Cayford said, and make sure all groups are following the law. The Trustees wrote the MOU at the suggestion of the state’s Library Trustees Association.
The three-page document cites the RSA’s governing libraries and library trustee responsibilities in building maintenance, staff management, and the course of action for drawing up a budget and submitting emergency expenses to the town. One thing it could change is trustees’ involvement in the bidding process for major repairs, rather than the Select Board as happened recently when the library’s basement needed a mold mitigation, Cayford said. In describing the trustees’ “entire custody and management of the Library” per RSA 202-A:6, the MOU uses the specific example of damage or unforeseen repairs to designate the trustees as the responsible party for assessing the damage, get bids to repair, and award contracts. RSA 202-A:11 states the trustees shall “expend all moneys raised and appropriated by the town or city for library purposes.”
In recent years, the library has undergone several emergency repairs to fix leaks in the roof and mitigate mold in the basement, expenses that both parties spoke at length about at the Select Board meeting. The Board did not agree to sign the document at the meeting.
The Select Board is now waiting to review some archived material related to the library’s history and make edits so they feel comfortable with the document, Town Administrator Kate Fuller said.