Minutes - Library Commission

Bill Library

718 Colonel Ledyard Highway

Ledyard, Connecticut 06339

TOWN OF LEDYARD

Library Commission

Meeting Minutes

Gales Ferry Library

18 Hurlbutt Road

Gales Ferry, Connecticut 06335

Chair

John Bolduc

Regular Meeting

7:00 PM

Monday, June 15, 2026

Bill Library

CALL TO ORDER

Vice Chair Rolf Racich called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. at Ledyard Bill Library.

II.

ROLL CALL

In addition, the following were present:

Jessica Franco - Library Director

Treasurer Ralph Hightower

Present

Vice Chair Rolf Racich

Recording Secretary Ellin Grenger

Commissioner Peter Diette

Commissioner Gillian Thorne

Commissioner Cynthia Wright

Commissioner Elizabeth Rumery

Chairman John Bolduc

Excused

Commissioner Wendy Hellekson

III.

IV.

RESIDENTS & PROPERTY OWNERS COMMENTS

None.

PRESENTATIONS / INFORMATIONAL ITEMS

None.

MEMBER COMMENTS

None.

VI.

REPORTS

Treasurer’s Report

No changes to report submitted.

Director’s Report

The Town Council has requested changes to how our budget is organized and labeled. No

figures will be changed, just the organization. The LION line in particular will be impacted, so

that the ebooks contractual obligations to LION and LION services will be separated. LION will

also be restructuring its services and offerings which may impact the characterization of these

expenses. Library Director, Jessica Franco, will also be looking to the next strategic planning

process, starting this fall. Monthly status report submitted with agenda was also reviewed.

Budget:

We’re happy to say that the budget passed without any changes. Now that Jessa is back one of the

first things that she will do is to start working on FY 2027 budget.

Director Information:

We are happy to have Jessa back at the helm! She was definitely missed and we look forward to

having someone in the leadership role once again.

Library News:

Summer is almost here and both the youth and adult departments are pretty much set and ready

to go. Registration for both is now open but logging adventures and reading starts on June 20. This is

also when our summer programming kicks off. We are really looking forward to having a fun and active

summer at the library.

May was a fairly quiet month for programming, especially in the youth department as weekly

storytimes and other youth programming ended the second week of May. We use the time at the end

of May and early June to prepare for summer. However, there was a well-attended birding program

that Matt organized with fifteen people attending between in person and virtual attendees.

Lyndsey represented the library at the Lion’s Club where we were given a $500.00 check. The Lions

really enjoyed hearing about how we used their donation last year to buy the Yoto boxes and cards.

We are fortunate that we have such supportive community partners.

Our Tech Services department is doing a great job of keeping up with the end of the fiscal year

processing. This has been a real challenge and we hope that next year we will be better able to space

out the orders so that Erica is not overwhelmed with so many boxes. We really appreciate her hard

work and are very fortunate to have her on staff.

The new windows in the Gales Ferry children’s room have been installed. What they hoped would

be a two-day project turned into a week-long project so we had to close that area longer than we

expected. But, now that everything is complete, we are very happy with our new windows. We look

forward to cooler days where we can open those windows and have them stay open. We are still in the

process of trying to match the paint to the walls in the areas that need to be touched up but hopefully

that will be taken care of by the end of June.

Stacey Burt, Youth Services Librarian

Investment Working Group

No report, meeting will be in July.

Friends of Ledyard Library

No report.

VII. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Library Commission Meeting Minutes May 18, 2026

APPROVED AND SO DECLARED

Elizabeth Rumery

RESULT:

MOVER:

Ralph Hightower

SECONDER:

Hightower Racich Grenger Thorne Rumery

Bolduc Hellekson

AYE

EXCUSED

ABSTAIN

Diette Wright

VIII. OLD BUSINESS

Any Old Business proper to come before the Committee

None.

XI.

NEW BUSINESS

Any New Business proper to come before the Committee

Approval of Fiscal year 2026-2027 holidays. More information may be needed re:

whether Union will require day after Christmas as a holiday since it is a Saturday, duration

for summer Sunday closures, whether Juneteenth will be an approved holiday or Mayor's

floating holiday, whether July 4th will be observed on July 5th since holiday is on a Sunday.

Library Director will put onto the August agenda.

Discussion of role of Secretary. Role can be refined, we need clarity as to the availability

of technology for hybrid meetings, so that meetings can be recorded. Expectation will be that

Commission members will attend in person for a percentage of their tenure, amount to be

determined later.

NEXT MEETING

Next Meeting: August 17, 2026 at the Gales Ferry Community Center at 7:00 p.m.

XI.

ADJOURNMENT

Mr. Hightower moved the meeting be adjourned, seconded

by Ms. Wright.

The meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m.

VOTE: 7-0 Approved and so declared