The trustees plan to list building priorities in a letter to the mayor's office.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The library trustees plan to meet with the city administration to go over some maintenance concerns.

Library Director Mindy Hackner told the trustees Wednesday that the city is now completely in charge of addressing structural issues with the library.

"I am a librarian and that's what I do and I think this whole thing greatly took my attention away from the work that I should be doing," Hackner said. "I have carried it as far as I can ... this is a conversation that I can no longer have and the city is handling it now."

Late last year, Hackner notified the trustees that the original building has major structural issues that need to be addressed and the trustees agreed to pursue Massachusetts Historical Commission grants to repair. The trustees discussed creating funding campaigns and were prepared to solicit Mass Historic with the blessing of the city but Hackner said the city has asked to take it over.

"I am concerned about the building and I have expressed my concern," Hackner said. "The folks at City Hall are the people we need to talk to if we are having building concerns. Those are the people who need to deal with it."

The trustees agreed that Hackner should not have to be involved in directly addressing maintenance issues but were concerned the city may drop the project.

"The only thing I worry about is once it gets down to the corner office it might just be swept aside," trustee Hulda Jowett said. "Someone needs to keep reminding them."

Trustee Rich Remsberg said he also wanted to be sure that the city was aware of grant opportunities and asked that the trustees write a letter stating their concerns.

Hackner added that there have been some lighting issues in the library and she can no longer buy CFL four-pin lights so when some lights go out they will be hard to replace. She added that many of the ballasts have also gone bad.

"We replace what we can but we have many places that are going dark," she said. "We can't get ballasts for the fluorescents, and there have been some lights out in the children's room for seven years now because the ballasts are not replaceable."

She said these lights cost nearly $500 to replace but she was asked not to replace these lights on her own by the city.

Remsberg said he was concerned about the building going dark and asked if the city could not afford the lights, if they are not manufactured anymore or if they were just not being responsive.

Hackner said the city has been very responsive about converting all the lights over to LED and has brought in people to survey the library three times to prepare for the conversion, however, has yet to hear back from the survey that took place this summer.

The director said there have also been some outdoor lighting issues that the city plans to address. She said all but two lights in the parking lot are out and have been out since fall.

This raised the concern of the trustees who felt the city should address the outages because it could be a safety concern.

"Something like the parking lot threatens safety," trustee Donald Pecor said. "I understand maybe not worrying as much about the inside lights if there is a money issue but safety issues are different."

The trustees decided to compile a list of all building concerns and schedule an appointment with the administration. Remsberg said they want to prioritize their concerns but also lend a helping hand if possible.

"They are doing the best they can do and we will see if there is something we can do," Remsberg said.

In other business, Hackner said library usage has slightly decreased from last year even though the building appears to be used all the time.

"I am always seeing people in the library that I haven't seen before so I know it is being used by a lot of the citizens," she said. "It is just not used in the same way that it used to be."

Remsberg suggested finding a way to quantify other ways people use the library beyond just checking out material.  

"Whatever they are, if use is shifting we should account for what it is shifting, too," he said.