MURRAY – President of the Calloway County Public Library Board of Trustees Lance Allison announced his resignation from the board at last night’s regular monthly meeting. Despite the surprise announcement, trustees are hopeful about finding a qualified replacement based on the overwhelming number of highly-qualified applicants who threw their names in the hat the last time there was an opening on the board.
“It’s been a joy,” Allison said. “I appreciate everybody’s confidence in me to lead the board and then also just allowing me to be involved. I definitely want to think (Calloway County Judge-Executive Kenny) Imes for the opportunity that he let me have in coming onto the board.”
Allison, who was first appointed to the board in October 2020 to fill the remainder of Winfield Rose’s term following his resignation earlier that year and has served as board president since November 2022, is stepping down to begin a new job in March as President/CEO of One Southern Indiana Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development in New Albany, Indiana.
“I specifically wanted to be on this board for two reasons,” he shared, “(One was) because I believe in the staff and the library, and my dad and mom – especially my dad – was a massive fan of this library; and the second reason was I felt like we needed to rally the board to be more positive and forward-thinking and less controversial and antagonistic towards the staff. I think that (in) the time that I’ve been on, we have had a fantastic group of people here and that we’ve done that.
“We had a lot of controversy around this new building. I think we can all agree that this, ultimately, was the best decision that was ever made for this library, and it’s going to have positive ramifications for 50 more years; so, I’m proud of that, but I’m proud of that because the staff and Mignon (Rutledge, CCPL executive director) and everyone led the charge on that and then we were a group of people that supported them on that. I got lucky; it’s been quite easy being on the board.”
Allison closed his remarks by saying that he is excited for the CCPL’s future. “I was thinking on the way here that I’m super excited because when we had the open position that Vonnie (Hays-Adams) refilled on her term, there was a room full of awesome candidates. So, if anything gets in the paper, I definitely want it to be all those people who applied (before), apply again because there wasn’t a bad apple in the bunch on those folks.”
When Hays-Adams’ previous term expired in August, 10 people, including Hays-Adams, applied for the open seat. The board voted to contact those previous applicants to see if they want to be included in the application process for Allison’s seat, but anyone who is interested is welcome to apply. Applications will be accepted from Friday, Feb. 16, until Friday, March 1.
In other business, Rutledge highlighted the high volume of patrons taking advantage of CCPL’s passport services during her director’s report. She praised Circulation and Passport Program Manager Sierra Foster for her hard work in meeting the demands for the passport service, noting that there are appointments on the books every day.
Although Rutledge, Business Manager Wyneth Herrington and Acquisitions/Collection Development Manager/Community Relations Coordinator Sandy Linn are certified acceptance agents and can process the applications, they are hoping to add another dedicated staff member for that service line in the near future.
President of 5253 Design Group Chris Cottongim, who attended the meeting virtually, reported that the roofing contractor found a few issues while investigating a roof leak and corrected them, noting that the repairs are covered by the warranty. Rutledge reported that there were no leaks following the heavy rains on Monday.
In the financial report, Herrington advised that the library’s annual audit, which is usually presented at the February board meeting, was not ready and will be presented by the auditors next month.
Noting that tax revenue has continued to fill the coffers, Herrington said that, at the end of January, the library held around $229,000 in its checking account, $10,000 in its construction account and $3.3 million in its money market account, bringing CCPL’s total holdings to approximately $3.4 million. The next board meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 12, at the library.
