Board Minutes August 2025

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES of the CUYAHOGA FALLS LIBRARY and The William and Margaretta Taylor Memorial Association

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE CUYAHOGA FALLS LIBRARY and 

The William and Margaretta Taylor Memorial Association 

REGULAR MEETING 
Tuesday, August 19, 2025 
Sutliff Room 

Call To Order 

Nikki Cebula called the meeting to order at 6:04 pm. 

Attendance 

Nikki Cebula, Sean Blake, Sandy Zirke, Bradley LeBoeuf, Robin Worthington, Mike Dunton, Karen Schofield, Cheryl Bruce, Director Andrew Harant, Assistant Director Jennifer Reynard, Fiscal Officer Kevin Gemmell  

Excused: Bryan Van Sweringen, Rick Rubin 

Adoption of Agenda:  

Cheryl Bruce moved to adopt the agenda. 2nd by Sean Blake. Motion passed unanimously. 

Approval of Minutes  

Robin Worthington moved to approve the Regular Board Meeting of July 15, 2025, as amended. 2nd by Karen Schofield. Motion passed unanimously.  

Board Education: 

  • Adult & Teen Services Manager Elizabeth Morrison and Public Utilities & Community Outreach Coordinator, City of Cuyahoga Falls, Bryce Pulley spoke about the Library Speaker Consortium and the Growth Initiative. They explained that by partnering with businesses and schools, events like Virtual Author Chat can drive community engagement and help to teach literacy and health programs. 

Public Participation:  

  • No Participation 

Treasurer’s Report 

RESOLUTION 2025-19: Move that the Board approve the payment of bills for July 2025 in the amount of $295,793.54. Sandy Zirke. 2nd by Sean Blake. Motion passed unanimously. 
 
RESOLUTION 2025-20: Move that the Cuyahoga Falls Library Board of Trustees approve the donations of $11,446.15 and move to Digital Materials (101.0.52150). Sandy Zirke. 2nd by Robin Worthington. Motion passed unanimously 

It was reported that the library received $131,590.59 in PLF revenue. 

Sandy Zirke moved to accept the July Financial Report subject to audit. 2nd by Robin Worthington. Motion passed unanimously. 

Board President Report: 

  • Another month has gone by, and once again, the Cuyahoga Falls Library has continued to demonstrate that the vision is not just a thought, but an action!  The staff at the library is nothing short of amazing, and the public seems to agree! 
  • I would like to start with thanking Ms. Bonny Shultz, who on her passing left the library $11,435.13.  After a little searching, I was able to find that she was a teacher for Falls and for Akron, and she also worked for the Natatorium.  It seems clear that she was CF through and through and knew what was up!!! 
  • Of course, thank you so much to Elizabeth for her participation today.  Our community outreach and partnerships are truly important! 
  • We would like to welcome back Beth Sucharzewski, who is returning to the library- apparently we are so great, she had to come back!! Seriously though- she has some big shoes to fill, but with her knowledge and experience, we are positive that she will be able to develop our collection and keep us current! 
  • Finally- we have had some really BIG personal accomplishments around here!  Children’s Library Assistant Mia Pier recently earned her Masters Degree in Library and Information Science, and Custodian Kairo Conrad earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Logistics!! Congratulations to both!!! 
  • I have to say, we are “THE PLACE” and it is truly because of our AMAZING staff! Thank you!! 

Committee Reports: 

  1. Building: No Report 

  2. Policies/Bylaws Review:  
    Committee met on 8/6 to review the employee acknowledgement report. 

  3. Finance/Audit Committee: No Report 

  4. Graefe Memorial:
     Replaced flowers on the grave. 

  5. Personnel Committee:  
    Committee met on 7/30 and finished the duties of the director in the Directors evaluation tool. 

  6. Affleck Scholarship Committee: No Report  

  7. Strategic Planning Committee: No Report  

  8. Art Committee (Ad Hoc): 
    Committee will be meeting in September.
 

Director’s Report: 

  • In response to increased usage and surging costs, changes were made to CFL’s Hoopla account, including reducing the limit of borrows per month per patron from 10 to 7. 
  • Kevin and I attended an OLC webinar to recap the state budget bill and get a more detailed analysis of the impact on the budget cuts to CFL. We provided an overview summary to the Board. 
  • CFL hosted this year’s Legislative Breakfast for Summit County libraries on August 6. Thank you to the several trustees who were able to join us and to our Administrative Team for their assistance. 
  • We purged long-expired cards from Sierra again. We paused for a while as we changed apps and discovery layers and researched what other libraries did. Library cards that had not been used in at least three years, had been expired for at least three years, and did not own any money were deleted. This removed 29,375 cards in July, and we will continue to remove cards that meet these criteria once a month moving forward. This may actually save us money on databases and other subscriptions moving forward. 
  • As I mentioned last month, the company handling the cardboard recycling dumpsters have proven to be very unreliable and unresponsive. We have a new dumpster for library-use only that’s now next to our regular dumpster and will be emptied by Ohio Disposal. There will be a slight increase to our regular Ohio Disposal Bills, but these will be reliably emptied and are locked to ensure they are only for CFL’s use. We have requested the other dumpsters to be removed. 
  • Unfortunately, I was not the successful candidate to be elected to OLC’s board of directors again. PR & Marketing Danielle Welling-Harris was also on the ballot for the PR & Marketing Action Committee, but she was not successful either. 
  • Summer Reading Program concluded earlier this month. We topped 3,000 participants and over 1.9 million minutes read. Children’s Services Manager Amy Galluch and I were selected as tributes (ala Hunger Games) to be slimed by two lucky kids (and some additional sliming by Danielle). You’ll get to hear more about our success at an upcoming Board Education feature. 
  • The landscapers returned and repaired the damages that occurred when they removed the bushes around the fountain. It looks significantly better, and we will continue to make slight improvements. 

Personnel Report: 

Karen Schofield moved that the Cuyahoga Falls Library Board of Trustees approve the July 2025 Personnel Report. 2nd by Sean Blake, Motion passed unanimously. 

Unfinished Business: None 

New Business:   

  • The library Marketing Mascot was revealed 
  • Staff Development Day will be on 10/13/2025. Board members will be receiving an invite. 

Executive Session: 

Karen Schofield moved that the Cuyahoga Falls Library Board of Trustees enter executive session to prepare for bargaining sessions with public employees concerning their compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment at 7:26 pm. 2nd by Mike Dunton and roll call vote was called. 

Mike Dunton – yes
Bradley LeBoeuf – yes
Sean Blake – yes
Karen Schofield - yes 
Nikki Cebula – yes
Cheryl Bruce - yes 
Robin Worthington – yes
Sandy Zirke - yes      

The Board entered public session at 7:57 pm. 

Adjournment:

Karen Schofield moved to adjourn the meeting. 2nd by Mike Dunton. Meeting adjourned at 7:58 pm. 

Approved by Nikki Cebula Board President

Approved by Bryan Van Sweringen Secretary