Library Seats New Board

The Churchill County Library Board of Trustees met last week in their regular meeting, sitting three new board members recently appointed by Churchill County: Ryan Swirczek, Sue Segura, and Sari Koehler. 

Interim Director Carol Lloyd took a moment during her report to thank the outgoing board members, including Tara Price-Gritzmacher, Ashlee McGarity, and Kelli Kelly, for their service. Price-Gritzmacher and McGarity were not reappointed when their terms expired, and Kelly resigned in May. 

Segura spoke excitedly about being in the library during Storytime and reminisced about bringing her children to the library in 1983. Swirczek thanked the county for the opportunity to serve. Koehler was absent.

Lloyd reported a new Adult Services Librarian, and the Page has been promoted to Library Assistant. The new Page position closed on July 23, and the Digital Librarian and Library Director positions will close on August 9. 

Until the library is fully staffed, the building will not operate at full capacity and is currently open 40 hours a week, Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. “Our goal is to resume 55 hours as soon as staff is trained,” said Lloyd. This is the most important thing we can do to serve the community, and I want to thank our staff for all they are doing to get things done and get us to that point.”

She also reported that Civil Deputy District Attorney Jeff Weed will provide Open Meeting Law training at the next board meeting on August 22.

Trustees discussed the next steps for selecting, interviewing, and hiring the new Library Director. “It’s not about trust; we just don’t want to be here again next year,” said Segura, pushing for an open forum where the community can ask questions of the candidates and the board can see the candidate in action, how they interact with the community. 

Joe Sandford, Civil Deputy District Attorney, explained that the library board is subject to the open meeting law, and specific employment laws must be considered during the interview process. 

The board agreed by vote to keep the existing hiring process under which the Human Resources Director and the current Library Director will “vet” the application pool between the August 9 deadline and the August 22 board meeting to push forward the candidates they find qualified for the position. They will interview the first round of candidates, recommend to the board those who are qualified for consideration, and provide an opportunity for the board to choose which they will interview in a second round. 

Those interviews will take place in a public meeting, with a date yet to be set, where the public can offer public comments.

Members of the public are welcome to submit potential interview questions ahead of the interviews. The HR director will provide the interview questions to the board. Each candidate will be asked the same questions. The board can rank their choices in case a candidate drops out of the process. Once the board chooses their candidate, they are sent to HR to complete the background and onboarding process. 

The board will have no contact with the candidates until the second round of interviews when they will do their interviews. At that time, the candidates will be given a tour of the library prior to the interviews. The process to find a library director is a nationwide search. 

During the August 22 meeting, the board hopes to know how many candidates they will interview. 

The board also approved their final budget of $767,460 for the 2025-26 Fiscal Year, with $402,090 for salaries to keep the library open and staffed.