The Rochester Library Board met on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. in the Second Floor Meeting Room of the library. The meeting was called to order by Chair Nicholas J. Goetzfridt and adjourned at 5:35 p.m. All seven board members were present (Steve Baule absent). The board received updates from affiliated organizations, approved the consent agenda, and took action on three major items: a downtown renovation assessment contract, an informational update on digital collection use, and a proposed funding formula for Olmsted County.
The board approved the following items unanimously (7-0):
No members of the public spoke during the public comment period.
Zach Wood, property manager for the City of Rochester, presented a proposal to contract with CRW Architects for $37,500 to develop conceptual designs and cost estimates for renovating the downtown library. The work will build on the 2025 master plan, refine space needs, assess accessibility (including an elevator), and provide budget recommendations for the 2028–2029 capital improvement cycle. The contract is funded from the professional and expert services budget line and does not require additional City Council approval. After discussion about the firm’s experience and the bidding process (professional services under $175,000 do not require competitive bidding), the board voted unanimously to approve the contract.
Deputy Director of Public Services Stacy Hendron provided an informational update on the reciprocal lending agreement (RLA) changes implemented one year ago. Key statistics:
Library Director (name not given in transcript) reported that the Olmsted County Board has indicated openness to a revised funding formula. The five library directors (Rochester, Stewartville, etc.) agreed on a formula dividing the county’s 1% levy based on physical circulation by rural Olmsted County residents. For Rochester Public Library, this results in a base allocation of $1,427,000 – an improvement of $35,000 over the previous contract. In addition, the directors propose a separate “pay for service” agreement for RPL covering digital collections (OverDrive/Libby, Kanopy) and bookmobile services. This “ice cream” portion totals approximately $130,000, tied directly to usage by rural county residents. The board discussed that if the county declines the pay-for-service component, RPL would have to reduce services to rural residents. The board voted unanimously (7-0) to approve the directors’ proposed funding formula and to present it to the Olmsted County Board with the understanding that additional compensation for digital and bookmobile services is needed to maintain current service levels.
Library Director announced that the Teen Council application period is open until August 9, and that the new bookmobile stop at the History Center has been highly successful, with 28 visitors on the first day and 50 on the second, now ranking in the top 10 for business stops.
The public is welcome to attend or view the meeting. You can either attend in person by coming to the second board meeting room in the library, or if you can attend in person, a recording is made available after the meeting on the city's website. We have a public comment period. Community members are invited to address the board. Is there anyone seeking to address the board today? Seeing none, I will call the meeting to order and call the role. Brian? Brad? Nick? Here. Very bad. Gary, Emily. Connie here. Laura? Here. Adam is here as well. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? By Connie. Second by Emily. Second. All those in favor. Any opposed? Agenda is adopted. Move on to updates and reports, starting with the library foundation report. So I have um three pages, so I'll just give you highlights. We got our first sponsor for WIP, which is Mayo Clinic. RPLS, uh the foundation is looking at the gift acceptance policy, and we're gonna be the development committee is defining what a major gift is so we can add that to our gift acceptance policy. Um we were very happy to uh participate with the friends to our Audrey Venture, and those are pictures from the celebration with all her fans there. Um Sprouts, I'd like to thank our sponsors, Bolasity, Lasker Jewelers, Thank Mutual Bank and Atlas Insurance. Atlas Insurance Um presented us with a $2,000 check for the 25-year celebration. They're calling it 25 25. And they've done some really awesome social media posts. So lastly, we would just like to um take a moment to honor Eric Tar and everybody that has many gifts in his honor. That's um yeah. So that's my update. Does anybody have any questions? Thank you very much. Friends. Um I'm with Val Kaliszewski with friends, and uh first thing is uh the results from our Rochester Fest book sale in uh June. We made $7,400, and that is enough to cover our pledged support for the summer playlist program. Uh those awesome bags that Nicole designed are comes from Friends Funding, and then covering most of the annual subscription fees for the ancestry database, which library patrons can use for free with their library card as long as they are on site. Um even though there's all that street construction and um shall we say the parking ramps um were extremely busy that weekend. Um we still basically did the same exact number of sales and total sales as we had done in our February sale. I mean, it was within like 20 bucks and five transactions. I mean, it was it was unreal. Um our next uh big sale is in October. Um as Brenda mentioned, uh Audrey Becher was honored as a community excellence award winner by ABC ABC 6 News. Uh so she was interviewed uh for a spot on TV, and then um she was honored at the Rochester Fest fairgrounds. Um unfortunately the the award ceremony was exactly right when we were setting up for our Rochester Fest sale. I had 20 people in the auditorium, and uh a few of them took off and and went so we could have at least a few people there to show Audrey uh our support.