GRANTS, N.M. – The Grants Public Library advisory board discussed how COVID-19 has affected patron services at their Dec. 14 meeting. City officials closed the building to public access on Nov. 23, according to Director Nadine Jiron.
“Yes, we did have a brief in-person meeting yesterday,” confirmed the director via a Dec. 15 email.
The short meeting included the resignation of Mary Savacheck, board secretary, along with the director’s report and welcoming two new board members, Joan Klonowski and Barbara Maxwell. Members are appointed for three-year terms to represent the residents of Cibola County, Village of Milan, and City of Grants.
Savacheck’s term was scheduled to end later next year. This leaves one vacant position on the five-member advisory board.
“I guess that makes me and Betsy McDowell the ‘old timers’ now,” quipped Robert Gallegos, who represents Milan. McDowell’s and Gallegos’ terms also end in 2021.
Director Jiron noted that the public health order has forced the library to limit services to community members. The facility offers curbside access only; staff send faxes, print pages, and copy documents for patrons who must wait in their vehicles. These services are available Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. And the Community Closet, located in the north parking lot, offers free warm clothing and non-perishable packaged food items during the pandemic to people in need.
Jiron announced that a local Girl Scouts of America troop has installed an outdoor “free library” at the First Street facility. Member Gallegos confirmed that Milan had developed a similar program several years ago; the village has three locations where people can donate books and take other printed materials at no charge. The Grants and Milan sites are available 24/7.
The director described recent efforts to improve the facility’s acoustics. These included decorative area rugs placed in different areas to help with noise reduction as well as the installation of acoustic panels in the indoor courtyard. The initiative also includes placing acoustic tiles on the interior walls of the main patron area as part of the effort to reduce ambient noise levels.
Jiron recalled that the first Christmas Cruise event, Dec. 11 – 13, was extremely popular with community members. Library staff provided tour maps identifying the locations of numerous holiday displays in Grants and Milan. Participants also received free hot cocoa when they stopped at the library during the three-day event.
“We had 79 cars on Friday, 53 cars on Saturday, and 21 on Sunday,” said the director who added the average was three people per vehicle. The staff provided 465 cups of hot cocoa during the first weekend. A second Cruise event was held this past weekend. Staff are planning to make this an annual holiday celebration, according to the director.
The library will be closed for its yearly inventory this week and next week. Inventorying the collections is scheduled for Dec. 21-23 and Dec.28-30.
Staff are city employees, which means that the facility closes for Dec. 24-26 and Dec. 31 - Jan. 2 in recognition of the holidays. Curbside services will not be available during the two-week closure.
The director completed her report by acknowledging that the Whistle Stop Café, which adjoins the library’s indoor courtyard, closed on Oct. 31. She noted that following the closure two individuals have expressed an interest in leasing the food service site. Jiron said city employees have been cleaning the space and preparing for a future tenant.
(The city owns the 1101 N. First St. property, which was formerly known as the Alco building.)
Next meeting
The board meets six times per year; the next meeting is scheduled for February 2021.
Visit cityofgrants.net/library or call 505-287-4793 for more information.