The Grayville Groff Memorial Library has been a regular topic at recent meetings. It was back in conversation Monday night taking up about half of the last monthly meeting of November. It started with a letter to the council regarding clocking in and out. Mayor Travis Thompson read it aloud. At issue is clocking in and out which takes place at the rear of city hall where there is currently no lighting.
Library staff always clock out after dark during standard time. With the generator and other objects, there are places a person could conceal themselves very well. While Grayville is a small community, it does have its problems and it only takes once for an unpleasant event or tragedy to cause lasting consequences, especially and sadly for women. Hence, the board unanimously voted to express these concerns to the mayor and council. In speaking with David Burrows to better understand how the key fob clock works, we learned that a sensor for clocking in and out could be placed at the library for $625. At a recent council meeting the library board attended, the council kindly expressed that the library ask for funds when needed. The library board would like to request that the council purchase and place a sensor for clocking in and out at the library for the safety and peace of mind of its staff members.
City attorney Jay Walden called the lack of lighting a legitimate concern that absolutely needs to be addressed. The problem he says is in the collective bargaining agreement.
If you put in for a $625 set up for clocking in at the library, my understanding as city attorney is if Bob Howser requests that same placement at the cemetery, we must do it. If Cody requests that same thing at the water or sewer plant, we must do that. If the employees request it at the city garage, we must do that. We have to treat them equal in that fashion. So safety is absolutely a concern and we need to address that above everything else. But you need to understand that $625, it would be potentially be significantly more. So my question would be is there an option possibly where the clock in could be in a lighted front area?
Treasurer Sharon Walden then spoke up to say that she, city administrator David Kendrick and a representative from Felts Lock Shop had already been working on that solution at the front of city hall, across the street from the library. She says they were working on it Monday prior to the council meeting.
That led to Commissioner Andi Ford making a statement with regards to the librarian clocking in on time.
Several times I have watched people wait outside the library after 10am for it to open. In fact over the summer, there were a couple people that would come in here to get out of the heat that had walked to the library waiting to get in and when I asked them if they needed any help, they said they were waiting and one said because she’s always late. Last week, I was here at 10am handling some business here and there were people waiting outside the library. Your librarian got there at 10:07 and I know it’s not my business and you can say ‘she was running behind or whatever’ but if we say one of our buildings opens at a certain hour, it needs to open at a certain hour and someone needs to be there or they don’t get paid for the time they’re writing down when they’re not there.
The rest of the meeting was pretty routine and took less than 12 minutes to cover including passage of the 2025/2026 tax levy and abatement of the levy for the 2014 bond issue. Change orders were approved to close out the water main replacement project and council tabled the lift station alarm system agenda item because the quote hasn’t come in yet.
The Grayville Council adjourned at 7:23pm and will next meet on December 8th.