Yorkville Library Board considers seeking help from city facility manager

Search for new library director remains in ‘discussion phase’

The Yorkville Public Library at 902 Game Farm Rd

The Yorkville Library Board discussed enlisting Yorkville and Oswego’s shared facilities manager to ease the work burden on an eventual new director during a monthly meeting Monday, Jan. 11.

The local library remains with two interim directors since director Elisa Topper resigned late last year. In discussions earlier this week, board members agreed a new director position should spend less time in the day-to-day management of the library’s facilities, including its heating and cooling system.

At the meeting, members floated the idea of reaching out to Steve Raasch, facilities manager for Yorkville and Oswego, to assist with the library with its mechanical systems on a part-time basis.

“It takes a lot of the director’s time to manage the facility. It does,” said interim co-director Shelley Augustine in a phone call Wednesday, Jan. 13.

The Yorkville City Council has yet to discuss the possibility with the library board, Raasch said in an email.

“It’s clear they need someone to assist the library director in the management of the mechanicals of the building,” said Alderman Dan Transier, the City Council’s liason to the library board. “The library director’s not hired to deal with the boilers and the chillers and the air conditioners and all the mechanicals in the building. They’re not there to do that. They’re there to run the library.”

As for finding a new library director, Augustine said the board remains in a discussion phase.