UPDATE:

From KCCI:

• Severe weather potential increasing across much of Iowa for Tuesday evening into Tuesday night.
• Tornadoes, large hail, and damaging winds all possible!
• Prolonged period of gusty winds likely Tuesday through Thursday. Strongest winds Thursday, especially north.

Please review the tornado and wind warning procedure included below.

Tornado Warning and Wind Warning

A tornado WARNING is declared when a tornado had been sighted in the area.  The city’s tornado sirens will be activated.  A Straight Line Wind WARNING is declared when wind speeds reach 70 m.p.h.

Sirens will sound for approximately 3 minutes followed by a 2- to 3-minute silence and then sound again for another 3 minutes. This cycle will repeat until the threat has passed.

When the siren sounds:

• Announce the fact that we are under a Tornado Warning or Straight Line Wind Warning to staff and patrons and that they should move to the designated tornado shelter area (the men’s and women’s restrooms) or leave the library IMMEDIATELY.
• Public Services staff will gather patrons from the east half of the Library.
• Youth Services staff will gather patrons from the YS area including the Story Time room and YS restroom.
• One Circulation staff member will gather patrons from the Commons, Art Gallery, and Large Meeting Room
• The rest of the Circulation staff will lock the front door, put up the weather closure sign, and guide patrons to the restrooms
• A staff member from each department should grab the flashlights/lanterns from the emergency bucket behind their desk.
• If people come to the Commons doors seeking shelter, let them in.

The Johnston Public Library Board of Trustees has two openings for six-year terms that begin July 1st, 2022. The library board serves as the administrative board for the library and meets the third Thursday of each month at 5:30pm. Trustees must be Johnston residents over 18 years of age. Applications are available via the “Printables” menu on the intranet. Staff can print applications for interested parties at no charge.

There’s a basket behind the circulation desk self-check for collecting used softball equipment for Johnston softball.

The playground behind the library is open. The property surrounding the library–including the barn, the historical building, and the new playground–is city property but library staff are not responsible for policing/enforcing the rules there. Each city park has a sign like the one pictured below that lists the rules and who to call with problems. As JPL staff, you’ll undoubtedly have visitors report playground issues to you.  If it’s a non-emergency maintenance issue, leave me a note and I’ll contact the Parks Department. For damage to the playground that might cause injury, call the Parks Department at 515-727-8091 or the police at 515-278-2345. If the patron is reporting a park patron in violation of the law or park rules, explain that the police are in charge of enforcing park rules and ask them if they’d like you to call the police.

The Library Board approved some minor changes to the suspension periods in our Conduct In the Library Policy at their March meeting. Please take a minute to look at the red-lined policy via the link below.

https://board.johnstonlibrary.com/2022-03/word%20docs/Conduct%20in%20the%20Library%20Policy.docx

I’ve been aware for several years that some neighboring libraries pay their part time staff more than we do here at JPL.  To try to narrow the gap, for the past several years JPL’s part-time staff have received wage increases that are 1.5% to 2% higher than other city employees have received. In order to speed up this process, we requested and were approved for the following part-time wage increases for FY23 (which begins July 1, 2022):

• $2.00/hour increase for part-time Assistant Librarians
• $1.85/hour increase for Library Associates
• $2.50/hour increase for library clerks
• 3% increase for Shelvers

Similar increases are planned for FY24 but won’t be voted on until the next budget.

Unless weather delay things, the new playground behind the library should be open sometime next week.

This afternoon, patrons with over $5 in fines will receive a message like the one shown below. You may receive calls from patrons with questions about their fines and about food-for-fines.

Eric Melton,
Pay your overdue fees with non-perishable food items April 2-10.
One food item pays $1 in fees. Fees for damaged or lost items cannot be paid with food and are not included in the amount listed below.

Your current fees eligible for payment via food for fines:
$126.70

Staff
Johnston Public Library
515-278-5233

Tips for talking with patrons about fees during Food-for-Fines:

How do I quickly find and add up the eligible fees on a patron’s account? Here is a step-by-step guide for adding up fines and how to accept payment with food/personal care items. I’ve also printed it for the desks.

Remember to encourage patrons with lost items (You’ll see Replacement/Processing fees) to return items. Those fees can be reduced to a fine of $5, or less, per item, if they are returned. It is never too late to bring items back to the library.

We are collecting Food-for-Fines items at the Circulation Desk behind the Self-Check Kiosk.

The tornado sirens will be tested at 10am this morning.

A group of Johnston parents has asked if they can place a donation bin at the library to collect baby items for the daughter of the man recently stabbed to death at Sonic in Johnston. The bin will arrive sometime in the next couple days and will be placed by the entryway.

From Janet W.

The launch of our new site is scheduled for Thursday, March 17, 9–11:30 a.m. CST. CivicPlus will be launching the site, fire dept header, custom banners (Police, Fire, Community Development, Economic Development, Parks and Public Works) and the mobile app at this scheduled date/time unless anything changes. Our website will always remain accessible during the launch process. However, CivicPlus does ask that we remain from making any site updates/edits to pages during the launch process (9-11:30 a.m.), if at all possible so that their team is the only ones accessing the site to complete the launch steps. Once the launch process is complete, I will let you know via email once CivicPlus gives me the green light.

Below are the links to the pages. Please DO NOT share these links as they are beta, so they aren’t live to the public yet. The subpages don’t have the website’s new look right now, but they will when the site launches.

Fire page: https://www.cityofjohnston.com/1138/Fire—2022

City page: https://www.cityofjohnston.com/1137/Home—2022

We are very close to having a new site that looks and feels more usable!

Thank you in advance for your understanding.

If you have questions, please do let me know.

Thank you,

Janet Wilwerding, MBA l Communications Manager

Information about this year’s Lions Club Book Sale has been added to our event calendar. Details are included below.

Pick up some new-to-you books, movies or music at the annual Lions Club Book Sale. Proceeds from the event support the Johnston Public Library. Early shopping on Thursday, April 7th has a $3.00 entry fee; Friday and Saturday shopping is open to the public with no admission fee. The Johnston Lions Club is located on the corner of Merle Hay Road and NW 64th Place.

Thursday, April 7, 5:00pm-9:00pm
Friday, April 8, 8:00am to 8:00pm
Saturday, April 9, 8:00am to noon

Update: Scanning to email on the public printer is now working.

DART is partnering with 10 participating public libraries to offer FREE bus rides to anyone with a library card February 27-March 5 on all fixed routes, on-call services, and DART On Demand rides. Just show your library card when boarding!

Participating libraries include Altoona, Ankeny, Bondurant, Clive, Des Moines, Grimes, Johnston, Pleasant Hill, Urbandale and West Des Moines.

As you are all aware, COVID numbers in Polk County continue to decline.  While not out of the CDC’s high classification quite yet, we are moving in the right direction.

Jim asked me to send out an update on employee masking requirements now that we’re trending downward.  Masks will no longer be required EXCEPT when social distancing cannot be maintained.  (Such as in vehicles for business purposes, or meetings in groups where you can’t be 6’ apart, etc.)

Thank you and your teams for all your work, and all your patience while we navigate our way through this!

Cyndee

Given the number of patrons we help apply for jobs, I thought I’d share this news from Iowa Workforce Development on changes to the requirements for continuing to receive unemployment benefits.

Effective Sunday, January 16, 2022, to maintain eligibility for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, you must:

1. register in IowaWORKS(link is external);
2. complete at least four valid reemployment activities per week, three of which must be job applications;
3. record and certify reemployment activities in the Job Contact and Reemployment Activity Log – see detailed instructions below; and,
4. file your weekly application for unemployment benefits.

More details at https://www.iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov/iowa-work-search-requirements-uirex

We put together this video a few years back. If you’re unsure about how materials are selected, processed, and cataloged, take a look when you have time.

Tax information has been added to our website. The page is accessible via the link under the header on the homepage and via the Services menu.

https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/services/tax-forms/

City hall snail-mailed W2s on Monday. If yours doesn’t arrive by the end of the week, let me know.