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Politics & Government

Lower Merion Library Director Gains More Time to Consider Bids for Security and Self-Checkout System

Another township meeting resulted in the approval of longer parking meters for Bryn Mawr moviegoers.

The Lower Merion Township Library Committee tabled its vote Wednesday night, at the request of library staff and the township manager, on whether to enter into an agreement with a vendor to provide the township’s six libraries with a security and self-checkout system.

In other township business, the Police Committee recommended that the time limit on some parking spaces in Bryn Mawr be increased to better suit the needs of Bryn Mawr Film Institute patrons, and approved a deer culling program. The Administrative and Human Resources Committee recommended the appointment of seven residents to the Human Relations Commission.

On the agenda for the Library Committee meeting, it was written that Christine Steckel, director of libraries for the Lower Merion Library System, had made a recommendation that the township manager be authorized to enter into an agreement with the vendor, 3M library systems of St. Paul, MN, to furnish and install a library materials security, asset management and self-checkout system for the township’s six libraries.

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However, during her presentation to the committee on Wednesday night,  Steckel said she and the library staff had withdrawn the recommendation for a particular vendor to be selected during the committee meeting.  She, along with Township Manager Douglas Cleland, asked that the committee to give them more time to consider the top two vendors, before taking a vote.

“Two excellent vendors have been competing neck and neck for this project, right up until 5 o’clock today … Just watching these two vendors go back and forth, I think there are savings to be made that you will not want to miss out on,” Steckel said.  She did not name the second vendor.

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The Library Committee agreed to table its vote, but did not set a date for when it will make a decision on the matter.

Commissioner Scott Zelov said of waiting to further compare the top two vendors, “It seems to me, this a perfect opportunity to make a best, final offer.”

Two of the six libraries, Bala Cynwyd and Ludington, have Library Materials Security Systems (LMS) but they are older radio-frequency systems which are out-dated, as well as end-of-life, meaning a new purchase would be required to continue using them,, Steckel said.  The other four libraries have no materials security protection systems other than lock-boxes for audio-visual materials, Steckel said.

As a result, the library system currently has “very limited protection” for 66 percent of its materials and no protection for about 34 percent of its items, Steckel said.

The Lower Merion Library System currently loses $63,000 per year in books and audio-visual materials, “basically due to theft,”  Steckel said.

The proposed new system, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) “can reduce that loss rate by 50 percent per year,” Steckel said, by alerting staff as soon as someone tries to walk out the door with an item which has not been checked out.

The new system would also be used for asset management, allowing library staff to use hand-held devices into the stacks to perform inventory functions and weed out books or audiovisual materials which staff decide should be taken off the shelves based on age, condition or lack of circulation activity, Steckel said.

The third use of the new system would be self-checkout through a specialized workstation with a lockbox function.  According to a memo about the system which was written by Steckel to Cleland, “These workstations are designed to perform checkout with a mix of barcodes and RFID tags and to allow the borrower to open the lockbox after checkout.”

In other matters, the Police Committee voted unanimously to recommend to the Board of Commissioners that the township secretary be authorized to advertise a “notice of intention” to adopt an ordinance amending the township code by establishing a three-hour time limit for the 48 short-term parking spaces in Bryn Mawr’s Municipal Lot #10, said Gina Pellicciotta, assistant township secretary.

The current time limit for short-term spots is two hours in Lot # 10, which is located on the south side of Lancaster Avenue, between Central Avenue and Summit Grove Avenue, according to a memo which was written by Thomas Pintande, director of parking services, to Cleland.

The Bryn Mawr Film Institute asked the Parking Services Department to look into options for increasing the number of long-term spaces in Lot #10, which also has 12-hour metered spots, because the short-term meters did not provide enough time for the daily matinees that generally run two hours in length, Pintande’s memo said.

The film institute, area businesses and the Bryn Mawr Business Association were presented with parking options by the Parking Services Department and agreed upon the option of converting the existing two-hour meters to three-hour meters and leaving the remaining 12-hour meters, the memo said.

Lower Merion officials on Wednesday night approved a deer-culling program half as long as the original proposal.

The Police Committee's first proposal, for 10 days of culling in November 2011, for a cost of not more than $40,000, failed by a 6-7 vote.

The second proposal, for five days of culling in November 2011, for a cost not to exceed $20,000, was approved 8-5. 

The culling will be conducted by Wildlife Services from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Police Superintendent Michael McGrath said. 

Commissioner Lewis Gould Jr. said the deer continue to be a problem in the township because they are destroying property, causing car accidents and contributing to the spread of Lyme disease.

“The deer culling in 2010 was not effectively done,” Gould said.  “We know that.”

Gould advocated for the deer being culled with a bow and arrow, rather than by rifle.

McGrath said with culling programs, bow hunting is supplemental to hunting deer with rifles.  A bow hunting group was used as a supplement last year because bow hunters can get in areas where rifle hunters cannot, McGrath said.

In another township meeting, the Administrative and Human Resources Committee recommended the appointment of seven residents to the newly-created Human Relations Commission: Harold Goldner, Ilene Wasserman and Sharon Eckstein, each for a three-year term;  Lynne Zeitlin and Mignon Groch, both for a two-year term; and Nahjee Grant and Mark Aronchick, both for a one-year term.

The seven residents chosen were the top candidates, from a list of 17 people, who were recommended by an Ad Hoc Nomination Committee.

The committee’s votes to recommend the appointments of Goldner, Eckstein, Grant and Groch were unanimous, while the votes to appoint Wasserman, Zeitlin and Aronchick, were all approved 10-4.

Some commissioners, such as Gould, said they disagreed with the motion to vote on appointing the top seven candidates who were recommended by the Ad Hoc Committee, so after the votes, the floor was opened for nominations from the Administrative and Human Resources Committee.

Gould nominated Karen Cherwony.  The committee voted 7-6 against Cherwony, so Cherwony’s appointment recommendation would have failed had the slate not already been full.

The committee voted on the length of the recommended appointee’s terms separately from the votes for appointments. All were approved, but only the vote to give Groch a two-year term was unanimous.

As they were voting on term lengths, the committee changed the term expirations from three three-year terms, three-two year terms and one one-year term to three three-year terms, two two-year terms and two two-year terms.

Committee members also discussed, and disagreed at length, about whether the Ad Hoc Committee should have set formal criteria for choosing appointees.  The Ad Hoc Committee first interviewed candidates, and then listed the skills they favored in applicants, before presenting their top nominees.

Commissioner Philip Rosenzweig said, “It puzzles me that we’re spending do much time and energy on this variation when best policy is to set your criteria first, and then pick your people.”

Other commissioners disagreed.

“I think the members at the (Ad Hoc) meeting articulated the criteria they learned were important through the interview process,” Commissioner Daniel Bernheim said.

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