The Evanston Public Library Board of Trustees discussed plans for the new EPL branch at the Robert Crown Community Center in a Monday meeting. Although hundreds of community members attended an ice hockey tournament at the Robert Crown Center’s “soft opening” last Saturday, EPL’s project manager John Devaney said the EPL branch will not officially open until early February.

“We’re a bit behind the eight ball, with the construction,” Devaney said. “But we’re working feverishly.”

Robert Crown’s open ice rinks are in a separate building than the EPL branch, which shares a structure with meeting rooms and a gymnasium. Weather complications and structural iron difficulties delayed the construction process for EPL’s building, Devaney said.

Devaney said the team is waiting on the delivery of shelving units, books and machinery, which will be set up after construction concludes. He said the city granted a temporary certificate of occupancy for the team to open the building, although it is still cordoned off as a construction site.

Assistant Library Director Teri Campbell said the upcoming Robert Crown branch has provided many hiring opportunities. She said the library is currently extending offers to staff and plans to partner with local high schools to recruit for internships.

Campbell also said EPL’s Racial Equity Task Force focused on multiple types of opening strategies for Robert Crown, which included the production of videos to encourage minorities, especially the Latinx community, to visit the new library branch. The team met Sunday evening to discuss diversity and inclusion education efforts to train new staff members at Robert Crown and throughout EPL.

Trustee Rachel Hayman said she appreciated the curriculum’s interactive multimedia approach.

“For someone like myself, who’s actually done a fair amount of equity training before, it’s a nice refresher,” Hayman said. “But then it brings the training into the world of the library. It’s a really excellent curriculum.”

The board also voted unanimously to approve a janitorial work contract with Total Building Service, Inc at its Monday meeting.

Bids were several thousand dollars higher for this process than in previous years because bidders were required to comply with Illinois’ minimum wage increase, Devaney said. Total Building Service did not offer the lowest bid for the three-year, annually renewable contract. But the company, a certified woman owned business enterprise with “geographically sensitive” hiring practices, complies with the “city’s minority goals,” Devaney said. Total Building Service has worked for the city without a contract since Dec. 1.

EPL is still finishing up the prior year’s finances, Campbell said, but they have achieved at least 97 percent of revenue and 90 percent of expenditures for the total library fund.

She said EPL and its endowment fund are in great financial shape.

“We are moving forward, happy and healthy,” Campbell said.

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