Rhinelander District Library board of trustees elects Nancy Sattler president

The Rhinelander District Library board of trustees held an election Tuesday, Nov. 11, to fill the vacant president’s seat. Bill Freudenberg had been running the meetings and serving as acting president since the previous president, Petra Pietrzak, stepped down. This was his third time sitting in as president in the many years since he had joined the board. He expressed interest in taking that seat officially.

Board member Nancy Sattler was also nominated for the position, and spoke to the board about her vision for the future. She is the executive director of another large non-profit in the Rhinelander area. She said she understood how both the board and the executive director needed to work together and to support each other. She knew that the position could mean that, at times, she would have to bend her own ideas and move to the will of the greater good, but said she was willing to do that. 

“I understand that we need to stay in our own lanes,” she said. “We need to do what we’re supposed to do, but we also need to support each other.” 

She said that everyone involved would need to be open to new ideas and that she would look forward to helping to drive that collaboration.

In the end, the board of trustees voted Sattler into the role of president. Freudenberg will remain as vice president of the board of trustees.

The audit

The auditor for the city, Amanda Mboga, attended the meeting virtually to discuss how the library is involved in the audit with the city. The library, much like the airport, is a separate entity from the city, but is included in the audit as a component unit. 

In past meetings, there had been some concern as to whether the library accounts had received an audit. Mboga said, within the library component unit, is the city fund used for operations as well as the library board and the foundation. She answered questions from board members, so they could better understand the audit itself and how the library was involved.

Property leases

The renewal for The Cutting Cabin lease came to the board also. The owner of the business had asked for the lease this year to be month-to-month rather than a yearly lease. Executive director Virginia Roberts said the recommendation from Gary Driscoll was that rent on the property should be raised by $50 per month, which Roberts said was in line with other properties in town. The board voted to raise the rent by that amount and to move to a month-to-month lease.

Surplus furnishings to be sold

Roberts told the board there were several computers, as well as printers and copiers that were no longer needed at the library and that she wished to list them on the statewide auction site. Anything worth over $100 can be auctioned off, according to the library bylaws, but it would need to go through the board to do that. The computers would be wiped clean before they were listed for auction. The auction website is used by schools, local governments and other libraries to procure needed items at a reduced cost. There would be no cost to list the items. The board voted to allow Roberts to list those items. 

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].