This Saturday, April 5, 2024, we are hosting a KICK THE BOOT kick-off event at the main library in Ville Platte.  We have partnered with @KeepLouisianaBeautiful to participate in #LovetheBootWeek for the week of April 5-13th! Our theme for the week is, “Let’s Trade: Trash for Seeds”.  Join us Saturday morning from8 am to noon to also meet one of our favorite local authors, GiGi Fontenot and a new craft vendor, Connie Ortego!  They will be with us from 9 am to 11 am.  We will be handing out trash bags that can be traded in throughout the week for FREE packets of vegetable and flower seed packs. Prizes will be given to those who bring in 4 full trash bags by April 13^th and for the one who turns in the most trash bags! Additionally, in partnership with Coca-Cola and the Osprey Initiative, Keep Louisiana Beautiful is offering a recycling opportunity in Evangeline Parish during the Love the Boot Week. The drop off point is at the DOTD office located at 2990 Tiger Lane, Vidrine, LA.  The recycled items that they will accept in separate bags are plastic bottles and aluminum cans only. (No bleach or milk containers or any foam or plastic products). Patrons will be able to drop off bagged recycled items until Monday, April 14^th at 5 pm.

From celebrated New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry comes the latest installment in his wildly popular Cotton Malone series–now in development as a streaming series. The Medici Return takes Cotton to Italy to solve a five hundred year-old mystery.  

Cotton Malone is on the hunt for a forgotten 16th century Pledge of Christ–a sworn promise made by Pope Julius II that evidences a monetary debt owed by the Vatican, still valid after five centuries–now worth in the trillions of dollars.  But collecting that debt centers around what happened to the famed Medici of Florence–a family that history says died out, without heirs, centuries ago. 

Who will become the next prime minister of Italy, and who will be the next pope? Finding answers proves difficult until Cotton realizes that everything hinges on when, and if, the Medici return.

And the latest from best-selling author Marie Benedict.

London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have connections leading to the highest levels of the British establishment.

May Daniels, a young English nurse on an excursion to France with her friend, seemed to vanish into thin air as they prepared to board a ferry home. Months later, her body is found in the nearby woods. The murder has all the hallmarks of a locked room mystery for which these authors are famous: how did her killer manage to sneak her body out of a crowded train station without anyone noticing? If, as the police believe, the cause of death is manual strangulation, why is there is an extraordinary amount of blood at the crime scene? What is the meaning of a heartbreaking secret letter seeming to implicate an unnamed paramour? Determined to solve the highly publicized murder, the Queens of Crime embark on their own investigation, discovering they’re stronger together. But soon the killer targets Dorothy Sayers herself, threatening to expose a dark secret in her past that she would do anything to keep hidden.

Inspired by a true story in Sayers’ own life, New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict brings to life the lengths to which five talented women writers will go to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of letters as they unpuzzle a mystery torn from the pages of their own novels. 

We are excited to partner with @KeepLouisianaBeautiful and participate in #LovetheBootWeek April 5-13th! We will be hosting a “Let’s Trade: Trash for Seeds” event on Saturday April 5th at the main library in Ville Platte from 8 am to noon as a kick off! It will feature a few local authors and vendors too! We will distribute trash bags that can be traded for free Seed packets all week long! Keep an eye out for more details soon.

LIBRARY BOARD OF CONTROL MEETING AGENDA

THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2025

4:00 pm Board of Control Meeting

BASILE BRANCH LIBRARY

3036 STAGG ST., BASILE, LA 70515

Notice: This meeting that will be live-streamed via our YouTube channel:

www.youtube.com@evangelineparishlibraryboard

(If you have a disability, please notify us ahead of time for accommodations)

1. Opening Business

1. Call to Order, Prayer, Pledge of Allegiance
2. Roll Call
3. Approval/Amendment of Agenda
4. Approval of Minutes from Previous Meeting
5. Public Comments on Agenda Items
6. Leave the meeting to take a walk through the new Basile Branch library as it nears completion in the next few weeks.

1. Old Business
2. Report from the Basile Building committee.
3. Update on the fundraising idea. (Faye Langley)
4. Update on plans to expand the program rooms of the Turkey Creek and Pine Prairie branches in 2025
5. Update on Board’s request on payroll analysis from the December 2024 meeting

1. New Business

1. Advertisement to hire a part time employee for the Basile Branch Library. See attached.
2. Request to continue the current adjusted hours at the main library (7 am to 5 pm MTTF. Wednesday is 10 am to 5 pm).  Saturday remains 8 am to noon.
3. Discuss a date for a grand opening of the new Basile Branch Library
4. Announce the decision to host only a Fall Library Fest this year
5. Request to increase the credit limit on the two library Visa Credit Cards from $2,000 to $3,000.
6. 2025 training requirements for Board members: Cyber Security, Sexual Harassment Prevention & Ethics

1. Reports

1. Financial Report
2. Facilities Report
3. Outreach Report

• Next Board Meeting is May 12, 2025 @ 4 pm

• Adjournment