If you’re a Riverside resident who has wanted to become involved in local government, but maybe didn’t want to commit up front to a four-year term, you’ll have two opportunities to throw your hat into the ring in the first half of 2017.
Last week, the Riverside Public Library Board of Trustees announced it was seeking to fill a vacancy on its board caused when board member Ed Lyons moved out of the village.
Lyons was elected to the board in 2015. The person the library board chooses to appoint in his place will serve out Lyons’ term, which ends in the spring of 2019.
Those interested in being considered for the position are being asked to send a resume and a statement of intent to the attention of library board President Joan Wiaduck in care of Library Director Janice Foley at the Riverside Public Library, 1 Burling Road.
The deadline for submitting resumes and letters is Feb. 11. Applicants must be residents of Riverside, registered to vote and at least 18 years old.
After resumes are received, they will be considered by the board of trustees, which will interview candidates before choosing one at a public meeting.
“We have a really good working board now and we hope to keep it that way,” Wiaduck said.
The library board has had an especially busy past couple of years, tending to some major infrastructure improvements to the roof and heating and air-conditioning system. In the next year or so, the library board is expected to unveil its plans for a complete overhaul of the library’s lower level.
“On the docket is a revamp of the whole lower level to make it more usable for our Riverside patrons,” Wiaduck said.
Last fall, the board set the stage for that project by moving a great number of materials, including CDs and DVDs, mysteries and adult fiction upstairs after weeding out non-circulating and obsolete items and obtaining new shelving courtesy of fundraisers.
The library board wants to avoid a referendum to raise money for the lower-level reconfiguration, and Wiaduck wants any new board members to be on board with the board’s plans, which have been in the works for at least two years.
“I’m really pushing not to do a referendum and to try individual fundraising efforts first,” Wiaduck said. “And the good thing is that [the renovation] can be done in four separate phases.”
Second search coming after election
The search for a board member to replace Lyons may also be helpful to the library board this spring, because it may also identify someone who will have to be appointed to fill another vacancy that will open up after the April 4 election.
There are three seats up for election on April 4, but only two people have filed to run – Wiaduck and Michael Flight, both incumbents. Flight was appointed to the board in 2013 and then was elected to a two-year term in 2015.
A third incumbent, Susan Kucera, has chosen not to run for re-election. After the election the library board will need to fill that vacancy. Whomever is appointed will serve until the spring of 2019, when that person can choose whether or not to run to be elected for the remaining two years of that term.
