Finding Silver Lake short of both of its representatives to the Community Library Board, village President Roger Johnson was looking volunteers Wednesday night.
After some discussion among board members at the Village Board meeting, Trustee Sue Gerber agreed to be the trustee that will represent the village on the library board. The other position — to be filled by a community member — however is still up in the air.
Photo by Lois Sokolski via stock.xchng
The vacancies occurred because library representative Lois Sokolski recently resigned over the demotion of library director Mary Ellen Close. Meanwhile, Trustee Marlene Engstrom has not been able to make recent meetings, and is stepping done from the library board because of demands in her business and personal life.
Consequently, Silver Lake was in danger of not being represented at meetings of the library board, which has five member municipalities — Twin Lakes, Paddock Lake, Sale, Randall and Silver Lake.
Johnson said he is going to attempt to persuade Sokolski to reverse her decision. But he still needed a trustee to assume Engstrom’s post.
Trustee Ann Augustin, who’s committee chairmanship includes the library, said she would not assume the seat. She has trouble seeing at night for driving and she objects to the tenor of many library board meetings, she said.
“They fight at those meetings and I can’t handle it and I won’t,” Augustin said.
Gerber said she would start representing the village at library meetings, though she would not be able to make the annual meeting later this month.
If push comes to shove, Johnson said he could attend the meetings too so that the village was represented.
In another library action, the board passed a resolution favoring the current representation structure on the library board. This has been an ongoing issue with library board member municipalities after a state statute was discovered requiring representation on joint library boards be apportioned by population. The Community Library Board has two seats for each municipality, a set-up that was created before the population requirement was enacted. Twin Lakes and Randall passed similar resolutions. The Salem Town Board also has asserted its support for the current set-up with a more informal action approved by the town board.
