By Mary Ellen Zangara, Special Writer
People who will oversee the transition of the public library to a Somerset County Library System branch were appointed Monday night.
Borough Council voted unanimously April 23 to join the county system.
”The board itself has done a fantastic job for all the years,” said Mayor Angelo Corradino. “Now it is changing from a board that ran the library to an advisory board, now that we have merged with the county for our library services,” he said.
The mayor appointed Kathryn Quick as chairperson, with Alan Harwick and Joe Patero as members. Alternates are Sandy Scrape and Sharon Krebs.
Councilwoman Sue Asher volunteered to be on that committee but the mayor said he thought “it was fair to give only the people who were on that committee and did such a great job throughout the years to serve. As people leave, we will definitely consider the councilwoman.”
Don Frank complimented the mayor on his comments.
”It is a very challenging position in itself because budgets are always tight,” said Mr. Frank. “The decision to give up local control of any organization is an extremely serious one.”
Mr. Frank said it was unfortunate that, because of the need for a limited number on the advisory board, trustees Jennifer Dietrich and Jennifer Griffiths had to be overlooked.
The two are Weston School teachers and borough residents, as well as chairperson and member of the events committee, he said.
During their time on the board, Mr. Frank said, they changed the involvement of the community at events from about 10 to 50 participants to more than 100 to 200 participants. Events sometimes had to be moved from the library to Weston School.
”When we talk about young people and our young families, these two people were extremely valuable to our library board and I hope that should an opening occur in the future, that you would consider restoring either or both of them.”

