Above: The Southborough Library’s gain is also its loss. A newly appointed Library Trustee will leave a vacancy on the board of The Friends of the Southborough Library. (Photo by Susan Fitzgerald)
Last week, the Board of Selectmen interviewed 8 qualified candidates to fill three vacancies on town committees. In the end, they appointed four (and created a new power couple.)
When Judy Budz accepted an appointment to the Advisory Commitee, she vacated her elected position on the Board of Library Trustees. Five candidates applied for the spot. In the end, selectmen supported the Trustees’ recommended choice, Dolores Fallon.
In her interview, Fallon stated that she believed the library needs to better promote its services to the town. Trustees and other candidates echoed her sentiment. But with a background marketing and communications, Trustees felt that Fallon was the most qualified to help them.*
[Note: Fallon’s appointment will now mean a vacancy on the board of The Friends of the Southborough Library!
Anyone interested in filling that spot, or getting more involved, please attend the next meeting of the Friends on Wednesday, September 23 at 7:30 pm. You can also email friends@southboroughlib.org.]
Selectmen also sought to fill two vacancies on a dormant, but much needed committee, the Municipal Technology Committee.
MTC had long suffered a lack of quorum with only one resident on the committee. At last week’s meeting, its fortunes were reversed when selectmen expanded the committee to accept three new members.
BOS members were happy to appoint candidates with strong, relevant backgrounds.* The new members are Mark Fallon (husband to the new Library Trustee), Rose Mauro and Claire Reynolds.
Challen welcomed BOS Chair John Rooney’s suggestion to add more blood to the committee. He also embraced an idea that the committee would seek input from other residents in town who work in/with technology. The idea was suggested in Mauro’s application and championed at the meeting by Reynolds.
Challen told the board that the idea of outreach had been floated in the past. He hoped that the new members would be more successful in accomplishing it.
Selectman Paul Cimino warned the public not to assume a precedent for expanding commitees.
He saig that though they had expanded another committee recently, sometimes larger numbers don’t make sense. He expects the board to handle the issue on a case-by-case basis.
*If you are interested in the resumes of new committee members (or the other candidates for Library Trustee) you can take a look at the packet from the September 1st meeting. (And you can view the recorded meeting here.)
