Pike County Board Members Maleyne Syracuse and Rebecca Lindsey at Monday morning’s library board meeting. (Photo by Jim Davis)

By Jim Davis

MILFORD — The Pike County Library Board has agreed to a series of demands made by the Pike County Board of Commissioners, and will implement the changes at their next board meeting on March 1.

At their February board meeting, held on February 8, the library announced that they have acquiesced to the commissioners’ demands, and will restructure their bylaws, giving the commissioners four appointments to the library board.

In addition, the library’s bylaws will be changed to require that removal of board members be for cause. Both changes to the bylaws will be voted on at the March 1 meeting; because notices need to circulated prior to the adoption of bylaws changes, it was impossible to make the changes at the February meeting.

The only one of the commissioners’ demands that the library questioned was the adoption of Roberts Rules of Order. The library board requested that the attorneys representing the two sides meet to discuss that issue.

The requirement that the commissioners appoint four board members will necessitate some shuffling of the personnel on the library board. There are currently two vacancies on the board; presumably, both of these will be filled by a new commissioners’ appointment. In addition, Charles Eible, who currently sits on the board, is a commissioners’ appointee. The commissioners will need to make one more appointment.

One of the seats on the board will be filled by the Milford Community House; that appointment is currently held by Centa Quinn. That leaves five current board members who were at-large appointments: Maleyne Syracuse, Tom Hoff, Jennifer Hamill, Carole Linkiewicz, and Rebecca Lindsey. One of these seats will have to be vacated to allow for the commissioners’ fourth appointment. Linkiewicz’ and Hamill’s terms expire this year. They would have been reappointed at Monday’s meeting, but appointments were postponed until the bylaws are changed on March 1.

“This is a step in the right direction to start the healing process,” said Pike County Commissioner Harry Forbes. “I’m glad to see they’ve accepted the proposal…now, let’s all look at the library needs throughout the entire county.”

For their part, the library board appeared eager to move forward with the development of a new branch in Milford, where much of the private and grant money that they have raised is commited.

“The three big chunks of money that we have in hand are Milford specific,” said Lindsey, referring to two state grants and the approximately $1 million Warner Gift. “Our immediate focus over the next few weeks is on Milford.”

Syracuse, the library board’s president, alluded to the fact that the library is considering several possibilities in the borough, and has asked to get on the agenda for the Milford Borough Council’s March 1 meeeting.

“It’s going to be a busy month coming up,” she said.

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