Christina Kelliher
“I’d like to focus on things for children and for youth… I’d make more hands-on youth events.”
Christina Kelliher, 23, is a bibliophile. “I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember,” she said. “It’s one of the things that made an impact on my life. I went to school for writing because of my love of reading.” Kelliher volunteered at her local library throughout high school and worked in the school library during college. In her sophomore year at college, she was a member of a residence hall advisory committee that determined how to distribute money allotted to the campus to improve campus life for the students. She moved to Saugerties about a year ago after graduating college and is employed part-time at Krause’s Chocolates. Originally from Pembroke, Mass., she moved to Saugerties to join her boyfriend, Saugerties native Chris Mason.
Why are you running?
I feel like I’m kind of the youth voice in this group of individuals. I’d like to focus on things for children and for youth—I’m a big proponent of everyone reading; it’s not only a great pastime but will improve your life. I’d make more hands-on youth events. I love that they recently decided to loan out e-readers; they’re so accessible to everybody.
What kind of things would you like to focus on if elected?
The parking lot really needs to get bigger—it’s very inconvenient the way it’s set up now. I know it’s going to take a lot of planning and money, but I think that should be one of our priorities.
What skills do you offer?
I’m definitely a team player. I love to get into friendly debates and work through problems. I’m very honest, and if I think that we’re not going in a direction we should be going, or going off on a tangent, I’ll try to bring the conversation back to the purpose in mind, and make sure everybody is on the same page. And I’m very amiable.
Vernon Benjamin
“I’d like to continue the good job that has been done.”
Born in the village of Saugerties, writer Vernon Benjamin, 67, has lived here almost all his life; “give or take ten years,” he says. His 15 years in local journalism included stints at Saugerties’ Old Dutch Post Star and Red Hook’s Hudson Register Star and he was an early editor at Saugerties Times. Benjamin worked for Maurice Hinchey for 11 years as a legislative aide when he was in the State Assembly, where he says he drafted the law that created the Saugerties Public Library as a separate entity from the town (for budget purposes). The first volume of Benjamin’s A History of the Hudson River Valley: From Wilderness to Civil War from Overlook Press will come out next April, with the second volume (covering the Civil War to present day) to be released the following year.
Benjamin taught a course in Hudson Valley history and culture for ten years as an adjunct at Marist College, and this semester will teach an honors art history course there based on the Hudson River School painters. And after a lifetime of writing nonfiction, Benjamin says he’s turned his attention to fiction these days, completing a dozen short stories, a couple of novellas and two plays since finishing his massive two-volume history tome, a project that was nearly 20 years in the making.
What kind of things would you like to focus on if elected to the board?
I have a special interest in the history room. I’d like to see a policy where any excess books are reviewed by the director of the history room so we don’t mistakenly throw away any books that are not important otherwise but are important to our culture and our town. I’d like to work with the Historical Society; I did a lot of interface with bodies like that over the years and would be happy to have the chance to possibly do that again.
What strengths do you have to offer the Library Board?
I’ve served on numerous boards, and have some facility at dealing with the public and with colleagues on boards like this. I served for two years on the BOCES Library Board back in the ‘80s.
Why are you running for a trustee seat on the Library Board?
I’ve had a long-term interest in the Saugerties Library; when my mother was a teenager she worked there, and her aunt, my great-aunt, was librarian there for 50 years. The great progress with the new library is exhilarating for anybody in this town, I think—it’s a wonderful library. I think there’s a great board at work there now, and I’d like to continue the good job that has been done. I admire the work they’re doing, and hope that I can help them.
The budget vote and trustee election will be held at the library, 91 Washington Ave. on Thursday, Sept. 5 from 10 a.m.–8 p.m. Residents requesting an absentee ballot will have to sign an affidavit attesting that they will not be available to vote in person at that time. Residents must be registered to vote in the town of Saugerties. For more information, call the library at 246-4317.
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