Three candidates are running for two seats on the Woodstock Library Board of Trustees, though in a recent development, all three will likely end up on the board. On the Thursday, October 7 ballot, when townwide voters also decide whether to approve the budget for the coming year, are Roz Balkin, Marcia Patten and Liz Rosen. Incumbent Rosen’s term is up and Trustee David Lewis decided not to run for re-election, so two seats are on the ballot.
However, Trustee Bobby Bui recently resigned to take a job at Northeastern University in Boston. His resignation came after the deadline for ballot printing. To fill the one year remaining on Bui’s term, the board has opted to appoint whoever places third in the election. That person can then choose to run for election next year for a full five-year term.
Roz Balkin is co-owner of Sunflower Natural Foods with her husband Bob Whitcomb and two other owners, Melissa and Paku Misra. She was vice president of the company, but is now retired and serves as an advisor. She ran Roz Balkin Inc, a custom jewelry business, but stopped making jewelry about eight years ago. She donated a lot of her equipment to the Woodstock Guild.
She served on the Planned Parenthood development board for 10 years and the Clearwater board for six years.
Balkin has a daughter and a granddaughter. “I’ve lived in this town a long time. I believe in the library. At this particular time, in my life, I can do it,” she said when asked why she is running for the board. “I do have strong feelings about which way to go with the library.”
Balkin said the Miller/Howard building, which library officials hope to be able to purchase to replace the current building, being on the market is a “very important and lucky offer.”
Having run a business, Balkin said, can help her understand funding issues with the library. She added that she has some experience buying houses and renovating them, so that could come in handy with library building issues.
Marcia Patten is relatively new to the Woodstock community, having moved to Shady in 2015. She had lived in Montclair, New Jersey, and New York City. For the last 40 years, Patten has been a film and television costume designer. Her latest project brought her to Troy, where she worked on the HBO series, “The Gilded Age.” Patten and her husband chose to move to Woodstock after years of visiting and hiking in the Catskills and making friends in the area.
“I am a library lover from my college days working part time for four years in the Pratt Institute Library,” she said. Patten said her skills in collaboration and negotiation and interest in environmental sustainability would be helpful on the board.
“The new proposed Woodstock Library, repurposing of the Dixon Ave. building, has instigated my interest in being involved in the Library Board to be a part of the evolving new path for our town,” she said. “Adaptive reuse of this building is good for the community and the environment. Less building materials and lower building emissions will make a lower environmental impact on our town. At the same time a healthy new library will serve the community.”
Liz Rosen moved to Woodstock in the fall of 2000 after retiring from the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City as chief financial officer. She started volunteering for Friends of the Library in 2001 and was treasurer for 10 years.
Rosen was elected to the library board five years ago and serves as the library’s fiscal officer. She is also a member of Woodstock Immigrant Support Group.
“I am excited about the possibility of moving to 10 Dixon Avenue,” she said. “I look forward to having a library in a green, healthy building that meets current code and has more space for all the library’s programs.”
The library’s major challenges include recruiting a new full-time director and keeping the public informed about moving the library, she said.
Budget vote also on the ballot
Voters will also decide on the 2022 operational budget, which has a tax levy increase of $11,349.94 or 1.94 percent. Spending is $684,193.94, an increase of $11,994.94 or 1.78 percent. The tax increase comes after two years of zero increases.
The budget vote and trustee election is October 7 from noon to 9 p.m. at the library.
Absentee ballot applications can be found at www.woodstock.org/2022-vote.
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