Sima Vasa was elected trustee and Michael Krevor was re-elected trustee for the Port Washington Public Library in Tuesday’s election.
Vasa, who was running for trustee for the first time, received by far the most votes of the four candidates with 514. Krevor received the second most votes with 374.
Tania Danielson and Stephanies Salzbank received 185 and 161 votes, respectively. There were also two write-in votes, according to a spokeswoman for the library.
Vasa will take the spot of Trustee Thomas Donoghue, who did not seek re-election.
“I was thrilled to be elected!” Vasa wrote in an email on Wednesday. “I love our library and I am honored to serve our community in this role.”
Vas said she began preparing to run months ago by attending Board of Trustee meetings to understand what the job would entail.
“Beyond that, I did what many people do to get elected which is to campaign and get the word out to vote on election day,” she wrote.
The 18-year resident of Port Washington and business owner also said her victory was due to the support of friends and family.
She said that the first thing she would like to do as trustee would be to “extend the library experience to underserved areas of our community.”
In previous interviews, Vasa said that she wanted to try new ways to promote the library to Port Washington residents, such as hosting a 5K run. And with a background in digital technology, she said she wanted to keep the library up to date with changing tech.
Vasa will take over for Donoghue on July 1.
Efforts to reach Krevor, who is a retired attorney, were unavailing.
Residents also voted on the library’s budget, which passed overwhelmingly with 652 votes for and 45 votes against.
The 2018-19 budget will be about $7.47 million, down $47,000 or 0.62 percent from the current budget. The tax levy will also decrease by 1.39 percent. It marks the first time in the past five years that the library’s budget decreased from the previous year.
The drop was due to the decline of salaries, terminal leave and other employee benefits by more than $100,000. The reason for this drop was the retirement of several staff members.
“A couple of our long-standing employees have retired and will be replaced by lower-salaried employees,” Nancy Curtin, the library’s director, said last week.
Debt service was also eliminated, as the library had paid off an 18-year bond that was used to expand the building in 2000. The library had annually paid more than $500,000 in interest on that bond.
