Longtime Arlington Heights library trustee hanging it up

Many residents join an Arlington Heights club or committee to give a little time back to their community. Typically, they last a term or two.

Not Jan L. Tucker.

She served on the Arlington Heights Memorial Library board for 34 years from 1975 to 2009, with her last board meeting occurring this month. Voters will be picking her replacement on April 7.

During her tenure, Tucker helped hire three library directors and was involved in two library expansions and two tax-increase requests. She was also the catalyst for the creation of the library's volunteer program which began in 1979 with eight volunteers. Today the group has 246 volunteers who put in more than 26,000 hours of service in 2008.

She was elected as the "Trustee of the Year" in 2006 by North Suburban Library System members and was also president of the board for eight years.