Cook library board to name new trustee

More than two months after a vacancy opened on the Cook Memorial Public Library District board, the Libertyville-area panel is close to choosing a new member, officials said.

The board is expected to name an appointee at a special meeting set for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Laschen Center in Vernon Hills.

The board normally meets Tuesday nights, but the session was moved up because of scheduling conflicts, director Dan Armstrong said.

The new member will replace Aaron Lawlor, who had been the panel's president until he resigned in July to fill a vacancy on the Lake County Board. Lawlor was replaced as Cook Memorial's president by Bonnie Quirke.

Five candidates interviewed for the library-board post last month. Three live in Libertyville and two are from Vernon Hills, Armstrong said.

Armstrong declined to identify the candidates further, but he said all were impressive.

"They're public-spirited and interested in the library," Armstrong said. "It was a good group."

Quirke agreed, calling the candidates "superb."

The board already has reached an unofficial agreement on the identity of the appointee, Quirke said. The winning applicant will be identified and sworn into office at the Oct. 19 meeting, she said.

Lawlor, who had been re-elected to the library board earlier this year, would have served until 2013. His successor's term will be shorter, ending in spring 2011.

That eventual board member will be able to run for a two-year term in 2011, Armstrong said.

That post and four others on the Cook Memorial board will be on the 2011 ballot. The seats now held by Quirke, Karen Broms, Wendy Vieth and Chris Dalton will be up for election, too.