On Wednesday, December 9th, 2020 Piermont voters will be asked to elect three trustees for the Dennis P. McHugh Piermont Public Library.  The vote will take place at the Library, 25 Flywheel Park West.  Polls will be open from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Voting will take place in the library foyer and follow Covid social distancing protocols with a mask requirement.

At present there are three known candidates for three trustee positions:

·      Vicki Panetis, who is seeking her first term

·      Kelly Ruby, who is seeking a second term

·      Ed Stanford, who is running for a second term

Ruby is a coordinator for Bennett Park Community Alliance. Prior to that she worked as a botanical aid at the New York Botanical Garden.  She has lived in Piermont for two years.   Stanford worked for over 40 years in educational publishing, most recently as the head of the Higher Education Group at McGraw-Hill. He also served for 21 years on the South Orangetown School Board. He has lived in Piermont for 40 years. Panetis is a former pharmaceutical sales representative and has been a Piermont resident for 5 years.

Any registered Piermont voter, however, may run for election as a trustee.  Potential Candidates are required to submit a petition signed by eighteen eligible Piermont voters. Blank petitions are available at the Library and must be returned to the Library by November 27^th, 2020.

The library’s holdings include new releases of adult and children’s books, movies, and music as well as e-books, digital audiobooks and downloadable music. Although this year has looked drastically different from previous years, the library has continued to serve the Piermont community, offering resources and virtual programming.  The Library is continuing to find new ways to provide and serve our patrons, and welcome any ideas the public may have. While we hope that a return to normalcy grows closer, we are prepared to continue providing all that we can to our community.

Once the library fully reopens, we hope to offer our wide range of programs for toddlers and older children, a monthly free film showing, exhibits by local artists, book talks, game nights, local history exhibits, student art exhibitions, concerts, adult summer reading programs, mah-jongg and canasta groups. Information about the library, its services and the election is available at www.piermontlibrary.org.

Library Activity Statistics, 2019-2020

• 1,692 Piermont Residents have library cards
• 250 Programs offered since January 2020 with 1047 recorded participants. No meeting attendance was tracked due to Covid, but we had about ten meetings in January and February before the March shutdown.
• 9,684 items circulated: 5,681 physically; 4,003 digitally
• We’ve had about 250 visitors to the building since reopening in mid-September.

Our Annual Gift of Art Show has gone virtual with this year’s theme Time at Home.  Visit our website (click the “Gift of Art Show 2020” tab on our homepage) from December 4th at 7:00 pm for a beautiful online show of original art by local artists.  All pieces are priced under $250 with  many under $100- perfect for holiday gift-giving or to brighten your own home.  The show will be up through December.

The Piermont Library’s Annual Gift of Art Show has been a holiday tradition in Piermont since the 1990’s.  Each year, “art show alumni,” who have had a show in the past, come back to take part in this festive group show.  Normally, we have a gala reception to kick off the holiday season in Piermont and we hope to resume that in 2021.

For now, we will invite you to look through our virtual beautiful assortment of art by local artists.  Each piece is priced at $250 or less this year.  If you see something you would like to purchase, please email the library at astarke@piermontlibrary.org.  Payment can be made by cash or check at time of pick-up.

Proceeds from the show will help support programming at the Piermont Library.  Please call (845-359-4595) or email us (astarke@piermontlibrary.org) with any questions.

We wish to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of our artist friends for continuing to support the library and this annual tradition.  We look forward to seeing you in person again soon!

We hope you enjoy the show!