Priest elected president of Friends of Belleville Area District Library

Linda Priest, who has been serving as president of Friends of the Belleville Area District Library since last February — when the elected president Tony D’Onofrio moved to Columbus, Ohio for his job — has officially been elected president for 2017.
At the Jan. 21 annual meeting of the Friends, Donna Gilkey-Lavin was elected vice president; Rick Cichewicz, treasurer; and Katerina Tyner, secretary.
The meeting was a general celebration of the November passage of the millages to build a new library.
The membership heard reports from chairmen of the different committees: Marty Wilson for Membership, a written report from Carol Shanks on book sales and donations, and Elaine Gutierrez on public relations.
In other business, the Friends:
• Gave awards to members: Lifetime Achievement award to Marty and the late David Wilson; Volunteer of the Year award to Katerina Tyner; and awards to all member of the Belleville Area Citizens for a New Library who worked hard to get the millage passed;
• Heard Barbara Miller ask the library to start a kids’ chess club. She said the Detroit Institute of Arts started a kids’ chess club that went from 10 members to a couple hundred at present. She said she asked the museum to start such a club, but got no response. Members were informed that Keystone Academy has a chess club that starts in the second grade;
• Heard Miller ask if a committee has been set up yet to solicit donations from substantial businesses in the community to add artworks and other amenities to the new library that cannot be purchased with millage funds. Miller said she has seen charming statues in the Livonia and Dearborn libraries. Director Mary Jo Suchy said they may get the Friends to help with that;
• Heard library board president Sharon Peters announce that the night before that meeting she became a grandmother for the first time and she is leaving immediately to travel to New York City to be with her daughter and her granddaughter Baldwin Belle. She plans to be gone at least two weeks; and
• Heard Director Suchy announce that they will try to have minimum down time of library hours during construction. She said they may have to change the entryway to the other side of the building, to the emergency exit, once construction starts at the front of the building.