Editorial: Barbara Gates resigns from District Library Board

At the June 9 meeting of the Belleville Area District Library Board, board treasurer Barbara Gates resigned, effective immediately.
She said she already has moved from Van Buren Township to Henry Ford Village in Dearborn and no longer qualifies for a seat on the library board.
Gates explained that her son, Robert Washington, Jr., is coming home from a rehab facility where he has been since November and he uses a motorized wheelchair. She had to get a place that can accommodate his disability, she said.
“It’s with much sadness that I had to resign. I’ll be having my hands full with him,” Gates said at the virtual, Ring Central library board meeting.
Board president Sharon Peters said they have discussed how to fill the sudden vacancy and will seek counsel from the board’s attorney John Day.
Gates, a retired Registered Nurse, had lived in VBT for only two years when she was elected to the library board in 2018 and sworn in January 2019. She had worked for the U.S. State Department and traveled and worked around the world.
She said Henry Ford Village has a lot of things to help her son on his road to recovery and she knows she will need help as she cares for him.
“It’s a blessing you’re in a position to help your son,” said secretary Alma Hughes-Grubbs. This is Gates’ only child since her daughter was shot and killed in Ypsilanti Township last year.