Demers to stay on as library director

Date: 10/25/2011

Oct. 24, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

WILBRAHAM — For the time being, the Wilbraham Public Library will move forward with Karen Demers as its interim director.

After going through an interview process over the summer, the Board of Library Trustees came up empty in its bid to permanently fill the position vacated by Christine Bergquist, who retired in September.

“We had interviews over the summer and had several candidates,” James Jurgens, chair of the Board of Library Trustees, said. “We made an offer to the one we felt was most qualified, but they had an offer elsewhere that they felt offered better salary and benefits, so we offered the position to our second choice, but they also chose to decline.”

Jurgens said that the board, in agreement with town officials, feels the library is in good hands with Demers as they try to determine their next step in filling the position permanently.

“Karen is our adult services librarian, but she has all of the qualifications to perform the duties of the director,” he said. “I have been working with [Robert] Weitz, our town administrator, and Herta Dane, the town’s human resources coordinator, and after our discussions we agreed that for now we will go with Karen and see how that goes.”

Jurgens added, however, that he hoped there would be movement in finding a full-time replacement in the near future.

“We don’t want to extend this for too long,” he said. “Karen is in effect doing two jobs, so I think we’ll move this along pretty quickly.”

While she did not put her name in for consideration for the job during the town’s first effort to fill the position, Jurgens said Demers would do so the next time the internal applications for the job are accepted.