Did you miss the Budget Hearing & Trustee Candidate Forum? Click here to view the recording.

In preparation for the Library’s annual Budget Vote and Trustee Election (Thursday, September 28) the John Jermain Memorial Library will hold its Budget Hearing and Trustee Candidate forum on Wednesday, September 20th at 5:00 pm. 

Executive Director Harris will review the proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2024 and answer any questions about the budget. Following the budget presentation Harris will introduce the three candidates on the ballot for two at-large seats on the Board of Trustees. 

Candidates on this year’s ballot include:

• • • • • • • Lisa Frisicano: Lisa grew up in East Meadow and attended Hobart and William Smith College, earning a BS in Biology while playing on and co-captaining the National Championship-winning women’s soccer team. Lisa graduated with a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Life University and worked in a large family practice in Brooklyn prior to opening a clinic in Southampton with her husband Brian Di Russa. Lisa has volunteered to coach soccer to children in the East End community, including her own kids, Islanell and Nicky and acted as the In-House Coordinator and Treasurer for the Sag Harbor Youth Soccer League. Most recently, Lisa works part-time at the beautiful Sag Harbor Florist, volunteers at St. Andrews RC Church to provide weekly floral decor for the altars, and grows and sells thousands of tulips and hundreds of dahlias depending upon the season. her interests include dahlia breeding, knitting, reading, baking sourdough bread, walking at Long Beach, planning travel adventures with family and friends, and cheering on her favorite football club Liverpool FC.
            • Robert J. Ferrari Jr.: I was born and raised in Brooklyn, attending the local schools that anchored our neighborhood, that gave us that sense of community. My earliest connection to the East End was a hand-carved sea captain with Sag Harbor engraved on the pedestal, prominently displayed in my boyhood bedroom, a gift from an uncle who had a home here.
              I received a BA in economics from Colgate University and an MBA in finance from St. Johns University. Recently, I’ve returned to Colgate each summer to attend and participate in the Writers Conference, workshopping my in-progress and yet-unpublished novels. I’m currently enrolled in Stanford’s Continuing Studies novel writing certificate program, a life-long learner, further developing, and honing my skills.
              I’ve spent the better part of the last four decades on Wall Street, mostly at Dean Witter and Morgan Stanley, where I was an executive vice president, responsible for the trading of various fixed-income products, as well as equities and foreign exchange. I am a Chartered Market Technician(CMT) and a member of the CMT Association.I grew up buried in books, the living room wall of my boyhood home covered by a floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall built-in bookcase. My father was a college professor. My mother worked in the newly constructed library in my grammar school. From my father, I received the gift of the Great Books, the Harvard Classics, and the Secrets of the Split-T Formation. From my mother it was Gone with the Wind, Dr. Zhivago, and a paperback collection of the 100 Greatest Books Ever Written. Read several times over the years, I still have her copies of Gone with the Wind and Dr. Zhivago.
              My wife Jean and I purchased our Sag Harbor home in 2005. It had become increasingly important and central to our lives and then a full-time residence as a result of the pandemic. As was done for me in the past, I look forward to turning to those beside and behind me, to helping put a book and the gift of reading, in someone else’s hands.
            • Megan Curren Schmidt: Megan Curren Schmidt is a graduate of The Bronx High School of Science and of Trinity College (Hartford, CT) where she earned a B.A. in Art History and a Minor in Maritime Studies through Williams College-Mystic Seaport. Beginning her career in New York City, Megan quickly rose through the ranks of the art and advertising departments at Penguin Putnam, moving on to land as a Managing Publishing Associate for Simon & Schuster at age 26.
              After marrying her husband Marc in his childhood summer hometown of Montauk, the couple moved, lived and worked on Maui for two years before returning to the East End in 2002.
              Outside of her early publishing career, Megan’s professional background lies predominantly in non-profit development and communications, most notably as the former Communications Director at Quinipet Camp & Retreat Center (Shelter Island) and at The CDCH Foundation for Special Children (Wainscott). Megan is a passionate supporter of local food and served on the Board of Slow Food East End from 2012-2018 holding positions as Board Vice-Chair and as Co-Chair of SFEE’s Events and Education committees for the majority of her tenure.
              A year-round resident of Sag Harbor since 2009, Megan lives close to Long Beach with her husband and their teenage daughter who is a lifelong student of the Sag Harbor School District, JJML volunteer and a former John Jermainiac Battle-of-the-Books (team spirit award-winning!) member.

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This year’s budget vote and trustee election will be held on Thursday, September 28, 2023 from 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the John Jermain Memorial Library. 

Registered voters in the Sag Harbor Union Free School District will vote on the proposed 2024 budget as well as elect two trustees, to fill two (2) at-large seats each with a three-year term commencing January 1, 2024, and expiring December 31, 2026.

Registered voters residing within the Sag Harbor Union Free School District may obtain an application for an absentee ballot beginning August 29, 2023 during school business hours from the Sag Harbor School District Clerk, 200 Jermain Avenue, Sag Harbor, or from the Director of John Jermain Library between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Absentee Ballot applications are also available for download here in Spanish and English.

The District Clerk must receive completed applications by September 21, 2023 if the ballot is to be mailed to the voter, or by September 27, 2023, if the ballot is to be delivered personally to the voter. Absentee ballots must be received by the District Clerk no later than 5:00 p.m., prevailing time, on Thursday, September 28, 2023.