{"id":127075,"date":"2026-07-10T14:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/127075\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T14:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:58:13","slug":"warsaw-library-board-appointee-prevails-despite-county-council-criticisms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/127075\/","title":{"rendered":"Warsaw Library board appointee prevails despite county council criticisms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nBy Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw<\/p>\n

WARSAW \u2014 Kosciusko County Council sent a few not-so-subtle messages to the Warsaw Community Public Library after the library board earlier sought $17 million for major renovations.<\/p>\n

Warsaw City Council rejected the $17 million bond in May, and on Thursday, County Council had a chance to weigh in as it considered reappointing library board member Jennifer Hicks to a third term.<\/p>\n

Library leadership has been scrutinized over the renovation plan, which they say is needed to replace outdated mechanicals, while also renovating the buildings handicap access and the main entrance.<\/p>\n

Some of those who spoke againthe plan on May 18 criticized the board for not having a maintenance plan in place for aging mechanicals.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Warsaw Library Board Member Jennifer Hicks and other library officials\u00a0 attended Thursday\u2019s county council meeting and she was approved for another term. News Now Warsaw photo by Dan Spalding.<\/p>\n

County council\u2019s dissatisfaction with the board became apparent a month ago when it delayed a vote in hopes of attracting other applicants (one person showed interest, but then withdrew).<\/p>\n

Such appointments are normally drama-free, but county council on Thursday questioned Hicks on, among other things,\u00a0whether she had any experience in renovation projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moments later, Council applauded the Milford Library board for relying on reserve funds and being prepared for maintenance issues that were approved approval Thursday.<\/p>\n

And at the end of the meeting, Council President Tony Ciriello\u00a0reminded everyone that candidates seeking to be appointed by council should provide a resume to council ahead of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Hicks was reappointed by a 4-3 vote for a four-year term. Those supporting the reappointment were Ciriello, Will Stockdale, Kathy Groninger, and Kimberly Cates.<\/p>\n

Councilman Joe Irwin, who opposed the appointment, along with Rachel Rhoades and Dave Wolkins, offered his thoughts to NewsNow Warsaw afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter everything that\u2019s went on with the library, we felt that \u2014 I felt \u2014 that there needed to be a change \u2026 and if you listen to what Milford did, that\u2019s exactly the type of change that I was looking for,\u201d Irwin said.<\/p>\n

As for the resume, Hicks, a schoolteacher who\u2019s been on the library board for eight years, had little to say afterward other she provided a letter of intent to council that included her background.<\/p>\n

Library Board Member Tim Keyes invited the public to learn more about library issues by attending its board meetings.<\/p>\n

The library board meets next at 4 p.m. Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Dan SpaldingNews Now Warsaw WARSAW \u2014 Kosciusko County Council sent a few not-so-subtle messages to the Warsaw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[95],"tags":[59056,61940,4778,61941,61942,61943,61944,61945,61946,182,61947,61948,181,59061,61949,61950],"class_list":["post-127075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-warsaw","tag-17-million-bond","tag-board-reappointment","tag-criticisms","tag-dave-wolkins","tag-jennifer-hicks","tag-joe-irwin","tag-kathy-groninger","tag-kimberly-cates","tag-kosciusko-county-council","tag-poland","tag-rachel-rhoades","tag-tony-ciriello","tag-warsaw","tag-warsaw-city-council","tag-warsaw-community-public-library-board","tag-will-stockdale"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116896275466147875","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}