WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Just one office has a contested race in the town election on Tuesday.

 

But it is a crowded field.

 

Four candidates are on the ballot for two three-year seats on the Milne Public Library Board of Trustees.

 

The race — along with several uncontested races — will be decided when residents go to the polls from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12, at Williamstown Elementary School.

 

As is tradition in town, the town election will be followed one week later by the annual town meeting, also scheduled for the WES gymnasium, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19.

 

Willinet, the town's community access television station, offered the four library trustee candidates a chance to present themselves to the community in videotaped presentations available on the station and at its website, willinet.org.

 

The office sought by Janet Curran, Martin Mitsoff, Kathleen Schultze and Michael Sussman is one of seven seats on the Milne's Board of Trustees. That board is responsible for appointing the library director and deciding written policies for the library at 1095 Main St., on the Field Park rotary.

 

Each of the four candidates on the ballot brings experience with and expressed a passion for libraries — either here in town or in previous hometowns. Two of them have served on a library board of trustees in the past.

 

Schultze has prior experience on the Milne board, having served the town from 2008 to 2014.

 

"When I was a library trustee, it was under Pat McLeod, our former director, and I learned so much about libraries, about fund-raising, about making a building into a library and all the building projects, renovations and upgrades that Pat was working very hard to make," Schultze said in her videotaped remarks. "I'm very excited, if possible, to be working with [current Director] Angie Zimmerman, who I have gotten to know over this past year of volunteering. She has done an unbelievable job making the library into a community center with very many more diverse programs and projects."

 

Mitsoff was a library trustee in the Town of Sheffield in South County, where he also served on the Select Board, Conservation Commission and Board of Health in addition to being a volunteer firefighter and treasurer for Sheffield's hose company, he said.

 

"During my tenure as a Sheffield library trustee, we hired the current librarian, who is a very dynamic and motivated individual who has really knit the library staff together," Mitsoff said. "We pushed to hire a full-time children's librarian and finally got the town to recognize a children's librarian was an important asset for our community there. We installed solar-powered lighting in the parking lot to improve safety for staff, patrons and guests. And we also initiated a community sculpture garden there that is going on very successfully."

 

Like Mitsoff, Sussman has experience in other aspects of town government, currently as a member of the town's Finance Committee. He also has served on the board of the Milne's Friends of Library group, a volunteer board that raises money to support library activities at its Chapter Two Books used book store on Spring Street.

 

Sussman used his time on Willinet to talk about his municipal experience that relates to a potential renovation or building project under consideration for the Milne.

 

"It's going to be a very interesting challenge," Sussman said. "I believe I bring some skills being involved, living in this town when we built the Williamstown Elementary School, I was on the board during that time. We had to, on the Finance Committee, find the funds and finances for high school, for the Police Department and, somewhat involved in the most recent project in town: the Fire Department."

 

Curran is a familiar face to many Williamstown residents without having served on a public body.

 

For nearly a quarter of a century, she served the community at Images Cinema, where she was the managing director until recently.

 

"Through this role, I collaborated with the library on a number of different programs and have always been impressed by the open friendliness of the library staff," Curran said. "I'm running for library trustee because I know firsthand how a library can open up the world to a person, especially young people."

 

Curran said her first job at age 14 was as a page at her local library, where she developed an appreciation for public libraries generally.

 

"Libraries are utopian in that they freely offer so many resources to the residents of the town, and I would like to support this important institution through the community connections I've created through the 28 years I've lived in Williamstown," Curran said.

 

Voters are asked to pick two of the four candidates on the ballot. The top two vote-getters on Tuesday night will win seats on the board.