Marblehead library trustee stepping down after 21 years

MARBLEHEAD – Longtime library trustee Peggy Blass is stepping down after 21 years.?It feels so strange thinking that I?m not going to be here,” she said after a recent trustees? meeting. “But I want to continue to be involved.”Her love of libraries goes all the way back to her childhood in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., where going to the library was “a special treat.”?It was always part of my life,” she said.In 1991 that feeling was reborn when she went to get her pet?s dog license renewed and former Town Clerk Betty Brown suggested that she take out nomination papers for library trustee.Serving on the board inspired her to go back to school to get a master?s degree in public administration. One of her biggest surprises personally was attending a Continental Cablevision meeting for local officials and winning a trip to a theme parkShe also had a front-row seat as the library she loved entered the age of electronic data storage, and during her tenure the library has received a number of bequests and has begun to offer 24-7 access on line.?The work is never finished,” she said. “There is always something that has to be done.”Blass?s decision means that incumbent trustee Phyllis Smith and former trustee Judy Gates are so far running unopposed.As of 2 p.m. Monday, with less than two weeks left until the deadline for taking out nomination papers, there were no contested races for town office.Another longtime elected official, Wilbur Bassett, has taken out papers for a fifth term on the Municipal Light Commission. Bassett is in his 42nd year on the Water and Sewer Commission.Town Clerk Robin Michaud has nomination papers available until Monday, March 26, and they must be returned to Michaud?s office by 5 p.m. that day. The town election is May 14.All five selectmen – Jackie Belf-Becker, Judy Jacobi, James Nye, Harry Christensen and Brett Murray – have taken out papers for re-election.The five members of the Recreation and Park Commission – Charles “Chip” Osborne, Derek Norcross, Sam Ganglani, Linda Rice-Collins and Gerald Tucker – have also taken out papers for re-election, as have Town Moderator Gary Spiess and School Committee member Eu-Rim Chun.So far no one has taken out papers for the vacant seat on the Board of Assessors, where Douglas Percy has stepped down.Municipal Light Commissioner Philip Sweeney, Planning Board members James Bishop and Karl Johnson, Water and Sewer Commissioner P. Thomas “Tom” Hamond Board of Health member Michelle Gottlieb and Cemetery Commission member David Cashman are also up for re-election. Gottlieb, Cashman, Sweeney and Bishop have taken out papers for re-election. So far Hamond and Johnson have not.