This week, residents of Smithtown will be able to vote for their representatives for the Library Board. Smithtown Library Elections will be held on Tuesday, October 10.
With libraries themselves acting as centers for resources, education, research, and community participation, the library board is tasked with being good stewards of those assets and keeping the library well-managed and transparent. The board, elected by the residents of the town, is also tasked with working within a budget that is also approved by the voters.
The budget for approval on Election Day is one of $17,292,960.00, raised by taxable property of the Library District.
Eight candidates are running for four seats on the board. All candidates will appear on the ballot in a lineup that will include only their names. Candidates have been campaigning on unofficial assigned numbers relative to where their name will appear on the ballot. Ballot position numbers will appear next to the names of the candidates in parentheses for the sake of these endorsements.
Incumbents Brianna Baker-Stines (5) and Barbara Deal (1) are running for re-election. Six challengers are vying for the seats: Vanest Avergel (8), Lucian Durso (4), Hector Gavilla (2), JoAnn Lynch (6), Christopher Sarvis (7), and Theresa Stabile (3).
While the race is officially nonpartisan, candidates are running on ideological slates. The Messenger is comfortable in endorsing a slate of four candidates for this year’s Smithtown Library Elections.
Hector Gavilla
Ballot Position: 2
Residence: Village of the Branch
Professional background: Real estate broker
Previous Elected Experience: None, ran for Suffolk Legislature in 2017 and 2019.
Hector Gavilla has been a voice for transparent government in the last several years, most recently having run for Suffolk County Legislature in 2017 and 2019. Gavilla has been active in school and library matters since his now-adult children were in school. One of his points of contention was that of a Che Guevara poster hung on the wall of one of his son’s classrooms. Upon discussing this with school administrators, Gavilla found that he had educated them on how Che Guevara is known in history.
Since then, Gavilla has been a fierce advocate for transparency in schools and libraries and believes that these institutions should teach children the objective subjects they need to think critically and problem solve. Gavilla believes that the rest is up to the parents and that the government does not, and should not, raise children in place of the parents.
Gavilla believes that since parents have a right to discuss certain topics with their children as they see fit, the library should not impose that role on themselves. With certain sensitive adult-content books found in the children’s sections, Gavilla does not believe this is by accident. Keeping age-appropriate content in the children’s section and adult content in the restricted sections is a priority of his.
Due to this advocacy for transparency and responsibility in schools and libraries, and his belief that parents, not the schools, should have the executive authority to raise their children, The Messenger endorses Hector Gavilla for Smithtown Library Board.
Lucian Durso
Ballot Position: 4
Residence: Commack
Professional background: Teacher for more than thirty years, coached sports, worked at the YMCA
Previous Elected Experience: Ran last election in a last-minute bid
A relative newcomer to the campaign trail, Lucian Durso hopes to instill a classical hands-off approach to sensitive topics and ideologies in the classroom. A teacher of more than thirty years, Durso has taught health, anatomy, sex education, nutrition and has plentiful experience in controversial topics, such as drug abuse and addiction, abortion, suicide, and anxiety.
Durso, also a grandfather of eleven grandchildren, says that big and/or stressful decisions make up significant parts of our lives, but that children should not be faced with decisions while they’re still developing and maturing. Durso uses the analogy of adults buying a house as a stressful decision to be made. He then compares it to an eight-year-old child gaining access to materials he or she is not yet ready to receive.
Durso concedes that while none of us are perfect, the baseline right and wrong must be found again. It wasn’t that long ago when none of these controversial topics were considered controversial. Durso believes local institutions must return to a morally objective ideology and not try to “weasel our way” out of right and wrong.
Based on his record, his vast experiences in education and his knowledge of childhood development, The Messenger is proud to endorse Lucian Durso for Smithtown Library Board.
JoAnn Lynch
Ballot Position: 6
Residence: Kings Park
Professional background: Pharmaceutical technician, worked in hospitals
Previous Elected Experience: None, ran for Smithtown Library Board in 2022.
JoAnn Lynch ran for the Smithtown Library Board last year. This year, she’s back with a larger slate of candidates, but her values have not changed.
A mother of high-school daughters, Lynch has learned that teenagers will focus on identifying with certain values and groups for social acceptance or to avoid bullies, rather than focusing on career aspirations and personal values. Lynch says it’s also prevalent in the libaries and on social media and that the sociological factors are making kids turn inward rather than healthily socialize or ask for help when necessary. She says that when these kids grow up and get to college, they’re so conditioned to constantly watch what they say that their focus is not, and has not been, fully invested in professional aspirations.
Lynch is a large proponent of the nuclear family and encouraging family values. She believes that organizations, even the American Library Association (ALA), actively work against family values and work in favor of educational departments and teachers unions. She also says that the proposed removal and changing of certain words in the adopted vernacular, such as “adult” to “human,” is a waste of time, effort, and resources.
Lynch also says that the school and library districts are focused on teaching kids what’s “appropriate,” but most of the time, it never includes any real morality.
Since she has her pulse on the current state of our educational facilities, and due to her strong family families, The Messenger endorses JoAnn Lynch for Smithtown Library Board.
Vanest Avergel
Ballot Position: 8
Residence: Smithtown
Professional background: Accountant, worked as a service unit for the Girl Scouts, webmaster for the Boy Scouts, and a treasurer for the Mothers Center.
Previous Elected Experience: None
Vanest Avergel touts her experience as a mother and as an active community volunteer as her qualifications for the Smithtown Library Board.
Avergel says that the largest special library district in the state – four buildings serving 115,000 residents and 6,000 children under the age of five – should not have adult material in the children’s section.
Avergel also says that due to her community roots and experience, she would also like to bring back community nights and events, such as Dancing Under the Stars or Merit Badge Nights.
Avergel also takes object to the electric vehicle charging stations that have been financed by the library’s budget, in turn by the Smithtown taxpayers, and are unrelated to typical library expenditures and budget purview.
Finally, Avergel says that the current board votes on everything in a 7-0 decision and there is hardly any discourse. She believes that the board should return to a period of healthy discourse and move away from a one-way view on policy.
Due to her community volunteer experience and her raising of three children in Smithtown, The Messenger is proud to endorse Vanest Avergel for Smithtown Library Board.
That said, The Messenger endorses the 2, 4, 6, 8 slate of candidates.
We encourage all voters in Smithtown, Commack, Nesconset, and Kings Park to familiarize themselves with the issues, the candidates, and the ballot in our article published last week. While we reserve the right to make endorsements for the Smithtown Library elections, we encourage all voters to come to their own conclusions and participate on election day, especially in something as hyper-local as a library election. These are the types of elections that truly have an impact on your everyday life. We highly encourage all to research the candidates and all to participate.
Polls will be open between the hours of 9:30a.m. and 9:00p.m. on Tuesday, October 10.
Voting will take place at all four libraries: Smithtown Main Building Library (1 N Country Road), Kings Park Branch Library (1 Church Street), Commack Branch Library (18 Hauppauge Road), and Nesconset Branch Library (148 Smithtown Boulevard). Residents’ polling sites are determined by their home addresses and Suffolk County election districts. Go to https://voterlookup.elections.ny.gov/ to determine your polling site.
Qualified voters may obtain an absentee ballot at the Community Relations Department in the Nesconset Building, located at 148 Smithtown Boulevard on days the library is open to the public. Public hours are 9:30a.m. to 5:00p.m, excluding holidays and weekends.
