Library Board, Budget Votes in Sag Harbor and Bridgehampton This Week

Residents of the Sag Harbor School District will have the opportunity to vote for two new John Jermain Memorial Library trustees and weigh in on the library’s proposed budget on Thursday, September 28, from 2 to 8 p.m. at the library.

Robert Ferrari Jr., Lisa Frisicano and Megan Curren Schmidt are running for two openings on the library board, each of which carry a three-year term.

The library has also proposed a $3,542,607 budget with a $140,303 spending increase that falls below the state tax cap. The budget includes increased funding for programs, additions to collections and digital content, said the library’s director, Kelly Harris. The budget also covers increases in insurance, utilities, and staff salaries.

Voters in the Bridgehampton and Sagaponack school districts can vote on the Hampton Library’s proposed $1,808,524 budget at the library in Bridgehampton from 2 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, September 26. The budget calls for a spending increase of $107,172, which would raise taxes by 5.5 percent, piercing the tax cap.

The two largest increases in the budget are for health insurance and payroll, said the library’s director, Lisa Michne.

Bridgehampton voters also will have the opportunity to elect four trustees to the library board, incumbents Joe Titus and John Vendetti and newcomers Doretta Goldberg and Stacy Ludlow, all of whom are seeking three-year terms and are unopposed.

Sag Harbor

Ferrari, who graduated from Colgate University with a degree in economics and earned an MBA in finance from St. John’s University, has owned a home in Noyac with his wife, Joan, since 2005. They became full-time residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He had a four-decade-long career on Wall Street, working for Dean Witter and Morgan Stanley, and is now writing a novel that he has been workshopping at the summer Writers Conference at Colgate. He is also enrolled in Stanford’s Continuing Studies novel writing certificate program.

In a biography he submitted to the library, Ferrari said he had grown up surrounded by books and would like to foster the love of reading in others.

Frisicano grew up in East Meadow and attended Hobart and William Smith College, earning a bachelor’s degree in biology and played on the national championship-winning women’s soccer team. She later earned 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.

Frisicano has served as a volunteer and coach for the Sag Harbor Youth Soccer League and works part-time at Sag Harbor Florist, volunteers at St. Andrew Catholic Church to provide weekly floral decorations, and grows and sells thousands of tulips and dahlias each season.

Curren Schmidt of Sag Harbor is a graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in art history and a minor in maritime studies. She worked in the art and advertising departments at Penguin Putnam before moving on to Simon & Schuster, where she became a managing publishing associate.

Outside of her early career in publishing, Curren Schmidt has worked predominantly in nonprofit development and communications, most notably as the former communications director at Quinipet Camp & Retreat Center on Shelter Island and at The Child Development Center of the Hamptons in East Hampton. She served on the board of Slow Food East End from 2012 to 2018. She lives with her husband, Marc, and a teenage daughter.

The two open seats are those filled by William McCoy, who has reached his term limit, and the late Gloria Primm Brown, who died last winter but would have reached her term limit this year.

Bridgehampton

In Bridgehampton, former board President Dr. Louise Collins has reached her term limit, and Mbachi Kumwenda has decided not to seek another term.

Doretta Katzter Goldberg, a former part-time resident, has moved to Bridgehampton full time after having retired from her careers as an attorney and educational consultant. With her work career behind her, Goldberg said in a submitted statement that she was looking for ways to contribute to the community and thought the library would be a perfect fit.

She said her experience as an attorney could be helpful in the library’s administrative matters and that her work as an educational consultant had provided her with insight into the needs of children and young adults.

She said the library plays a role in preserving democracy and civic discourse and that as a trustee she looks forward to enhancing the library’s role in residents’ lives.

Stacy Ludlow, who was born in Montclair, New Jersey, said she was fortunate to spend summers at her family home in Bridgehampton. A lifelong horse lover, she moved to Bridgehampton to work at Swan Creek Farm. She met and later married Art Ludlow, a potato farmer and neighbor, and they raised two sons on their farm on Mecox Road.

Ludlow opened Mecox Bay Farm on Paul’s Lane in 1998, where she trains horses and leases stalls to other riders.

Ludlow has been a member of the Bridgehampton Fire Department’s EMS company for 25 years.

She said she decided to run for trustee because she recognizes “the importance of supporting this wonderful, multifaceted resource for the community in any way that she can.”

John Vendetti, who was born and raised in Bridgehampton, is seeking his fourth term on the board. “This is my give-back to the community,” Vendetti said.

A semi-retired real estate broker, Vendetti still lives on the property where he grew up on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike across from Sawasset Avenue, where a sign reads, Vendetti Motors. “I was going to start a classic car dealership, but then COVID came,” Vendetti said, although he does dabble in car sales. He is also a longtime member of the Bridgehampton Fire Department.

“The library is a very important place for the whole community,” he said. “We have to protect it for the children, for the adults, for everyone who uses it.”

Joe Titus, who was elected last year to complete the final year of an unfinished term, will also seek a full three-year term. Titus and his family moved to Bridgehampton, where his children attend the Hayground School and his wife serves on its board. He is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Hiveclass, a venture focused on closing the access gap in physical wellness education among children.

He said the East End holds a special place in his heart and that he was committed to giving back to the community. He described himself as a “library kid” and said he appreciated the vital role public libraries play in their communities.