Library Votes Approach in Sag Harbor, Bridgehampton

Voters in Sag Harbor, Bridgehampton and Sagaponack will be asked to approve library budgets and elect trustees at a pair of upcoming votes this month.

Two incumbent members of the John Jermain Memorial Library Board of Trustees, President Diane Deger and Trustee Dan Glass, along with newcomer Anna Schiavoni, are running unopposed. Voting takes place from 2 to 8 p.m. at the library on Thursday, September 26.

There will be a hearing on the library’s proposed $3,735,957 budget and a trustee forum at the library on Wednesday, September 18, at 5 p.m.

In Bridgehampton, Board Vice President Eric Lemonides, who is moving from Bridgehampton to Sagaponack, will run for one of two openings in that district created when two incumbents, Sarah Stenn and Debora Oppenheimer, decided not to run again. Whether the second opening is filled or not depends on whether a write-in candidate emerges. Merritt Thomas will run unopposed for the opening created by Lemonides’s departure in Bridgehampton.

There will be a hearing on the library’s proposed $1,892,656 budget at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 12, and voting takes place on Tuesday, September 24, from 2 to 8 p.m. at the library.

John Jermain Memorial Library

Board President Diane Deger studied art and art history at Manhattanville College and has a master’s degree in art history from Hunter College. Before opening a seasonal gallery on Main Street in Sag Harbor, she worked as a corporate art consultant in New York City. She then took a position with a publisher of limited-edition graphics, and within a few years began publishing her own editions.

After moving permanently to Sag Harbor, she became director of education at Guild Hall in East Hampton, where she initiated new programs for children and adults in both fine arts and drama and organized the first Student Arts Festival. Deger served as an education advisor for the Children’s Museum of the East End and led workshops in bookmaking for children.

In 2001, she was hired by the Perlman Music Program to create an arts and crafts curriculum for the young musicians participating in the Shelter Island summer program. Recently retired from her position as a teaching assistant in the Sag Harbor Elementary School, she spent many years helping students pick out books from the school library.

Trustee Dan Glass grew up in a small town in upstate New York. Thanks to the books he read, Glass said as a young child, he traveled extensively, visiting such far-flung locales as Narnia, Xanth and even outer space. He lives in Sag Harbor with his wife, Jennifer, and daughter, Emily. He continues to travel and looks for many more adventures on the way.

Anna Francesca Schiavoni is a lifelong bookworm and North Haven resident, and she says the John Jermain Memorial Library has always held a special place in her heart. She remembers visiting the library throughout her childhood and bringing home a broad selection of books and movies.

She said the library fostered her love of reading, and she carried everything she learned there to George Washington University, where she graduated magna cum laude in 2023 with a degree in theater and music. Schiavoni is now a member of the Actors’ Equity Union and has appeared as Mary Warren in “The Crucible” at Bay Street Theater and as Celia in “As You Like It” at Sylvester Manor.

Hampton Library

In Bridgehampton, Eric Lemonides, who was elected in 2022 and has a year remaining on his term, is moving from the Bridgehampton School District to the Sagaponack School District, and has to run again. With Stenn bowing out a year before her term ends and Oppenheimer not seeking another term, there are two openings to be filled on the Sagaponack side of the board. Assuming a write-in candidate emerges, whoever receives the most votes will serve a full term, with the other candidate serving the last year of Stenn’s term.

Lemonides is a partner with Jason Weiner in the Bridgehampton restaurant, Almond. Born in Brooklyn, Lemonides summered on the East End and eventually moved to the area full-time and opened his restaurant. As the board’s vice president, Lemonides is also the chairman of the library’s renovation committee, which is currently working to raise funds to underwrite a major interior renovation to provide more usable space, particularly for teens.

“The library is a key hub for our community,” Lemonides said. “It gives everyone from local school kids to senior citizens a place where they can find something of interest.”

Merritt Thomas, who is running for the open seat created by Lemonides’s departure in Bridgehampton, was born in Chicago, grew up outside Washington, D.C., and spent time in both London and New York before she and her husband, Robert Wagner, moved to Bridgehampton in 2019. The mother of a 14-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son, Thomas, whose background is in banking and commodities, said as a newcomer to the area, “the library has been a real lifeline” for her whole family.

Thomas said she was looking for an area where she could volunteer her services, and the library seemed like a good fit. “I think I can be a voice for people in the community with younger children,” she said.