John Roach’s question of what to do with newly found free time was answered Thursday after he was one of two candidates voted in for Richmond Memorial Library’s Board of Trustees.
Up to this year, Roach has been “very busy” the last 29 years helping out with the Boy Scouts, he said.
“It was every Wednesday helping out with a Boy Scout troop and one weekend every month, and then two weeks every summer. But we don’t have a charter any more, we don’t have enough boys to keep the troop going. So as of January I’ve had a lot of free time, and somebody saw that there was going to be two openings and mentioned this to me, and I said you know, I’ve got the time, why not?” he said to The Batavian Thursday. “I’ve always been a library supporter. Even in the age of computers, I still go to the library. I use the reading material, we’ve used the rooms for helping boys from the other troops with merit badges.
“I’ve gone head to head with the Libertarians, who believe that there should be no public libraries, they should be eliminated,” he said. “I’m a big supporter of the library.”
District residents gave candidate Felipe Oltramari top billing with 270 votes, followed by Roach with 159 and Christina Mortellaro 123.
They also approved the proposed 2024-25 budget of $1,696,912, an increase of $13,814 with a property tax levy of $1,395,283, with a vote of 225 yes to 69 no.
It’s the first time in quite awhile there has been a contested race for the library board, Roach said, which didn’t deter him from running. A native of Kenmore, he moved to Batavia in 1974 and has been active in local groups and committees, including having served on the city’s Charter Commission twice and the Mall Operating Committee for one term, and has been an outspoken city resident at City Council meetings.
Roach is a Vietnam War veteran and is retired from the state Department of Corrections as a senior counselor.
He said he believes the library “seems to be doing well,” with a 2024-25 budget increase of 1% and an expense line mostly attributed to medical and building contents insurance costs, he said.
In comparing the duties of a library board member to government entities, he sees his new responsibility slightly different.
“As far as the trustee job, basically you just oversee what's been going on; if the director thinks that there's a capital improvement or something that needs to be done, she comes and the trustees look at it and if that's a worthy project and they look and see if they have the money to do it. That's basically an oversight, a lot less than say, like City Council or the county Legislature where they're setting policies and everything,” he said. “They don't really seem to set as much policy as oversee the policies that are already there. I'll get to know a whole lot more once I start attending the meetings more regularly.”
The only downside so far is the date of when he will be sworn in for office. That is to happen in July.
“It’s on my wife’s birthday,” he said.
Oltramari said that he was very thankful and honored for the support of the people who came out to vote.
“My family and I have been regular patrons of the library, especially when my girls were little. My wife, Laurie, worked there in the past and so we know and care for many of the people who work there and who serve on the board of trustees,” he said. “I was recruited to run for the board because I had mentioned in the past that it would be an interesting position. We love libraries and I don’t have a particular agenda. I just hope to help the great people who work there serve the community and be a good steward of this wonderful community asset and the taxpayers’ dollars.”
Oltramari has been a resident of the city of Batavia for the past 17 years. Along with his wife, they have raised two daughters in Batavia. He has been the director of Planning for Genesee County for more than 20 years.
