Saturday, June 21, 2025
Three new candidates are running to fill the board seat left open by longtime Peninsula Public Library Trustee Audrian Gray’s retirement.
Rochelle Genack, Annette Pat Jones and Michele Justic are vying for the open trustee seat. Gray stepped down from the board earlier this year, after more than 10 years of serving as a library trustee.
Genack, a Lawrence resident, has been a member of the community and PPL for the past 30 years.
She said that her and her family have been attending library programs and events for years, and that she would love to see the library offer more to the community and create more programs for the whole family.
Genack said that if elected she would like to turn the library into more of a family community center, with events for toddlers, young adults, parents, and senior citizens.
“I care deeply about the library, we use the library, me and my whole family, and I am just a big believer in libraries,” she said. “I want the library to be some place where people from infancy, to senior citizen’s, can be coming and going from the library.”
Jones, an Inwood resident, has been involved in community work her entire life, working on many senior projects for her church, Bethel A.M.E. Church of Far Rockaway. She has also served intermittently as a board member for the Five Towns Community Center in Lawrence for the past 40 years.
Jones said her previous board experience prepares her for the role, and she looks forward to continuing her work within the community.
“I believe that the board experience that I have from working on the five towns community center board for so many years will be helpful,” she said. “So you know, I’m familiar with the rules and the bylaws of working boards and the duties and their responsibilities.”
Justic, a Lawrence resident, is the managing content editor for the Five Towns Jewish Times, and has been a resident of the Five Towns since 2003. She has also served as a volunteer program coordinator for the Chabad of the Five Towns , as well as handling some of the social media for Lawrence village.
She said she has been involved with the library since she moved to the area and has made suggestions for programs in the past that have come to fruition, such as the model train program.
Justic said that once she heard Gray was retiring, she believed that it was the perfect opportunity for her to try and take a bigger role in her involvement with the library.
“When she retired, I felt like, okay, this is the time to step in, and I want to see the library continue to grow and continue to help the community,” Justic said. “I think it’s a great unifier, the library. It’s really one of the few institutions that people come to, no matter what the age, not what their socioeconomic level is and it can really be a great force for the community.”
Voting takes place on May 20 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., for the PPL budget, trustees, along with he Lawrence school district budget, board members and referendums at Atlantic Beach Village Hall, 65 The Plaza, Atlantic Beach Number 2 school gym, 1 Donahue Avenue, Inwood, Lawrence High School Gym, 2 Reilly Road, Cedarhurst, and Lawrence Middle School Gym, 195 Broadway, Lawrence.
