Coplay Borough Councilman Charles Sodl is joining the library board.

Following an executive session that lasted about an hour, council reconvened Tuesday's meeting to unanimously appoint Sodl and Joan Witko to fill two vacancies on the library board.

"We are responsible. We are the guardians of the money," Sodl told The Press after the meeting. "We felt putting a council member on there demonstrates we're going to make sure the money is spent properly with good business sense."

At last week's workshop meeting, it was announced that three people had applied to fill the two vacancies – Witko, James Danko and Frank Dickman. However, seven people had applied for the position as of the regular meeting July 9. The other four candidates included Sodl, Karen Stoisits, John Schreiner and Ronald Helman.

"I really believe that article that was in last week's paper ("Coplay Library Board talks trash," July 4 edition) stirred a lot of interest," Sodl said. "There's a lot of people unhappy with the direction. They're becoming aware things need to change."

Sodl said he believes the library board does include some good people and that they can work together to move forward.

"I think there needs to be some accountability and stability there," he said.

Before the meeting began, Dickman asked council to consider how it goes about choosing people for the library board. Instead of just reading letters of interest, council members should talk to the candidates and find out what they have to offer.

"It's been pretty obvious that over the years, if you look back, it's been a revolving door at the library," he said. "There has to be a reason why more people aren't staying with the job."

Dickman suggested council form a committee to look into the running of the library "from one end to the other."

Over the past several months, he said, council has tackled issues such as fire department procedures and pool expenditures and came up with ideas for resolution.

"I'm requesting, that the same approach be taken when it comes to the library," Dickman said.