Two candidates are vying for one seat on the board of trustees for the Levittown Public Library. Incumbent Margaret Santer, current board president, is being challenged by Albert O'Rourke. The following are short bios submitted by both candidates.

The library trustee and budget vote takes place on Thursday, April 10 from noon to 9 p.m. at the library on Blue Grass Lane.

Margaret Santer is a 35-year resident of Levittown. She is the current president of the library board of trustees and has served as a trustee for three terms.

Santer, married for 40 years, is the mother of four children and grandmother of two. All of her children attended Levittown Schools and Santer has been active as an officer in many PTA units. She was also active in Cub Scouts and was a Girl Scout leader. She is active in St. Bernard's Church where she currently serves as a Eucharistic Minister. In addition, Santer worked as an office manager for an East Meadow podiatrist.

During the years Santer has served the Levittown community as a library trustee, the large print and audio book collections have been increased. Video and DVD collections have been developed and computer and Internet access programs have been expanded.

With the recent installation of the elevator and new front doors to the library, Santer believes the library will be more accessible to all members of the community. Children's room improvements continue and additional program offerings are also being added.

All of these improvements have taken place while keeping in mind the financial restraints of the Levittown community.

Santer said she looks forward to continuing to serve Levittown residents as one of their representatives on the library board.

Albert O'Rourke has been a resident of Levittown for 22 years. He is the co-founder of the "Friends of Levittown Public Library," an organization launched last summer, a patron's group designed to preserve and improve the library in a variety of ways. O'Rourke said that organization was set up mainly because he felt it was important to have general public involvement in the library and its activities. He is its current vice president.

O'Rourke is also a New York City school psychologist and registered nurse and volunteers his time visiting foster care children and reporting back to the proper officials regarding their new living situations.

A library activist, O'Rourke said that the library needs some updates. He noted that there is a surplus fund available which should be utilized for items such as a new air conditioner, a browsing room, new carpeting and a general upgrade. He cited some of his accomplishments as having the ability to obtain an Automatic Defibrillator from the Levittown School District for library use. He also noted that Friends of Levittown Public Library lobbied for years to get the recently installed automatic doors and elevators at the library.

He said that Friends of the Library have several future projects, such as putting together a garage sale to fund a visual arts competition with art store gift certificate awards for middle and high school students.

O'Rourke further noted that the purpose of his candidacy is to increase community involvement in improving the library with no tax increase.

"We can easily use [surplus funds] to make improvements. For all these improvements we look to make now we have to ask and ask for a long period of time," O'Rourke said. "I'm running to try to make it move a little quicker. We have a good library, but we have the resources to make it a lot better."