CLN board appoints new trustee

POST FALLS — The Community Library Network board appointed and swore in a new trustee during today's special meeting.

Karen Campbell of Hayden was selected in a 3-1 vote to fill the board vacancy left by longtime board member Katie Blank, who resigned June 16.

Campbell was selected in a 3-1 vote over one other nominee, Ron Hartman of Kootenai County. Campbell was nominated by Vice Chair Tom Hanley and voted for by Hanley, Chair Rachelle Ottosen and Trustee Vanessa Robinson. Trustee Tim Plass, who nominated Hartman, cast the sole vote for Hartman.

"I've always had a great, great love for the library," Campbell said. "As a child, I enjoyed so much going to the library and checking out books that would satisfy the desires of my heart."

Campbell has experience as a bank teller and loan officer and is retired from her position as a flight attendant with Southwest Airlines. She said she is an avid reader and taught her children to read before kindergarten.

Her goal as a trustee is “to protect our children," Campbell said.

“I am concerned about any harmful information that would be accessible to our children,” she said. “I would want to make sure that there was a protection there."

She said she is not talking about banning books but that she wants to be sure children don’t have easy access to certain materials.

“As far as who I am, the Lord Jesus Christ is my personal savior," she said. "My education was education — I was going to be a teacher. I completed three years, but then I got married after my sophomore year and started having children, so I didn’t complete my degree. But my love is for the children."