The Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library announced today its two new board members. Abby Botnick and Richard Louis Ortmeyer will begin their terms in January 2012.

The CH-UH School Board interviewed ten candidates at its meeting Dec. 6 and selected Botnick and Ortmeyer that evening. Ohio law requires that the local school board be the tax authority for a community’s public library, so the school board chooses the library trustees.

They are taking over for outgoing Board President Audrey Cole, who retires at the end of the year, and Jason Stein, who resigned in June to take over former Cleveland Heights City Councilman Mark Tumeo's role on council.

Ortmeyer's term is five years, and Botnick's is seven. 

Ortmeyer, who has lived in Cleveland Heights for nine years, is a principal at the architecture firm Bostwick Design Partnership in Cleveland, and during his 20-year career as an architect, he has worked on more than 40 library projects, according to a press release from the CH-UH Public Library. 

“Those projects taught me to be a skilled communicator, as they required discussions across all organizational levels, from one-on-one with staff to board presentation to large community forums,” he said in the press release. “I’ve developed a deep appreciation for the challenges, opportunities, and responsibilities inherent to library projects in particular but also any institution supported through public funding.”

Ortmeyer is also a member of the Friends of the Heights Libraries, a nonprofit group that supports the Heights Libraries through fundraising and advocacy.

Botnick, a seven-year University Heights resident, is an attorney with the Cleveland law firm Shapero | Roloff Co., L.P.A. and is also an associate board member of the Anti-Defamation League: Ohio, Kentucky and Allegheny Region. 

“Public libraries are an invaluable asset to any community and serve so many important interests,” she said in the press release. “Heights Libraries provide literacy and culture, and resources such as educational classes that enrich the public and assist people who might otherwise not have access to these things.”