Aliza Reicher will be joining the Great Neck Library Board of Trustees to fill a months-long vacancy on the board and bring back full board membership.

Reicher is a bankruptcy attorney and legal writer and editor at Thomson Reuters Practical Law. She received a B.A. in political science from Barnard College, Columbia University, and a J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

She ran in the library’s October election on a platform advocating against the banning of books and censorship, tighter finances, developing more programs for seniors and youth and hiring more staff.

Reicher lost in the Oct. 30 election to newly joined trustee Chayim Mahgerefteh. She received 450 votes, the second-highest number but fell short of Mahgerefteh’s 1,163 votes.

The board’s vacancy occurred after former trustee Donald Panetta publicly resigned during an October library board meeting. Panetta’s resignation came after a public dispute over the Parkville Branch’s temporary closure with Library Director Denise Corcoran during the board’s September meeting, which escalated into shouting by the ex-trustee.

The vacancy has existed on the board since Panetta’s resignation, which was officially accepted by the board at a November special meeting.

In order to fill the vacancy, board President Rory Lancman said the library’s Nominating Committee publicized a solicitation for candidates and conducted interviews. From there, the committee presented four candidates for the Board of Trustees to consider.

Reicher was one of the four candidates proposed by the library’s Nominating Committee to fill the board’s vacancy.

The board then held interviews with the candidates presented by the committee under the library’s bylaws, Lancman said.

He said the board interviewed the candidates at a special meeting Thursday night and decided on her appointment at the end.

While Lancman said all candidates were “outstanding,” the board is confident that Reicher will “make a great addition to the board.”

In other news, the board also approved a change order for the library’s Parkville Branch renovations to reinforce the building’s floor during its special meeting Thursday.

The building’s floor was found during an assessment not strong enough to hold the weight of the books and required reinforcement to prevent it from caving in.

While this is the 15th change order for the renovations, the issue was not discovered until construction had already begun.

The change order amounts to a cost of $7,410 for the project, which will be funded by the branch and the library’s Special Services Fund.

Lancman said this project is not expected to delay the re-opening of the Parkville Branch.

The Great Neck Library’s Board of Trustees will convene again on Jan. 18.