Niles-Maine District Library Director Cyndi Rademacher is set to retire August 16, according to a library news release, after a little more than two eventful years at the helm.
At the board’s regularly scheduled July 17 meeting, Board President Becky Keane read a statement thanking Rademacher for her years of service to the library and wishing her a pleasant retirement.
Keane later told Pioneer Press the board would begin the search for an interim director as soon as possible and that she had gotten agreement from the rest of the trustees to begin that process.
– Original Credit: Niles Library
In a statement released July 18, Rademacher thanked the patrons and staff she’d worked with over almost 24 years at the library.
“It has been my joy to work with so many people who spend their lives focused on others — listening, offering information, presenting stimulating, creative programs, and doing it with a welcoming, friendly smile,” she said.
Rademacher previously served as the library’s assistant director, taking over from former Director Susan Dove Lempke in July 2021. Lempke recently took over the top spot at the nearby Lincolnwood Public Library.
For much of her two years as director, Rademacher answered to a dramatically divided board of trustees.
The board, which was short a member for more than a year following former Trustee Olivia Hanusiak’s resignation, could not agree on whether to lift or continue a hiring freeze that ultimately lasted 19 months, whether to spend money fixing the building’s roof or how much to spend on cleaning the bathrooms, among many other disagreements.
Rademacher advocated for trustees to lift the hiring freeze, which a then-majority bloc on the library board had implemented. Employees voted to unionize in 2021 after they learned the board, led by the then-majority bloc, planned deep cuts to the budget, including the staffing budget.