BETHLEHEM — Twenty-two residents submitted resumes for the 2018 interim Town Board seat vacated by soon-to-be-Supervisor David VanLuven.
Using the same process by which Doris Davis was appointed to serve for the interim year following William Reinhardt’s election to the County Legislature, the other board members — Joyce Becker and incoming members Maureen Cunningham and Jim Foster — and VanLuven identified and interviewed six candidates: Patricia Beeler, Donna Gilberto, Steven Grasso, Seanan Herrick, James Pike and Giles Wagoner.
Describing all 22 applicants as “a deep group that reflected our community’s interest in and commitment to good town government,” VanLuven said it wasn’t an easy choice. “It was an exceptional group and a difficult decision, but we ultimately chose Giles Wagoner.”
Wagoner, who won the election to serve the final year of Reinhardt’s term in 2017, was initially going to run for the full four-year term last fall, until the candidate for Highway Superintendent Brent Meredith withdrew his name to take a job at SUNY and the Bethlehem Democratic Committee substituted Wagoner for the job. Conflict within the party resulted in a split ballot in the November general election and both Democratic candidates lost to candidates on the Republican line.