Before the regular business got underway at Tuesday night’s East Lansing City Council meeting, two new faces around city hall were introduced.
City Clerk Sharon Reid, who officially began work Sept. 17, was publicly sworn in and Elaine Hardy was introduced as the East Lansing/Hannah Community Center coordinator.
Reid was chosen from among 35 candidates for the job of city clerk following former City Clerk Susan Donnell’s resignation. For Reid, an East Lansing native and MSU and East Lansing High School graduate, the job is as a homecoming.
“I consider East Lansing my hometown because it’s where I graduated from high school,” she said. “It’s always nice to come back to your hometown, and East Lansing is a wonderful community that lets me combine all my background as a teacher, as an election supervisor and as a librarian.”
For the past four years Reid has served as election coordinator for Ingham County and was responsible for supervising and coordinating all aspects of the elections for the county. As East Lansing city clerk, she will supervise the elections in the city as well as all regular record keeping.
After Reid’s official swearing in, Mayor Mark Meadows mentioned his longtime friendship with the new city clerk.
“We’re really lucky as a city to have someone of this quality and with this background to come into our city as city clerk,” he said.
Tuesday night was also a big night for Hardy.
Hardy joined the Department of Planning and Community Development as the East Lansing/Hannah Community Center coordinator. She is responsible for the public relations and promotion of community center events and amenities.
“We have such a unique community center,” Hardy said. “There’s not another one like it in the tri-county area so I want to make sure people are aware of the amenities and programs we have there.”
Hardy has lived in the East Lansing community for 14 years and is excited to be able to give back to her community. Recently Hardy worked for the YMCA coordinating teen, family and community programming.
“Elaine brings a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and commitment to the community center project,” said Tim McCaffrey, parks and recreation facilities director.
