Babylon Village trustee Debbie Basile announces resignation

Babylon Village Trustee Debbie Basile will resign from the Village Board at the end of July, she announced at a meeting Tuesday night.

The board voted 5-0 to appoint Robyn Silvestri, a member of several local civic groups, to fill the vacancy.

Basile, 69, has served on the board for 15 years. She said she was retiring to spend more time volunteering, among other pursuits.

“I have a bucket list that I’d like to start working on,” she said before the meeting.

Silvestri, 48, works as a director of marketing for Babylon Solutions, a local marketing company, according to her résumé. She is a member of the Village Volunteer Corps, the Village Women’s Club and other civic groups. She previously served as president of the Babylon School District’s K-6 Parent Teacher Association.

Silvestri said after the meeting that she hopes as trustee to “keep the village the way it is.”

“I love where I live,” she said.

She joins the board July 29.

In a prepared statement read at the meeting, Mayor Ralph Scordino praised Basile’s tenure on the board, especially her work at the Conklin House, a historic building maintained by the village.

“We are sorry to see her go,” he said of Basile. “But we are happy that someone with Robyn’s energy will be replacing her.”

The last change on the village board came in the summer of 2016, when former trustee Carol Amelia resigned, citing “dynamics on the board.” Amelia declined at the time to elaborate on those dynamics. The board appointed trustee Mary Adams to fill the vacancy.