Eldred Township appointed a new supervisor Tuesday night to replace Blaine Silfies, who had resigned in March.

Susan McGinty was selected from a pool of three candidates, which included Doug Borger and Ann Velopolcek. The supervisors interviewed the candidates at a special meeting on May 2.

“All three interviews were very good,” said Gary Hoffman, the chairman of the supervisors. “A lot of gainful information was obtained.”

Supervisor Scott Clark said he struggled with the decision of which one to choose. “What I’m really happy about is we had three candidates who truly want to do this and stepped up when there is a lot of people that don’t. I appreciate that.”

Township solicitor Michael Gaul said McGinty will serve two years of the remaining four years of Silfies term. Silfies was elected to a six-year term that began in 2022 and would have run through 2028.

Gaul said the rules dictate that the appointed candidate will serve through Jan. 1 of the first succeeding municipal election. This means McGinty will have to run for election in 2025 if she wants to serve for the final two years of the term.

“That’s in order to keep the term staggered in a way that it was originally intended to be,” Gaul said.

McGinty was sworn in Tuesday night and took her seat on the board for the rest of the meeting.

“What I enjoyed about Susan is what she’s going to bring,” Clark said. “She has been a part of our meetings in the past. She’s brought a lot of good conversation and thought. I look forward to her bringing that to the table and working together as a group.”

Hoffman said, “I think what is most important to me is she has vision moving forward beyond just today. I think that’s important for the township residents to know. We’ll have a good team.”

McGinty said, “I look forward to getting more (information) out into the community about what we do here and what all the groups do within the township. We touched on social media tonight, and that’s something that we need to work on.”

McGinty didn’t talk about her vision.

“We’re going to take it day-by-day and move forward hopefully for the benefit of everyone,” she said.