Smith, who came in second out of three candidates in the 2016 election, recently resigned his seat because he moved out of the district he was elected to represent.

Francis stressed that Smith did “an excellent job” and also did the right thing in resigning; statues are silent about any process to remove a board member who no longer resides in the district in which they ran.

The board will soon issue a press release, Francis said, calling for applications from those who live in the Beaverdam District; after an interview process, the assembled board will vote in open session to fill the seat.

Whoever fills the seat won’t be there long; the seat will come up for election in November 2018, and the winner of that election will serve until Smith’s term would have ended — so about two years.

Francis said that although he was eager to replace the seat “because those people [in the Beaverdam district] deserve representation,” he said the board was being deliberate about the process; there won’t be time to fill the vacancy before the board’s November meeting, and action during a busy December is also unlikely.