Two of the 10 seats on Isle of Wight County’s Planning Commission are vacant.

Cynthia Taylor, who since March 2014 had represented the Carrollton area in one of two District 2 seats, resigned at the end of January after 10 years and 10 months in the role. Thomas Distefano holds the other.

Rick Sienkiewicz, who’d held one of two Windsor area District 4 seats since August 2022, resigned last fall, citing conflicts with work and family obligations. George Rawls holds the other District 4 seat.

“It’s been an honor and a privilege to serve the citizens of this county as well as to serve with you all over this many years,” Taylor told her fellow commissioners on Jan. 28, which was her final meeting as a member of the body.

The Planning Commission, which is tasked with making recommendations to the Board of Supervisors on land use applications and zoning regulations, unanimously adopted resolutions that evening honoring both former members.

Commissioners are nominated by the Board of Supervisors representative for their respective voting districts and confirmed by majority vote of the board. To date, the board hasn’t appointed anyone to fill either vacancy. The appointment of Sienkiewicz’s successor was on the board’s agenda for Feb. 20 but the meeting was canceled due to heavy snow expected from Winter Storm Kingston. The matter will be rescheduled for the board’s March 20 meeting.

Commissioners serve four-year terms.

In Taylor’s case, the board is without a District 2 representative to nominate her successor. William McCarty, who’d held the former Newport District, now District 2, seat on the board since 2016, died unexpectedly in January just over a year into his third four-year term in office. Under state law, the board has 45 days, or in this case until March 11, to name an interim appointee to fill McCarty’s seat until a special election can be held in November.

State law requires the board to announce its nominee or pool of nominees for the interim appointment at least seven days prior to voting on the nomination. That appointee will need to be in place before he or she can nominate Taylor’s successor.