Council, officials sworn in Saturday
Published 12:00 am Thursday, November 29, 2007
On Saturday, the Ironton City Council will get a few new faces.
With the results of the elections finalized, the new city council will be sworn in.
There were three open spots in the election and a fourth came open when Rich Blankenship was elected mayor.
Leaving will be Richard Price, who chose not to run again, Rick Meeks, who lost in the Nov. 6 election, and Blankenship, who won the mayor’s race against Bob Cleary.
Staying on council will be Chuck O’Leary, who retained his seat. He will go from being vice mayor to a councilman.
The vice-mayor will now be Robert Cleary because he got the highest number of votes when he ran for council two years ago.
Two new faces joining council will be Kevin Waldo and Frank Murphy.
A third new face might be Mike Lutz, who came in fourth in the election. Traditionally, when a seat is vacant the next highest vote getter is appointed to fill the spot, but it is up to the council members to appoint someone.
The other part of the council meeting will be to swear in the city prosecutor, the finance director, the council clerk and the city solicitor.
Since a charter amendment was passed by the voters, Kathy Elam will be named the finance director. She was the interim director because the city charter required that the finance director had to live within the city limits. Elam does not live within the city limits, but the amendment now allows her to have the post on a permanent basis.
O’Leary said among the things he would like to see the new council address are Memorial Hall, the cleanup of the city and continued support of economic development agencies.
He said he believes the goodwill among the council members and with the mayor’s office will continue.
“We are a working unit,” he said. “We’ve made some good progress and I think we will continue that.”
New council members and the mayor will be sworn in at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday in Council chambers on the third floor of the Ironton City Center Building.