At a late evening organizational meeting on Friday, the Ironton City Council swore in a new councilman, returning councilmen and the mayor as well as appointing the council clerk, the city solicitor, the prosecutor and the finance director.
Mac Anderson, of the law firm Anderson and Anderson which was appointed as the city’s solicitor, spoke before he swore in council members
He said it was 43 years ago that he was sworn as a member of the Ironton City Council. He and his firm have served as the legal counsel for the city for decades.
The new councilman was Robby Brown, who won a seat in the November election.
Brown said he had a broad goal for being a councilman.
“I just want to move the city forward,” he said. “We have a lot of good projects in the works and I look forward to working with the rest of our city government and continuing that and, hopefully, contributing ideas to take steps forward.”
Mayor Sam Cramblitt II was sworn in for his second term as mayor by Lawrence County Common Pleas Judge Christen Finley.
He said his goal was to continue working on all the projects the city has in store that are either shovel ready or ones that already have a lot of planning and design.
“And also to continue to work on future projects in the community,” he said. “And with the new council, making sure we keep ourselves in this great financial position that we are in at this moment. We want to continue to score while we are up.”
The new council chairman/vice mayor is Craig Harvey, who got the position by getting the most votes in the previous election.
He said his hopes for the next two years were to continue with the things that are going well.
“There are future projects that I will be able to see through because I have two years left,” he said. “I’ll be glad to see those things move forward.”
In his opening statement before the new council, he said that he appreciated everyone that ran for mayor and city council.
“Whether it is my ticket or the other ticket, it shows people care about Ironton and ultimately, no one does this to get rich or famous,” Harvey said. “We do this because we love the city of Ironton and I loved seeing all the people running because there is a lot of love for the city of Ironton.”
He encouraged everyone that was involved in the elections, whether it was this year or previous years, to come and speak to the council and reach out to the council with their ideas.
“It won’t fall on deaf ears,” he said. “We always look for input and things we can do to make Ironton a better place to live and raise a family.”
Besides Anderson, the other people that were reappointed to the various positions were Marta Leach as the council clerk, John Elam as city finance director, Brigham Anderson as the city prosecutor.
The city council meets at 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month on the third floor of the Ironton City Center. The meetings are open to the public.