{"id":174112,"date":"2023-12-28T04:40:20","date_gmt":"2023-12-28T09:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=174112"},"modified":"2023-12-28T04:40:50","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T09:40:50","slug":"city-council-holds-final-meeting-of-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2023\/12\/28\/city-council-holds-final-meeting-of-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council holds final meeting of 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last meeting of 2023 was the final one for three members of Van Wert City Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council President Jerry Mazur and Fourth Ward Councilman Andrew Davis said their goodbyes during Wednesday night\u2019s meeting. Mazur chose not to seek re-election and is retiring from public service, while Davis lost his bid to become council president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mazur previously served as mayor and before that as a third ward councilman, but he said it\u2019s time to step aside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Council President Jerry Mazur presided over his final meeting on Wednesday. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt as though I could add something that would benefit the city but I think it\u2019s time to move on and let some younger people take over and I\u2019ll enjoy what they do,\u201d Mazur said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davis served two terms as the fourth ward\u2019s representative, but lost to Thad Eikenbary in a three-way race for council president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten work done, we\u2019ve made progress and we have a lot of good things happening in the city right now,\u201d Davis said. \u201cPositive momentum is a good thing and hopefully that carries over to the next council.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that he and his wife have a four year old child and said he has no plans to run again in the immediate future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After serving one term, Second Ward Councilman David Stinnett opted not to seek a second term in office. He was absent from Wednesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When city council meets for the first time in 2024, Eikenbary will serve as president, while Jordan Dettrow will take over in the second ward. In addition, Jana Ringwald will join council as an at-large member, replacing Bill Marshall, who\u2019s shifting over to the fourth ward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All council members, with the exception of Third Ward Councilwoman Julie Moore, were sworn in by Van Wert Municipal Court Judge Jill Worthington before Wednesday night\u2019s meeting. Moore was not present for the ceremony but was at the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

As expected, council members approved a 10 percent increase of the city\u2019s water rates, effective January 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just haven\u2019t kept pace with what we need to keep a healthy fund balance in that water fund, so that\u2019s the reason for the 10 percent water rate increase,\u201d Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other business during the 30-minute meeting council members approved a \u201cthen and now\u201d invoice of $3,087 to Smart Start for blood alcohol content monitors and house arrest equipment. On the recommendation of Mayor Ken Markward, council members re-appointed Dennis Cummings to a new five-year term on the Board of Zoning Appeals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next meeting of Van Wert City Council will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, January 8, in Council Chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building, 515 E. Main St.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor The last meeting of 2023 was the final one for three members of Van Wert City Council. Council President Jerry Mazur and Fourth Ward Councilman Andrew Davis said their goodbyes during Wednesday night\u2019s meeting. Mazur chose not to seek re-election and is retiring from public service, while Davis lost his bid to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 17:09:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174112"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174133,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174112\/revisions\/174133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}