{"id":174419,"date":"2024-01-08T04:46:54","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T09:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=174419"},"modified":"2024-01-09T04:44:57","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T09:44:57","slug":"new-look-van-wert-city-council-to-hold-first-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2024\/01\/08\/new-look-van-wert-city-council-to-hold-first-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"New look council to hold first meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong><em>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Wert City Council\u2019s first meeting of 2024 will take place tonight and things will look decidedly different than the previous two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thad Eikenbary will officially take over as council president. He defeated former Fourth Ward Councilman Andrew Davis and Kirby Kelly in November and he\u2019s replacing Jerry Mazur, who retired from public service. Two other new council members will sit in on their first meeting tonight \u2013 At-Large Councilwoman Jana Ringwald and Second Ward Councilman Jordan Dettrow, who\u2019s filling the seat previously held by David Stinnett, who chose not to seek re-election. Ringwald is filling the seat previously held by Bill Marshall. Marshall is filling the Fourth Ward seat previously occupied by Davis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Municipal-Building-exterior-2-2017-e1704793435329.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-84106\"\/><figcaption>Van Wert City Council&#8217;s first meeting of 2024 will be held tonight. VW independent file photo<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Along with council changes, new City Auditor Erika Blackmore will attend her first meeting in that role. She\u2019s replacing longtime Auditor Martha Balyeat, who retired December 31. According to the agenda, council committee chairs have been chosen for 2024, and there\u2019s a new look for the new year:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finance: Jana Ringwald<br>Streets and Alleys: Jeff Kallas<br>Judiciary and Annexation: Judy Bowers<br>Properties and Equipment: Jeff Agler<br>Parks and Recreation: Jordan Dettrow<br>Health, Service and Safety: Julie Moore<br>Economic Development: Bill Marshall<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the previous two-year term, council committees looked like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finance: Jeff Agler<br>Streets and Alleys: Julie Moore<br>Judiciary and Annexation: Andrew Davis<br>Properties and Equipment: David Stinnett<br>Parks and Recreation: Judy Bowers<br>Health, Service and Safety: Bill Marshall<br>Economic Development: Jeff Kallas<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>At some point, council members are expected to discuss whether to continue with committees in their present form, revise committees and how they operate or do away with them altogether. Law Director John Hatcher has been tasked with researching options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for legislation, there is none on tonight\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tonight\u2019s meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building, 515 E. Main St.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor Van Wert City Council\u2019s first meeting of 2024 will take place tonight and things will look decidedly different than the previous two years. Thad Eikenbary will officially take over as council president. He defeated former Fourth Ward Councilman Andrew Davis and Kirby Kelly in November and he\u2019s replacing Jerry Mazur, who retired [&hellip;]<\/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-174419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 04:01:04","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\/174419","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=174419"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174495,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174419\/revisions\/174495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}