{"id":205767,"date":"2026-05-11T21:39:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T02:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=205767"},"modified":"2026-05-11T21:39:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T02:39:50","slug":"council-forced-to-do-the-council-shuffle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/05\/11\/council-forced-to-do-the-council-shuffle\/","title":{"rendered":"Council forced to do the &#8216;council shuffle&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong><em>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was some shuffling done ahead of Van Wert City Council meeting on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mayor Ken Markward was absent from the meeting due to a previously planned vacation. That shifted Council President Thad Eikenbary into the role of acting mayor, and Fourth Ward Councilman Eric Hurless, who chairs the Judicary and Annexation Committee, into the role of council president pro-tem. In addition, Council Clerk Stephanie Phillips was absent from the meeting, which prompted City Auditor Erika Blackmore to handle those duties, which included reading ordinances and taking roll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to approving three pieces of legislation that pave the way for a $10 billion data center (see story above), council members heard the second reading of two ordinances setting speed limits along Ervin Road\/Van Wert Decatur Road. One sets the speed limit at 35 miles per hour from South Shannon Street to Elks Drive, while the other sets it at 50 miles per hour from Elks Drive to U.S. 224. Both measures will have their third and final reading at the next council meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another ordinance on second reading was passed as an emergency \u2013 it\u2019s a Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) agreement with True North Partners Holdings LLC, for a new Hampton Inn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming informed council that 25 mile per hour speed limit signs have been placed at Dickinson\u2019s Landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Due to the Memorial Day holiday, the next meeting of Van Wert City Council will be delayed by two days, to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 27, 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 There was some shuffling done ahead of Van Wert City Council meeting on Monday. Mayor Ken Markward was absent from the meeting due to a previously planned vacation. That shifted Council President Thad Eikenbary into the role of acting mayor, and Fourth Ward Councilman Eric Hurless, who chairs the Judicary and Annexation [&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-205767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-19 04:49:23","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\/205767","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=205767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205768,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205767\/revisions\/205768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}