The Knox City Council has a newly elected president pro-tempore for 2020.
As a reminder, the “president pro tempore” simply serves as the representative for the council members and is the individual who would run the meeting if Mayor Dennis Estok isn’t in attendance.
When the council met for their first meeting of the year on Tuesday, last year’s council president Ron Parker nominated Councilman Don Kring for the position and Councilman William Gustafson nominated another member of the council.
He noted, “I’ll nominate Jeff Berg, I think he’ll do a wonderful job, nothing against Don.”
Berg was elected to the position after receiving three affirmative votes.
The City’s yearly appointments were also addressed.
Autumn Ferch was reappointed to the Park Board and the position of City Attorney, Harold Smith will once again serve as Police Chief and Kenny Pfost was reappointed to the positions of Fire Chief and Director of Building and Code Compliance.
Tim Lindewald was appointed as the Water Department Superintendent, Kelly Clemons will be Wastewater Superintendent and Jeff Borg will serve as Street Superintendent.
Mayor Estok also nominated George Byer for Park Superintendent and Kenny Pfost for Planning Administrator. Those nominations will have to be approved by the park board and planning commission, respectively.
Councilman Gustafson will represent the City on the Starke County Beverage Board and Starke County Solid Waste board while Council President Berg will be the representative for the Kankakee Iroquois Planning Commission (KIRPC) and the Starke County Economic Development Foundation.
The Council has two appointments for the Knox Redevelopment Commission. Action was taken to retain the same individuals as last year; Jeff Berg and Jerry Gurrado.
However, since Gurrado didn’t make any indication about whether or not he’d like to stay in that position, he was simply nominated and officials will follow up to confirm what he would like to do.
The Mayor also had three appointments for the KRC and he selected Marcia Hayes, Marsha Boggs and Mike Estok.
Meanwhile Kring and Parker asked to retain their positions on the Planning Commission and Gustafson was nominated to fill the open spot left by Bertha Blue. They were all appointed to 1-year terms.
There were two mayoral appointments for the Planning Commission as well. Mayor Estok appointed Todd Flagg and reappointed Brent Vannorman and they will each serve a four year term.
The Mayor also took action to appoint Anita Goodan and Jeff Houston to the Knox Economic Development Commission and determined that Jim Collins and Steve Dodge will continue to serve on the Board of Works.
The Council members still need to determine an appointment for the BZA and there is a vacancy on the Knox Economic Development Commission.
Anyone interested in applying for either position should contact the Mayor’s Office at 574-772-4553.
