After three years as mayor and ten years on council, Mayor Doug Shaw, adjourned the November 3rd, Wauseon City Council meeting and officially retired. Immediately following the meeting, Thomas A. McWatters III, City Law Director, swore former Council Member, Kathy Huner, in as the new mayor.
President of Council, Heather Kost, presented Mayor Shaw a plaque in recognition of his years of service to the City of Wauseon. Kost said, “Sometimes I think that people don’t recognize how much extra time it takes to address the different issues that come forth from citizens. It’s really a great thing to be able to serve, but it’s also pretty time consuming. So I really want to make sure we recognize Mayor Shaw and thank him for all the time that he’s spent devoting his time to the City of Wauseon.”
Mayor Shaw said, “It’s truly been a pleasure serving. I’ve been in Wauseon all my life. I didn’t do this for personal gain. I did it for personal gain for the City. All you guys, it’s been a great time as the years went past. It’s been fun. There’s been high points, low points, but overall it’s been a good deal. Wauseon’s a great place and I hope to see it go forward.”
“The City’s really gone a long way. It’s got a long ways to go, but we’re in good hands. I wish everybody the very best,” he continued.
In other Council business:
•Council accepted Kathy Huner’s resignation as council member effective November, 3 for her unexpired term through December 31, 2017. Huner had to resign in order to be sworn in as the new mayor following the adjournment of the council meeting.
•Council passed three resolutions on first reading that extended previous contract agreements until the end of 2015 for indigent defense services in county court with the Fulton County Commissioners, city-county dog services with the Board of Commissioners of Fulton County and with Fulton County for bail bondsman services for Fulton County Court, Western District.
•Council passed a motion to accept the Finance Committee’s recommendation to approve the Wauseon City Investment Policy. Jamie Giguere, Head of Finance, said that the policy hadn’t been updated since 1995.
•Rick Sluder, Fire Chief, said that he will be calling a meeting with the Finance Committee to discuss personnel and funding issues regarding the EMS contract with county that the commissioners voted on as the proposal was significantly less than what was proposed. He also said that the Feather Party is November 15 and Wauseon Fire Department website is being redesigned. Finally, he said that the new Fire Safety Dog Marshall would arrive November 4 and will live at the fire station. He is a eleven-month old yellow lab that has his basic obedience training and just started his search and rescue training. A local dog trainer is donating the training.
•Dennis Richardson, Director of Public Service, said he continues to work on the Linfoot St. project. He said that they reached a compromise and by reducing the sidewalks by two feet from 8 feet to 6 feet, they were able to minimize the number of utility poles that need to be moved. There will not be a turn lane. He also said that they have hired Jeff Newlove as the new public works foreman. Finally, the public works department has started leaf collection. He asked that citizens place their leaves on the edge of the roadway, but not in the road way as they can clog up the sewers. There will be no brush pick up until all the leaves are collected.