The Village of South Jacksonville moved a step closer to filling two key positions within village government.
The Board of Trustees met in special session Tuesday night for short list of agenda items. Candidates were interviewed for the vacant trustee position on the board, and for the position of Police Chief, to replace current Chief Tim Mann who is set to retire soon.
The board met with Megan Werries during closed session. Village President Harry Jennings said following the meeting the board will be receiving information from Werries’ employer to ensure there is not a possible conflict of interest, and if none is determined, the board will vote on whether to approve her appointment to the Board to serve out the remainder of the current term vacated by Greg Nelson, who resigned in June.
Two candidates for South Jacksonville chief of Police were also interviewed during closed session. Jennings says a decision for who to tap as the next village chief of police will likely take a bit more time to decide.
“We are not in a big rush, but we will probably make a decision sometime in the next 30 to 90 days. We are also looking at lifting the residency requirement for department heads. So we might look at that and see if we get some more applicants in or not, and then go from there. So we might have a second round of interviews for that as well.”
In other business the board approved a lease agreement with CassComm for some infrastructure needed for the high speed internet project currently underway in the village.
“They are renting a small place to put their cable box, and they are already digging lines and putting in cables so we will have fiber cable in the village very soon.”
The Board also voted to renew the current agreement to continue leasing a billboard on the west end of Morton Avenue near the Jacksonville city limits. After discussion the board did agree to explore a redesign of the artwork for the billboard that would be easier to read by passing traffic.