The Village of South Jacksonville has a full Board of Trustees again following last night’s regular meeting.
Three new Trustees were appointed by the board during the regular April meeting at Village Hall last night. Former Trustee Todd Warrick was appointed to the board by Village President Dick Samples.
Warrick was first suggested to return to the board in February, but his suggestion was voted down by the board 3 to 2. He was eligible to be appointed after former Trustee Jason Hill was also not approved during the March meeting. After both were voted down by the board, Samples was able to appoint Warrick without board approval.
Warrick says he is happy to be back and feels there is still a lot he can contribute to the Village. He says a lot of thought and discussion went into his eventual decision to rejoin the board.
Warrick says he is excited to be back and looks forward to working with Dick Samples and the current Trustees and feels this is one of the strongest boards the Village has had in years. Warrick resigned his trustee seat in May of last year during the Tyson Manker Administration.
Two new faces also joined the Board of Trustees last night. Tom Luber and Steve Retzer were each approved unanimously by current Trustees Tom Jordan, Jackie Killion, and Paula Stewart.
Tom Luber has lived in the village since the mid-70s and says after retiring from the banking industry he felt serving as Trustee was a way to give something back to the community. “I don’t have anything specifically that I have an agenda for, I just want to help get the Village moving forward.”
Steve Retzer, who is also retired, says he also wanted to give back to the community and now has the time to do so. He says he has lived in the village for about 16 years and he retired from BNSF railroad two and a half years ago where he had worked since Capitol EMI closed in 2004. Retzer says he also does not have an agenda coming into office, he just wants to help out where he can. “I just want to lend a little common sense. What little bit I’ve got, I’m going to lend it out.”
Village President Dick Samples said after the meeting that he feels the village has “a great bunch of people on this board and we can move forward very easily.” He says though that moving forward won’t come without a certain amount of uncertainty.
“I guarantee they are not all going to agree with each other, and that’s the name of the game. That’s what I want. Like I said tonight, I’m not going to ever tell them how to vote, I just want them to vote responsible and think when they vote.”
Samples says he approached both Luber and Retzer about coming on the board and he is happy they both agreed to come aboard. Luber takes the place of former Trustee Stacy Pinkerton, and Retzer takes the seat vacated by John Stewart. Both Pinkerton and Stewart resigned as Trustees on March 9th. No update on the Clerk vacancy was given during the meeting.