By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
The second meeting of 2016 was a night of hellos and goodbyes for New Washington Village Council. Four oaths of office were administered and Mayor Ben Lash issued proclamations honoring two longtime servants.
The meeting began with council making appointments to the two vacant council sets. Gary Langjahr was appointed to fill the seat vacated by Gert Durnwald, and Joe Blum was reappointed to his seat. After the appointments were finalized, the oath of office was delivered to the two appointees, as well as re-elected council member Scott Hiler and re-elected Mayor Ben Lash.
“I’d like to thank everybody for appointing me to council,” Langjahr said. “And I know Gert was on council for a long time, they will probably be some big shoes to fill.”
In the mayor’s proclamation, Lash honored Gert Durnwald for more than 20 years of steadfast service, and declared Feb. 8 to 14 of 2016 to be Gertrude Durnwald Service Appreciation Week.
The other seat vacated by retirement was that of village solicitor upon the retirement of John Berger at the end of 2015. Lash read a proclamation in his honor as well, thanking him for 49 years of service as the village solicitor, assuming the office on Oct. 24, 1966. The week of Feb. 15 to 21 of 2016 will be John Berger Service Appreciation Week.
The council broke for an executive session in the middle of the meeting, for the consideration of personnel matters. When the regular session resumed, a recommendation was put forward to name Tim Obringer as the new village solicitor. It was duly ratified.
Safety Committee chair Jerri Lucius revisited the subject of the criminal and traffic code with Police Chief Jeff Shook. As it stands, New Washington gets no money back from the traffic tickets it writes, and only a small percentage of the criminal citations it writes. By codifying its own municipal code, New Washington will make sure that the money from tickets it is already writing will stay local.
There will be some expenses to this, about $4,000 up front to codify the laws, and an upkeep fee of $1,000 to keep the code on the books. Shook also said it would take six to eight weeks to complete the process once it is started. Lash recommended to council that official action on this front be delayed until the new solicitor is has started work in his office.