Marine Swears In New Mayor And Approves Summerfest

By Stephanie Malench

smalench@timestribunenews.com

The village of Marine swore in a new mayor and four trustees, two of whom were new, and approved a Summerfest at its May 5 board meeting.

First, Kelly Tracy was sworn in as the village’s first female mayor.

The new trustees, Trent Noeltner and Terry Gersen, will serve four-year terms. Re-electee Darren Apken was sworn in to a new four-year term and Heather Haskins was sworn in to complete an unexpired two-year term.

During public participation, Lisa Neudecker of Premier Works talked about plans to hold a Summerfest celebration in lieu of the Lions Club Homecoming that was canceled due to COVID restrictions and the group not being able to get a license from the state. She said all safety measures were in place.

“To be clear, this wouldn’t be just a village project,” added Tracy. “It would be a Premier Works fest.” The board approved it for June 25-26 later in the meeting.

Lynn Scherer read a statement expressing his displeasure with the lack of communication the board provided him with in regards to not allowing him to continue his volunteer work in the park because he is not covered by the village insurance policy.

Scherer said this cost the village 150 hours of volunteer service because of the disruption of the supply chain. He said he had no clue that this was going to happen.

“I went to my State Farm insurance guy in Highland and he said that if any of you have a question, he doesn’t know how to write a policy when I don’t get paid by the village and it’s me that’s donating,” he said.

During regular business, Tracy announced that the committees will hold regular meetings monthly that will be open to the public and that most of the work should be done in committees.

The first major accomplishment for Tracy in her administration is the Little Rae of Sunshine Park Association, in honor of trustee Rae Lynn Meyer, who passed away last April.

The Association’s first project will be lining Route 143 and Main St. with American flags on Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day Former Village Trustee and newly elected Township Supervisor Steven Bartlett was able to get $1,000 worth of flags donated.

The park committee and the board will now have to set parameters on what the volunteers do (special projects) versus the village employees (grass cutting)

In other developments:

• A finance meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, May 12 to discuss the upcoming budget and employee raises.

• The board learned that the solar renewal energy credit was approved. Money from July’s quarterly payment will stay with the Park’s Department for maintenance.

The next meeting will be held May 19 at 7 p.m. and new committees will be announced.