The Tioga City Council has a vacancy, and it’s encouraging residents to apply for the position.
Jim Coffey submitted his resignation, creating the open seat.
“He sold his house and moved,” Mayor Craig Jezek said.
The council said during the Tuesday evening meeting they would miss having Coffey’s involvement.
“If we vote not to accept his resignation, then he’s got to move back,” Hall said, drawing chuckles from the crowd.
Council member Heather Nesmith, in response to the mayor asking how the council wanted to proceed in light of the vacancy, said she wanted to see the city open the opportunity up to the community.
“I was thinking that since there’s still so much time before elections, that if we did want to fill it, that we did something similar [to] what the school did when they [filled] theirs,” she said.
That was to open an application to the community and to interview the prospective candidates, with the council voting to appoint the new member.
The council agreed, with Galen Jones specifying that he would want to close the opportunity if no satisfactory candidates are found by January.
“At some point, maybe it’s better to just go ahead and leave it if we don’t get any interest or find anybody that we’d like,” he said.
Jezek reminded the council that some votes require more than a simple majority, so attendance would be critical while a vacancy remains.
“Usually everybody’s here anyway,” he added. Also at the meeting, the council renewed its agreements with Grayson County regarding fire services and ambulance services as well as emulsion road oil for pothole repairs.
“You’ve been seeing a lot has been used around town,” Jezek said.
The council also approved the Tioga Industrial Development Corporation budget and the Tioga Economic Development Corporation budget as well as a planning application for a minor plat for two lots in the Miller Addition during the roughly 12-minute meeting.
Heather Nesmith proposes opening the city council vacancy to the community for applications. Abigail Allen/The Post-Signal
