By Robert Medley
Managing Editor
After Okarche voters overwhelmingly approved adding two new town trustees to the existing three-member board, the issue of how to do it continues to be mulled over.
Okarche trustees Monday night voted to study a way to divide the town into five wards and just what that might look like.
Mayor Jeff Sadler worries there could be five future trustees who live on one street, should all the future members serve in at-large positions.
Voters approved the new trustees in a Sept. 12 election, but left it up to trustees to decide how to add the new members, and it will be at least another month before a special election is called to elect the two new members sometime in 2024.
Trustees Jeff Brueggen, Jason Kroener and Mayor Sadler voted to pay for a study of what Okarche would look like with five wards.
There are a number of options. Some cities of smaller size have up to nine trustees and others have four at-large members and a mayor, town attorney Bryce Kennedy told the trustees in a Monday, Oct. 23 meeting at town hall.
The trustees will consider allowing at-large members or members to represent wards when they meet in November.
It will take 60 days before a vote can be called once the election board is notified of the plan
Sadler questioned how separate wards would be good for Okarche in the long run.
“I don’t know that either choice is a good choice,” Sadler said at the Oct. 23 meeting.
“You are going to inevitably do one of two things once the new wears off,” Sadler said. “Not enough people running, or five people on one street, long term. Obviously it can’t happen right away.”
Sadler said he does not think voters want all of the trustees to be at-large board members who could live on the same street.
“I don’t think that’s what people voted for when they voted to have more trustees. I don’t think that is what they had in mind. They voted to have more trustees but I don’t think they had that in mind,” Sadler said.
A study of what Okarche would look like with five separate wards is expected to cost under $2,000, trustees were told at the Oct. 23 meeting.
During discussion of the possibilities, Kroener asked if the town changed to at-large trustees if they could switch back to wards. The answer was yes.
Sadler said, “I also agree that when you get to a town this size having five wards that gets really tough because you may have five people who want to run but not five people in different wards.”
A special election could be called to give residents a chance to elect new trustees in 2024 after the election board is notified and a filing period for candidates opens.
“We are going to have a special election either way,” Sadler said.
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