And Bartus makes three:
Former mayor rounds out new City Council
BY TERRY SCHMIDA
The new face of the Marathon City Council looks something like previous ones, now that former Mayor John Bartus has been selected to serve on the body.
Bartus, who previously served on the council from 2000 to 2006, and again for a year in 2014, was the unanimous choice of the council members, following the swearing in of new member Michelle Coldiron, and returning member Mark Senmartin, during the council’s Nov. 10 meeting.
Technically, Bartus was chosen to fill out the remaining year in retiring Mayor Chris Bull’s term. However, Senmartin, the former vice-mayor, is moving up to the top slot, while Bartus remains on board as a council member.
Councilman Bill Kelly was then selected to replace Senmartin as vice mayor, with Councilman Dan Zieg and Coldiron voting against.
As per council rules, eight people had applied to replace Bull, who announced his intention to move to North Carolina to run a health club, two months ago. They included previous council candidates Eric Myrmel and Trish Hintze, whose bid was defeated in the Nov. 3 election.
“It’s a true honor and a privilege to bet back on the council,” Bartus said. “I asked to be brought back to the City Council in order to help with wastewater issues, which are going to be important to Marathon moving forward.”
Coldiron, who is married with a 29-year-old daughter, ran her campaign on a platform of quality of life issues, and said that her priority will be making Marathon “the best place to live and raise a family.”
“I want my daughter and her generation to be able to continue living here,” Coldiron said, following the Nov. 3 vote. “Obviously we’re going to have to work on the workforce housing issues, but I’m confident we’re going to be able to come up with something. I’d also like to see us fill the grant-writer position that we have available, so that we can find sources of revenue, other than taxpayer dollars, to work on things like building a boat ramp at the Quay, and keeping our parks nice.”
Senmartin, too, had identified workforce housing as the biggest issue facing Marathon during the election.
“We really do have to alleviate that situation,” he said. “I think it’s a priority for everyone now. We also will have to make some improvements to our sewer system. And I think we need to keep improving our transparency in government. The last council did a good job with that, and I hope the next one does even better.”

 

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