Member of council set to resign

REDKEY - On the same day that officers were elected for the new year, a member of the Redkey Town Council announced she would be stepping down at the end of the month.

Dottie Quakenbush, who has served on the council for six years (including as vice president in 2009), said Saturday she plans to resign effective Jan. 31. There will be one year and 11 months left in her term when she leaves office; Quakenbush's replacement will be named by the Redkey Democratic Party.

Before discussion of her resignation, Doug Stanley, who was re-elected council president Saturday, asked if Quakenbush would reconsider. She said she would not.

"Thank you for your service. I appreciate everything you've done," Stanley told her.

Quakenbush said that while she was stepping down from the council, she still planned to remain active with other community projects. She said she intended to continue with her duties on the Redkey Community Center (Park Cabin) Board as well as remain active with the Jay County 20/20 Vision planning group.

Also Saturday, council member Phil Philebaum was elected to serve as vice president.

In other business, Stanley re-appointed council members to continue supervising departments they guided last year.

These include: Philebaum, police department; Quakenbush, fire department; Terri Taylor, street and water departments; and Charles Noble, parks department.

Saying his workload has increased as vice chairman of Jay County Development Corporation and with the Jay County Chamber of Commerce, Stanley asked another council member to supervise the town sewer department.

Philebaum agreed to take over supervision of the sewer department.

Also Saturday, town council members:

•Heard Stanley report several issues must be resolved before final payments should be approved on the town's $2 million water system improvement project. Stanley said that he had discussed these matters with the consulting engineering firm, Commonwealth of Indianapolis, and he felt it was Commonwealth's responsibility to review the matter further and make some recommendations.

•Approved the salary ordinance for 2010 with no pay increases for employees or elected officials, as previously agreed upon.

•Heard several questions from Redkey resident Joe Anderson about the status of the town's park board and its relationship with the Redkey Junior League and Redkey Community Center (Park Cabin) Board.

Anderson also said he is interested in getting the clock on Redkey's historic fire station building running again. Anderson said he had discussed this matter recently with Quakenbush.

•Noted the next council meeting is scheduled for Jan. 21 at 6 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]