The city of Dell Rapids has a new mayor until April 11th, 2017. During their regular meeting on Tuesday, September 6th, the Dell Rapids City Council appointed an interim mayor.
Councilman Mike Geraets made a motion to nominate Tom Earley as the interim mayor of the city of Dell Rapids. The motion was seconded by Councilman Gary Haak. No other nominations were submitted to the council for vote. The motion was unanimously voted by the council.
With the move to mayor, Earley submitted his resignation as Ward 2 Alderman. The council unanimously accepted Earley’s councilman resignation. Earley was then sworn in as interim mayor of Dell Rapids.
“Thank you for your support. The only thing I want to say is that I think we have an excellent council here. My one and only goal is to continue to work with you and ask for your support as we move ahead with the city, and we do the things that need to be done and do them right. I think everyone sitting here has that goal, intention and spirit,” said Earley.
The open seat on the council left by Earley was filled by an appointment by the city council. Councilman Mark Crisp made a motion to nominate Barry Berg to fill the open seat. The council unanimously approved the appointment. Berg will serve as Ward 2 Alderman until the April 11th, 2017 election. Berg was also sworn into the council.
The council had three options on how to fill the vacant mayor role that was left when Mayor Scott Fiegen resigned on August 15th. The first option was to continue to act without a mayor and have the board president assume the duties until the April 11th, 2017 election. The second option, which is the option the council chose, was to appoint a current council member and then fill the open council seat. The third option could have been to appoint another resident of Dell Rapids as mayor until the next election in April.