NOMINATING PETITIONS AVAILABLE STARTING FRIDAY

Number of seats will be up for grabs; if necessary, election on April 9

Those who wish to seek election or re-election to local governing boards may begin circulating nominating petitions this Friday, Jan. 26 and will have until Feb. 23 to file those petitions. If an election is necessarily, it would be held Tuesday, April 9.

More than a dozen seats on city and school boards that use The Courier as their official legal newspaper are becoming vacant. Those include:

Freeman City Council: Mayor seat held by Michael Walter; Ward I seat held by Charles Gering; Ward 2 seat held by Steve (Charly) Waltner; Ward 3 seat most recently held by Tabitha Schoenwald, who resigned earlier this month. All are two-year terms.

Freeman School Board: Two, three-year terms currently held by Emily Andersen (board president) and Doug McCune.

Marion School Board: Two, three-year terms currently held by Scott Tieszen (board president) and Jared Schmidt.

Menno City Council: Mayor seat held by Darrell Mehlhaf, a two-year term; Ward I seat held by Scott Simonsen, a one-year term; Ward 2 seat held by Jerry Fischer, a two-year term; Ward 3 seat held by George Cokens, a two-year term, and a Ward 3 seat held by John Huber, a one-year term.

Menno School Board: A three-year term held by Tim Freier (information about this vacancy provided by the business office earlier this month was incorrect).

Olivet Town Board: A three-year term held by Randy Deters.

Official notices of vacancies are published on pages 5B-6B of this week’s Courier.