ROTHBURY — Rothbury police officer Ethan Walker was unanimously appointed the village’s new police chief Tuesday night at the monthly village council meeting, replacing Tom Hasper, who has retired.
Hasper, Walker said during the meeting, was chief for 15 years prior to retirement earlier this month. Walker’s appointment was accompanied by a polite round of applause from the assembled public. Walker also received a small monetary bonus from the village for extra work done while Hasper was on medical leave earlier this year.
In addition to Walker’s appointment, the village followed up on a discussion from May’s council meeting by unanimously approving a change to the village ordinance to make the clerk and treasurer positions appointed instead of elected. Trustee Mike Harris said in support of the move that most of the townships and villages in the area already appoint their clerks and treasurers, and Denise Kurdziel added that the move will help ensure the village always has someone with experience performing the job duties of a clerk and treasurer in those roles. It was also noted the clerk and treasurer are nonvoting positions on the council, so making the change does not affect any decision-making at the village level.
Also in Rothbury, complimentary garbage service will begin for all village residents at the beginning of June. The village contracted with Kuerth’s Disposal to provide the service. In an open letter to village residents earlier this month, the council noted that the revenues that made this service possible are coming from Electric Forest revenues.
However, that did little to quiet residents’ continued discontent over EF’s changes to its wristband program, which now provide Sunday-only passes to village residents closest to the festival footprint after previously providing passes to the full weekend of activities. The public comment period of the meeting was almost exclusively devoted to residents’ disagreement with the policy, and by extension with the council for the Forest’s mass gathering permit renewal, though the council denies the renewal was related to the wristband changes.
The council unanimously approved allowing Montague Area Public Schools to again use the village hall as a drop-off location for its summer meals. The meals will be dropped off each Tuesday between June 11 and Aug. 20 from 10 a.m. to noon, except for the week of July 4.
