ROTHBURY — Rothbury Village President Vern Talmadge announced at the close of Tuesday's regular monthly meeting that he is retiring from his role and that Tuesday's was his final meeting.
Talmadge, who most recently was re-elected in 2024 and whose term expires in 2028, said he turned 65 March 31 and felt the time had come to retire. The rest of the present council congratulated Talmadge for the milestone.
To open the meeting, the council met with its attorney Brennen Gorman from Parmenter Law to discuss the change to Scott Beishuizen's Department of Public Works director position that it outlined last month. In March's meeting, the council said that Beishuizen would be named village manager, but Gorman said the council may want to consider a different title or some sort of other way to promote Beishuizen.
"I'm just not sure if (Beishuizen's job description) is in line with what a village manager position is expected to do," Gorman said.
Gorman added that a village manager position would imply an authority or expectation of Beishuizen that the council does not intend. He suggested an alternate title of Director of Operations or something similar. The council will take up the issue again next month.
The council continued discussion of the improvements to be made at Czarny Park later this year, going over the expense of new infield dirt for the ball field. Beishuizen told the council the dirt is expensive - $5,000 for one large load that would cover the infield. Village Clerk Brandy Williams offered that cheaper options exist, but in her experience it would be better to go with one that held its form better and would likely last longer. No official action was taken.
The council also granted a 5-0 approval (Jim Fekken and Dylan Zuniga were absent) to the use of the village hall for Montague Area Public Schools' summer meal distribution program again this year. The village recently received communication from MAPS food service director Dan Gorman regarding the success of last year's program, which he said distributed over 50,000 meals to district families. The distributions will again take place Tuesdays beginning June 9 and lasting through Aug. 18. The council did not confirm distributions will not take place the week of the Electric Forest Festival, which would be June 23, but noted that that's how the schedule played out last year.
