Lang
12/13/23
The city of Swisher finally has a new mayor.
Monday night the Swisher city council appointed Julie Persons to serve as mayor for the term beginning January 2nd, 2024. She will hold the title until the November 2025 election, when the mayor position will once again be on the ballot.
Persons has been the communications coordinator for Swisher since October of 2021. She will step down from that position at the end of the month.
Chad Velvick, who was declared the winner of the 2023 mayoral race after a three-way tie was broken by a random draw last month, declined the position. No candidates filed to appear on the November 7th ballot, so all of the candidates were write-ins.
Velvick and two other candidates had actually tied for second, but the winner…Daryl Hynek…also declined the position so he could remain on the city council.
The official results from the election show Hynek received 12 write-in votes while Velvick, Christopher Taylor and William Wilkins each earned nine votes apiece.
Meanwhile, an at-large seat on the Lone Tree city council will be filled by appointment at its January 2nd meeting. Anyone interested in filling the position can submit interest in writing to the Lone Tree City Clerk by 1 p.m. on December 20th. That position was open after no candidates filed and the write-in winner declined to accept the seat.