At Monday night’s Carroll City Council meeting, there were four members recognized and thanked for their years of service. This was the last official meeting for Mayor, Dr. Eric Jensen, Ward One Councilman, Mike Kots, Ward Three Councilman, Clay Haley, and At-Large Councilman, Jerry Fleshner. Fleshner had announced early in the year he was not seeking reelection to the council. Instead, he was running for the mayoral seat. He believes it was in the best interest of the city to have someone with experience follow in Dr. Jensen’s footsteps. He felt that experience would have been valuable going forward.
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Fleshner was defeated in the Nov. 2 election by Mark Beardmore, thus ending, for now, his tenure in city leadership. Fleshner says there were a couple of key projects he tapped as priorities for the city. Rec Center renovations is one.
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The second priority is street improvements. In his eight years on the council, Fleshner says he is most proud of having maintained a progressive approach for the city while helping keep things within affordable bounds.
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Favorable interest rates were also a key factor in maintaining affordability. Fleshner says he believes the library completion brough an end to a huge controversy in the city. He adds it always bothered him to spend money on projects. It is not just the citizen of Carroll’s money, he says, it is also Jerry Fleshner’s money. The city’s maintenance garage is an example of this.
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Conversely, Fleshner says one project he did not back and is actually glad it did not go through was signage at the entry points to Carroll. The problem he had with this was the cost; which he says did not seem like the most prudent use of dollars. Fleshner says he did not feel this was the right time to implement rental inspections either. He says it is working out, but it is a very complex process and it required another city employee. He also thought it was unfairly biased toward rental homes. Since then, he has read research that would have swung his opinion the other way if presented earlier. As he leaves the council, Fleshner thanks all of the Carroll residents.
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Fleshner says he has no formal plans, at this time, but he is still too young to completely retire from serving his community.