Township board nominates two planning commission members

By David Fleet
Editor
Atlas Twp.- On Monday night the township board of trustees voted 5-0 to accept the resignation of Planning Commission Chair Rick Misek and Planning Commission Vice Chair Paul Duggan.
Both positions will be vacated Nov. 15.
Township Supervisor Tere Onica recommend Greg Thurk and June Amman to replace the two openings on the seven person board.
“Because these seats will not be vacated until Nov. 15 and we have a meeting the 16th of November I would like to wait until these seats are vacated before making an appointment,” said Onica, who lost her re-election bid in the August primary to Shirley Kautman-Jones. On Nov. 3, GOP candidate Kautman-Jones will run against Democrat Justin Folts for the township supervisor position.
“For transparency purposes this (appointment) is fair and public, this is normal procedure and happens in every community,” said Onica. “Communities do not post these positions in the newspaper unless they have a lot of trouble coming up with candidates.”
Onica said these (appointments) are not family members, not her best friend, not someone that stood up in her wedding, not her next door neighbor.
“This is just a person that I know over the years that has served our community in other capacities,” she said. “To set the record straight, there’s nothing immoral, nothing unethical, nothing illegal about these two people and I’d be happy to appoint both of them.”
In January 1996 Misek was assigned to the township planning commission and zoning board of appeals. Over the next 25 years he served as a board member and as chair.
Duggan started with the planning commission in 1998 and also served as chair and vice-chair over the past 22 years.
“All of the tough issues from a trailer park to cell tower placement I’ve enjoyed working on them all—Rick (Misek) and I along others put a lot of time in on our job,” said Duggan. “I’ve never met such a talented group while on the planning commission. There are a lot of changes we made over the years—it’s a new team now and I hope they all do well. I’m going to miss the commission along the people I’ve come to know in the township.”

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