Mattawa City Council to discuss open seat

MATTAWA — If you’ve entertained thoughts of serving on the Mattawa City Council, you should attend the next meeting of the Council this Thursday, Feb. 18.

The meeting, which will convene at 5:30 p.m., will take up the issue of filling a seat the Council vacated at its last meeting with the expulsion of Cheyenne Weedmark.

Weedmark had one of the strangest runs on the Council after she was appointed to an empty seat by the mayor and was approved by the Council.

Weedmark finished out an existing term with numerous absences. She finished 2015 with three straight unexcused absences but couldn’t be expelled because she was elected to her own term in an unopposed election.

After Weedmark missed the first three meetings this year, the Council voted her out.

According to City Clerk Robin Newcomb, Weedmark never called with a reason for being absent and she didn’t call to object to being voted off the Council. The last the Council heard of her, Newcomb said, she was living in Schawana, which would have made her ineligible to serve.

Newcomb said the Council may or may not start the process to find a new member Thursday. Whenever it starts, it will likely call for letters of interest to the mayor.

In other business slated for Thursday’s meeting, the Council will consider the pay-station contract it has with Grant County PUD. There have been rumblings that the PUD does not pay enough to offset the lost time when city clerks handle PUD customers.