McNary to remain mayor pro-tem for another two weeks after expressing desire to shed role

At their Tuesday, December. 2 meeting, the Three Rivers City Commission’s first order of business was to reelect a mayor pro-tem, who serves in the mayor’s absence. During their last meeting, the commission unanimously voted Carolyn McNary in as mayor pro-tem. McNary has since decided to decline the position due to other obligations.

“I don’t know everyone here, but I know a lot of people here, and I work in a lot of different areas throughout our city, and I’ve just got a bunch of commitments,” Commissioner McNary said.

After McNary explained her decision, she nominated Third District Commissioner Anthony Stanfill. However, no commissioner seconded the motion. Commissioner Steven Haigh then nominated Commissioner Pat Dane, which Commissioner Dane seconded herself. Before the commission officially voted on Dane’s nomination, they decided to move the decision to the next meeting to reach a clearer consensus and have better attendance. Commissioners Lucas Allen and Torrey Brown were absent.

The commission will try again to elect a mayor pro-tem at its December 16 meeting. McNary agreed to continue serving in the position until then.

Other business

In other business, the commission approved the sale of 5.5 acres of Airport Industrial Park property to Confluence 3R Grow LLC on a 4–1 vote. Commissioners Haigh, McNary, Stanfill, and Mayor Angel Johnston voted in favor, while Commissioner Dane voted against. When the sale was last in front of the commission, Dane expressed strong opposition to the development.

“Is that what we want to become — the destination for marijuana in St. Joseph County?” Dane said at an October 21 meeting. Dane’s continued opposition at last night’s meeting drew applause from a member of the audience.

Commissioners also unanimously approved a PFOS local-limit sewer-use ordinance amendment, which limits PFOS to 12 parts per trillion being discharged and allows staff to enforce the rule on anyone found discharging above the limit. Another unanimous decision came on the WWTP barn roof replacement for $190,915 — the bid came in at $173,559 plus a 10% contingency, creating the total amount requested to be transferred from the sewer fund.

While reviewing the consent agenda, Johnston pulled two items — the revenue and expenditure report and the check register — to outline items she found potentially wasteful.

“One of the things I learned when I was learning politics was that people hide things in the consent agenda,” Johnston said. “We’re spending $690 on publications to the Three Rivers Commercial (News), $12,000 in emergency vehicle products, $4,600 in EMS management and ambulance billing. I don’t know the time frame on that, but that sounds like something we could probably take in-house. We have no budget for federal or state grants, no expected income there, which Joe and I will be working together on. The rest of my questions regard what grants we are going after. We should have some goals.

“Let’s see, legal and professional funds — I’m sorry, professional services of $260,000. Our treasurer and finance bottom-line item is $563,000. I don’t know what a CIP fund is, but it’s at $1.49 million. We are leasing a ton of vehicles, which I don’t think is a great idea, but we can talk about that another time. We’re spending $210,000 on inspections, $30,000 on street sweeping. We have $0 budgeted for surface maintenance for our roads, yet we spent $121,000 in contractual services.”

Johnston said she wanted to highlight services that could potentially be done internally by city staff and noted that the city should look to do so whenever possible.

The commission also unanimously approved two board appointments: Nathan Walden to the Airport Board, with a term to expire March 1, 2028, and Joshua Williams to the Planning Commission. Williams was present and shared his excitement and some background on himself before the vote.

“As a community, we need to step up and come together. And I think this is a great opportunity for me to help out where I can. If you have any questions for me, I’d be glad to hear them,” Williams said. “Some of the things I’ve done: I have volunteered at the Three Rivers Food Site for years; during COVID I actually ran it for a few months. My work no longer allows me to volunteer there consistently, but I do still sit on the board and help out where the need is there. There’s plenty to do in this community, and I’m excited for this opportunity.”

Maxwell Knauer is a staff writer for Watershed Voice.