Jeff Hill (left) takes his oath of office for the trustee position on the South Range Village Council. He had joined the Council to better serve South Range. (Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette)

SOUTH RANGE — The Village of South Range held a rescheduled Council meeting on December 12 to hear out village reports, recognize a new member of the council and discuss the need of an office assistant.

Before the meeting began it was announced that the village would be needing to seek a new trustee since a seat had expired on Nov. 22. A post has been released seeking a new member of the council which will accept letters of interest for the position until Jan. 9 at 5 p.m. The new member shall be selected at the meeting after this date.

The council then recognized Martin “Marty” Steinmetz with a resolution offering their gratitude and appreciation. Steinmetz has recently passed away and he was a member of the board for eight years and village president for four. He is credited with improving public works equipment, improving the village’s baseball fields and began grant funding endeavors to replace playground equipment.

While a staple of South Range was lost, a new face for local government was introduced. Jeff Hill joined the council for his first meeting as he took his oath of office.

“I joined to better serve the village and look forward to doing just that,” Hill said.

Another position may become open in the near future for an office assistant for the village. The council is seeking to make a part time job available that would partake in some duties that the village clerk oversees. The details of this position will be further discussed in the future.

The council has agreed in future meetings to further discuss animal ordinances due to multiple reports and observations of animals such as dogs, cats, chickens and other animals causing local disturbances.

The meeting concluded with the agreement to pay bills totaling $65,451.40.