Marble Hill has a mayor, new alderman

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Marble Hill's board of aldermen ended weeks of searching and indecision Monday night and appointed Nick Hendricks as mayor and Charles Fisher as Second Ward alderman.

This action comes after a special meeting ended in an impasse because the board could not reach an agreement between former alderman James Sear and businessman Loyd Ivey. During that meeting it was discovered another former alderman, Clint Lacy, had expressed an interest but the board was unaware of it.

The aldermen had to appoint a mayor after it ousted former mayor Michael Sowers in February after a year of disagreement between Sowers and the board. The appointment of Fisher as Second-Ward alderman was necessary because no one ran for the office in April and the winner of the write-in votes declined to accept the position.

Hendricks ran a close race in 2012 against Steve Jordan for Bollinger County commissioner.

"I wanted to help Bollinger County," Hendricks told the aldermen. "I feel the same with the city."

The aldermen were unanimous in their support for Hendricks as mayor. Alderman Kenneth Trentham, who supported Ivey, said he still prefers Ivey, but for the sake of civic harmony, would go along with the rest of the board in its decision.

"Mr. Ivey is a very intelligent person," Trentham said. "If you Google Mr. Ivey, you will find out he has 750 people working for him. That's almost half the population in the town. He does a tremendous job with his corporations. He would have made an excellent mayor."

Mayor Pro Tem Deborah Acup said her biggest concern with Ivey is he seldom is in town, and would be unavailable for day-to-day issues in the city. Despite Ivey's claim that he has state-of-the-art communication equipment that would make it possible to attend meetings regardless of where he was, Acup stressed that in the event his vote would be needed to break a tie, he would need to be physically present to cast that deciding vote.

After the previous meeting, city clerk Krysty Davis contacted Clint Lacy about his interest in serving as mayor, but Lacy said he was no longer interested.

Hendricks and Fisher will be sworn in at a time and date to be announced.

Pertinent address:

Marble Hill, Mo.