Three trustees appointed to Hebron Village Board Monday

With little fanfare, the Hebron Village Board swore in three new trustees on Monday following the late August resignations of three elected members.

Village Board President Robert Shelton nominated Shirlee Correll, Candace Knaack and Dawn Milarski to replace the three trustees who resigned in August. All three were approved by unanimous vote by the remaining trustees: Mark Mogan, Josh Stevens and Mark Shepherd, with Shelton, adding his “yes” for a majority vote of the existing board.

The trustee resignations came from Patricia Peterson on Aug. 25 and James Lange and Sandra Drevalas on Aug. 29.

“Three trustees have resigned from the board,” Shelton said Monday evening. “We appreciate the service they have provided.”

The appointments came with comments from the public prior to the votes, including from Drevalas, one of the recent resignations.

“To our trustees who want to become trustees, you accept the responsibly of working toward the betterment of the village. … Vote your conscious. Remember you work for the people of this village,” Drevalas said.

Penny Smith, a member of the Alden-Hebron School District 19 board, also spoke twice. Once, she said, was as a representative of the school board and once as a “human being,” Smith said.

She questioned a portion of the board’s Aug. 25 meeting, when the village treasurer was dismissed from her position. Once a question was asked about then-treasurer Susan Fotland’s work performance, the meeting should have gone into closed session, Smith said.

Job performance, Smith said, is not allowed as a topic for an open session and could lead to litigation for the village. She also found the village president disrespectful of some trustees, Smith said.

“Some of you former village trustees … were not treated appropriately by our village president. The decorum was not there and was very disrespectful,” Smith said.

All six of the existing trustees will need to run in the April 2023 municipal elections to retain their seats. Shelton does not, as he was elected to a four-year term in 2021.

Of the current trustees, only Mark Shepherd appeared on a ballot. He was elected in 2019 for a four-year term.

Two trustees, Josh Stevens and Mark Mogan, were added to the board after the 2021 elections. Stevens replaced an elected trustee who resigned, and Morgan was appointed to a seat that did not have a candidate that year.

The three appointed Monday would need to run for two-year terms to retain those slots.

All of those on the dais after the meeting said it was their intention to run in April.