By Tom Gilchrist
For The Advertiser
MAYVILLE — Clare Fryers figures Mayville village leaders may not have to search for a new police chief and Department of Public Works superintendent, and may have what they need in Tony Coln, Matt Iseler and Eddie Blackmer.
Fryers, Mayville’s village president, said Coln — named Mayville interim police chief in the fall after the resignation of David Forystek — is “doing really well” as interim chief.
And Iseler and Blackmer — hired as part-time DPW employees following the Dec. 13 resignation of department Superintendent Andy Hecht — are “both good, dedicated workers so far,” Fryers said.
Council members hired Coln as interim police chief from December through March. Fryers said he doesn’t believe the village will search for other applicants for the post.
“The (village) Personnel Committee could decide to do so later, but right now everybody’s happy with what (Coln) is doing and how he’s bringing the department back together,” Fryers said. “He hired a part-time officer (Nathan Jaco) who works under Tony.”
Fryers added that “The town’s happy; we have officers on two different shifts and vary it all through the night.”
Hecht resigned and took a job with the Tuscola County Road Commission. The village has made Iseler and Blackmer part-time DPW employees, with each working 30 to 40 hours per week until April 1, the start of the village’s new fiscal year, Fryers said.
“We’ll probably give one of them the title (of DPW superintendent) and the other one will just stay at 30 to 40 hours per week part-time, or we might just get all new people,” Fryers said. “We don’t know. People move around, too, though we’d like them both to stay.”
Don Bicknell is a full-time Mayville DPW employee, but isn’t seeking the DPW superintendent job.
“He has all the licenses and the training and he’s going to help the other two workers and bring them up to speed on what they need to know to be proper employees,” Fryers said. “He’s the water service representative to the village of Mayville.”
Fryers said that, hopefully, both Iseler and Blackmer will be available if either is chosen as DPW superintendent before the fiscal year starts in April.
“When we get ready to do the new contracts in April, one’s going to get a little more (money) and we’ll decide which one’s going to stay where he is,” Fryers said.
The next Village Council meeting is at 7 p.m. on Jan. 21.
Coln has said he hopes to become Mayville’s new chief on a full-time basis. Fryers said the Village Council has put on hold any plan to seek applicants for the chief’s job.
“Unless there’s a request from the council, I don’t see any great need for that,” Fryers said.