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News
By: Allison Joy
IRON RIVER — The Iron River City Council appointed standing councilmember Ben Garcia to an open position created after last November’s election, at its Jan. 17 monthly meeting.
While Garcia technically did not win his re-election at the time, the appointment marks what is basically a reshuffling of positions on the council.
Former mayor Dennis Powell did not run for re-election as mayor and instead ran for one of two open city council seats. Garcia, along with Ronjo Leonoff, were both up for re-election. Standing councilmember Rodney Dood, who was not up for re-election, ran for mayor instead.
Powell and Leonoff won the two open seats on the council, with Garcia coming in just three votes short of Powell. With Dood, who ran for mayor unopposed, moving into the mayoral seat, the remainder of his term on the council opened up.
The council agreed unanimously to appoint Garcia, who has just completed his first four-year term on the council, to the spot.
Last November, Garcia said it was he believed that “Iron River will continue to grow economically, and be enriched culturally in both traditional and new ways,” adding that he believed “being a power of change in a community is not done just as a seat on a council, but by being involved in the very fabric of the town you lead.”
The night prior to the appointment, on Jan. 16, Garcia was at a meeting of the West Iron County School Board to speak on behalf of the local affiliation of 906 Adventure, a community biking program. Garcia was requesting the group be able to use Stambaugh playground as a meeting spot and staging area, because the team had outgrown its previous home of the last two years at the RV park.
“We take kids out and teach them life skills and bike skills,” Garcia said.
The school board passed the motion unanimously.
“Thank you for bringing that here,” said board member and former school board president Faye Atanasoff. “We like lots of those kinds of activities.”
Garcia will be up for re-election on city council again when that seat’s term expires at the end of 2025.
Wendy Graham contributed to the reporting of this article.