County council votes to fill vacant BZA seat

Pulaski County Building Inspector and Plan Administrator Karla Redweik recently came before the county council with a list of five individuals who would like to fill a vacated Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) seat. During the meeting on June 9, Redweik explained that the council-appointed member has vacated the seat due to a conflict of interest with another position that he has. The five interested people were Darrell Gudeman, Ronald “Rudy” DeSabatine, Courtney Poor, Jamie Murray and Mark Eber. Redweik explained that each person filled out an application and council members should have received them in an email. She said a couple of the interested individuals were present at the meeting if the council members had any questions for them. Councilwoman Sheila Hazemi made a motion to appoint Mark Eber and it was seconded by Jerry Locke. Councilman AJ Gutwein asked for Eber to come up and share a little about himself before they took the matter to a vote. Eber shared his background, noting that he graduated from Winamac Community High School in 1988 and Indiana University Bloomington in 1993. He currently lives in the Thornhope area. He mentioned that he had previously run for the Winamac Town Council when he did live in Winamac, although he was not elected. He did express the desire to be involved in local government in some capacity. Councilman Jerry Locke asked if he would consider himself “pro landowner rights” and Eber replied that he would consider himself to be. Jamie Murray was also present at the meeting. She said she has been a resident of Pulaski County her entire life and she owns land and lives outside of town limits, between Winamac and Francesville. Murray said she worked for the state for 14 years and in January she resigned/retired from her position and took a corporate field representative job. She is on the Pulaski County Farmers Market board and the 4-H fair board. She said she wants the position on the BZA because she believes there is a lack of transparency and she would like to be more involved so she understands what is going on.