The City of Reinbeck went through many changes in recent months. In January we created the new position of Administrative Assistant. Dana Shoenbeck was hired for this position and appointed as temporary City Clerk. Dana has done an excellent job learning everything and putting in extra hours to get things done. The City Council appreciates Dana for going over and above to get things done. Dana is an incredible asset to Reinbeck. If you haven’t met her, stop in City Hall and introduce yourself.

The first major hurdle the City Council had was to prepare the annual budget, without a City Administrator. The Council hired Julie Wilkerson as a consultant to guide the Council with this project. Julie was the City Clerk for Toledo for almost 8 years. Julie was a tremendous help in completing the annual budget. The Council had budget workshops, meeting one to two times a week for 4-6 weeks. We learned a great deal from Julie and if you noticed our budget that was published, we will have a surplus at the end of the budget year and we are VERY PROUD of that.

After conducting interviews the City Council hired Julie Wilkerson as City Administrator. We got to see firsthand her experience and her vast knowledge in city government while working on the budget. Julie will be a valuable asset to the City of a Reinbeck. Please stop in City Hall and introduce yourself to Julie. If that name sounds familiar, it is because Julie and her husband Tom own the Reinbeck Hardware Store. The Council is very excited to have Julie join our City and we look forward to working with her and moving forward towards our goals.

We have started the process of interviewing for open positions. It will take some time to find the right people. Right now we have Jerry Widdel doing the job of three people. Jerry has been putting in a great deal of overtime to try and stay caught up. Jerry has shown dedication and long hours put in.

We would ask the citizens to pitch in where possible and be patient with us. As spring is here and the weather is warming up, there are many things that need to be done to clean up the City. We had 14 water main breaks over this long winter and our streets will be repaired, but it may take some extra time. There is a great deal of sand on the streets. The street sweeper will be out, but the job will take longer than normal as we will try to squeeze this in along with the regular day to day duties.

We have nicknamed our City Council the Super Six. We have put in countless hours away from our families to work together to overcome all of these obstacles. It is with great sadness that the Super Six is now the Fabulous Five. On April 6th our fearless leader Mayor Shawn Murphy resigned due to a conflict with his current employer. The City Council would like to extend our sincere gratitude for all that Shawn has done as Mayor. Shawn was instrumental in guiding our team through all of these changes that have occurred. Shawns leadership will be missed!

Please be patient with us as we continue to move forward. We know that change can sometimes be hard. We feel these changes are for the better. We are bringing in some pretty amazing people that will help us move forward with our goals for the City.

Your City Council,

Tim Johnson, Brian Bunz, Angie Schwartz, Mike Harrison and Jordan Muller