Two councilmen call it quits

Walhalla today finds itself short of two city councilmen. One after the other, councilmen James Powell and Deek Biemann stepped down last night—for separate reasons, although the reasons reflect the personal changes in each of the two young men’s lives. For Powell, he’s building a home outside the corporate limits. Council service is limited to those who live inside the city limits. For Biemann, he’s awaiting orders from the Army for an assignment that will take him from his hometown. Fellow councilman Tjay Bagwell, presiding during last night’s meeting, congratulated Powell and Biemann on their service and said their first-term contributions have been important to the changes Walhalla is making. Biemann is serving a two-year term which expires at the end of the year. His seat will be part of this November’s ballot, and the winner can look forward to a four-year term in line with Walhalla’s new system of staggered terms. Powell is a year and a half into a four-year term. The winner of his seat in November will fill the rest of a four-year term that began in January 2012.