City council members Steve Matter and Karen Tjossem retire

Steve Matter and Karen Tjossem

Monday night's Decorah City Council meeting marked the final meeting for long-time city council members Steve Matter and Kare Tjossem.

Matter has served a total of 12 years on the Decorah City Council.  He says he enjoyed working with everybody in city government during that time.  Fellow city council member Gary Rustad on Monday thanked Matter for his service, noting that the two of them often disagreed on issues but Rustad never doubted Matter's devotion to wanting what's best for Decorah.
 
Tjossem has served a total of 8 years on the Decorah City Council.  "This has done as much for me as I might have done for the City of Decorah," she noted in her closing comments Monday.

With a total of 20 years of experience on the city council, Matter and Tjossem have been through a lot of debates. But, notes Matter, "We were always civil."