Jarrad Walter elected to Decorah City Council

City Clerk Wanda Hemesath administers the oath of office to Jarrad Walter

Jarrad Walter is the new 1st Ward representative on the Decorah City Council.

Walter is a Decorah native who returned to town last June after being gone for 13 years.  He was one of two candidates for the position left open when former First Ward city councilperson John Franzen resigned last month when his employment changed, requiring him to spend more time out of town. 

Current Fifth Ward city councilperson Randy Schissel was the other candidate for the position because city council districts got redrawn in 2012, based on 2010 U.S. Census information, and Schissel now lives in the First Ward.

But Schissel announced Tuesday night that he was withdrawing his name from consideration.  He will remain the 5th Ward representative until November and Schissel said he looked forward "to continuing to work with this council."

Schissel's application for the First Ward position came at a time when there were no announced candidates for the position.  City council member Paul Wanless backed up Schissel on that point and stated that there had been no back office politics in Schissel's application.