Three incumbents and one newcomer were sworn in during the Montgomery City Board of Aldermen meeting on April 20.

Mayor Mike Spirz, Collector Jill Dunlap, Ward I Alderman Tom Benney and Ward II Alderperson Shannon Brock took their oaths of office after the results of the April 7 General Municipal Election were certified by the council members.

Spirz, Dunlap and Benney were reelected, while Brock is the newcomer to the Montgomery Board of Aldermen.

Spirz has been mayor since 2018, Dunlap has been the city’s collector for 20 years and Benney has been Ward I Alderman since the early 2000s. All three of them ran unopposed at the municipal election.
Brock defeated David Turner 39-32 in the Ward II Alderman race. A 1991 Montgomery County graduate, Brock runs an arts studio at the old Oliver’s Restaurant site on Sturgeon Street and is a member of the Montgomery City Public Library’s Friends of the Library group.

Also, board members voted to award a GIS (Geographic Information System) project bid to UtiliSource as well as passed a resolution for a utility mutual aid agreement with the City of New Florence.

UtiliSource is based in Columbia and is a sister company to Sellenriek Construction. City Administrator Steve Deves said the company will help the City of Montgomery in maintaining infrastructure mapping and street mapping.

“We’ve been talking to them about it for a little while,” Deves said. “We finally got stuff where we can see where we’re looking at and it’s pretty exciting. It will get us a lot farther into the future than we’ve been.”
UtiliSource GIS Director Alexis Gieseker was at the meeting. She said she and her company are looking forward to working with the city.

“I got an invested interest in the community, having lived here for 18 years and my parents are still here,” Gieseker said.

New Florence City Administrator David Ingle talked to the board members about how important it is to have a utility mutual aid agreement with Montgomery City.

“With the anticipated growth of the area, going through our OEM modules and certain requirements with the DNR as well as the public service commission, they normally require some type of second source in case of emergency management and disaster,” Ingle said. “That happens every day in New Florence, right? So this is just one of those things to where we would be very appreciative if we could partner with the City of Montgomery to fulfill that requirement, our OEMs. Of course, Steve has always been helpful along with the public works department and things in that nature if we needed something.”