The city of Bland’s mayor and public works department submitted their resignation letters to the board since the Feb. 11 meeting.

Bland Mayor Lee Medlock submitted his resignation to aldermen on Feb. 28, effective March 14.

“I will be resigning as the mayor of Bland due to personal and health reasons. I would like to thank all the board of aldermen for all their support and it has been a pleasure working with all of you. Sincerely, Arthur L. Medlock.”

Interim Mayor Mark Ferran announced Medlock’s resignation during the March 15 board meeting where aldermen voted to make the resignation official.

“Lee continued to stay on after he resigned to straighten out bank accounts,” Ferran said. “Lee resigned for health reasons and stress, and we appreciate all the time he put in.”

Public Works Director Jason Lewis submitted his resignation with a March 22 effective date.

“Effective today I’m letting you know that I am giving my two weeks’ notice. My last day will be March 22, 2022. I thank the city for the opportunities it has given me in my time here but it’s time for me to move on.”

Public works employee Dave Heflin submitted his resignation letter with a March 16 effective date.

“Effective today, I’m letting you know that I am giving my two weeks’ notice. My last day will be March 16, 2022. I thank the city for the opportunities it has given me in my time here, but it’s in my best interest to move on.”

Jason (Lewis) submitted his resignation and we are accepting,” Ferran said. “We are sad to see him go. We will be posting an ad in the paper for that position.”

The board voted 3-0 to accept the resignations and introduced Belle’s Public Works Director Tony Baretich. 

“Until then, Tony (Baretich) works in Belle,” Ferran said. “If they all give the ok, the tentative plan moving forward is for them to help us with the DNR regulations.”

Baretich answered questions from the aldermen and citizens about how to proceed.

“The biggest thing with (Department of Natural Resources) DNR is repetitiveness,” Baretich said. “If we can, we will help you get through this transition period. I’ve spoke to the mayor (Josh Seaver in Belle), even if an emergency happens during the day, we are here to help.”

Seaver commented that he is unsure how payment will be transferred between the towns for services rendered at this time.

“We haven’t discussed payment,” Seaver said. “I don’t know yet what that will look like. That is a very good question, so I will have to jump on that first thing (Tuesday) the morning.”

Ferran thanked Baretich for coming in and Seaver, who was not present at the meeting, for reaching out.

The city has posted the public works director position on the BlandMoSmallCityUSA Facebook page and said the ad will run in the newspaper.