CHARLOTTE, Mich. — The Eaton Rapids City Council is moving forward with plans to bring on a new city manager after being without one since April.
The city’s leaders are all part-time and the duties of city manager have been split between two other department heads.
Its been around three months since Eaton Rapids had a city manager, but the City Council voted unanimously to approve a contract to hire Yvonne Ridge to take on the job this summer.
Ridge is no stranger to the area, which made her very appealing to city leaders.
"She comes with some very extensive experience. She worked for Eaton County for about 30 years. And its also unique to the situation, but she served on Charlotte City Council and served as mayor before taking a city manager job in White Cloud," said Mayor Pam Colestock.
At Monday's council meeting, the body approved a five-year, at-will contract for Ridge.
She will make $97,500 dollars per year to make sure all laws, provisions of the City Charter, ordinances, resolutions and official directives of the City Council are carried out.
Ridge will also be responsible for overseeing the financial administration of the city. Since her predecessor, Susan Montenegro, parted ways with the city the duties of city manager have been split between two department heads, and that's been challenging.
"We really do appreciate everything that you've done. We're looking forward to getting things back together and having a really good cohesive relationship with this next manager and having everybody being able to work together," said Colestock.
Ridge is due to start her new position on Aug. 15.
City leaders say its a relief to have someone with her experience joining the administration.
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