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Former Gazette editor appointed to City Council
A man who watched the McCook City Council for 25 years from the press table will now take a seat on the other side of Council Chambers.
Upon the recommendation of Mayor Dennis Berry and approved unanimously by the rest of the council, Jack Rogers, who was editor of the McCook Daily Gazette for 30 years, will fill the empty council seat created by the resignation of Marty Conroy.
"It's a difficult decision," Mayor Berry admitted. Both candidates, Rogers and Duane Tappe, cited familiarity with city procedures and a desire to serve. Councilman Aaron Kircher agreed it was a tough call.
"We couldn't go wrong with either one," he said and added that the council appreciated both candidates who took the time to submit their name for consideration.
Rogers was sworn it by City Clerk Lea Ann Doak and took his seat on the council. After taking a few minutes to figure out how to switch the voting lights on and off, he joked, "In my day, we just said nay or yea."
Both candidates were interviewed by the council Monday night at the start of the regular council meeting. Rogers, now retired, told the council he was a life-long resident of McCook, except for four years with the U.S. Air Force and four years at the University of Nebraska. For 25 years he covered City Council meetings and felt the experience gave him some insight into how the city worked.
In one instance during those years, the council came to trust Rogers enough to allow him to sit in on executive sessions, normally closed to the public, when the city was negotiating with NPPD about its contract renewal. The language was so complicated that the council felt it would be too hard to explain and instead let him sit in so he could get a better understanding before he wrote about it, he related.
Councilman Aaron Kircher asked if there was a recent event that prompted Rogers to consider the council seat but Rogers said there were none.
"I have no pet peeves, no pet projects, no axes to grind," he said.
Councilman Lonnie Ander-son commented that Rogers had been around a long time and had probably seen a lot of changes through the years. Rogers agreed and added, "Some good, some bad, but that's how changes always are."
Tappe told the council that whoever the council chose was fine with him, his main concern was the lack of candidates.
He observed that out of McCook's population of 4-5,000, only two came forward to submit their name as a possible council member.
"There's something wrong with that picture," he noted.
In citing his experience, Tappe is no stranger to city procedures either. He's served on the McCook Zoning Adjustment Board, the water committee and more recently, the sales tax ballot committee, as well as serving on the Wakefield City Council before moving to McCook.
He related that former city manager John Bingham asked him in the past to run for council, but at the time he didn't have the desire or time to serve, he said.
After retiring as an educator from ESU 15 at Trenton, he's spent the last few years as site coordinator at the Sen. George Norris Historical Home. He recently left that job and has returned to the ESU where he works part time.