Lights! Music! Inauguration!

Talk about it

Budgeteer Staff

Mayor Don Ness and recently elected city councilors will be sworn in on Monday, Jan. 9. Mayor Don Ness will take the oath of office as part of a brief ceremony at noon in front of Duluth City Hall. This event will be carried live by Northland’s NewsCenter, KBJR 6 and Range 11. A reception will follow in the City Hall rotunda.

City Councilors Sharla Gardner, Jay Fosle, Jennifer Julsrud, Garry Krause, Linda Krug, and Emily Larson will be sworn in at 6:30 p.m. at the Clyde Iron Event Center, 2920 West Michigan Street. (Doors open at 6:00.) Starting at 7 p.m., there will be a public reception in celebration of the inaugurations of the mayor and councilors at Clyde Iron. The reception will feature live music by Teague Alexy and the Boomchucks.

All events are free and open to the public. The events will also be replayed by PAC TV on channels 7, 16, and 20.

The Mayor’s State of the City Address will be held on March 5. This will be the second year that the address will be made on the first Monday of March.

“In past years, the council inauguration ceremony was only a couple minutes of the Mayor’s State of the City event,” said Mayor Ness. “This arrangement allows the Council to have their own event and allow the newly sworn-in councilors to have the spotlight. It’ll be a public celebration featuring some great music and fellowship rather than the entire evening focused on the mayor’s speech, which always felt unfair to newly elected councilors.”

And if you have ever wanted to get the mayor’s attention to discuss an issue close to your heart, the last Tuesday of the month is the night for you. ‘Mayor’s Night’ events are scheduled on the last Tuesday of each month at City Hall, to give citizens regular opportunities to meet with Mayor Ness and senior city staff. Sign-in begins at 4:30 p.m. in the Reception Room. Meetings begin at 5:00, on a first-come-first-served basis. All citizens will have an opportunity to meet with the Mayor, though a large number of citizens requesting to meet with the mayor may mean slightly shorter meeting times.