By Jolene Farley
The Hills City Council will vote Thursday on a replacement for former mayor George Langford.
Councilmen Arlen Leenderts and Jim Jellema have volunteered to take over Langford's spot.
No other community members expressed an interest in the mayor seat, but resident Linus Svoboda volunteered for the vacated council seat, should Leenderts or Jellema be appointed mayor.
With two years remaining on a three-year term, Langford announced his intentions to move to Luverne after the sale of his home in Hills.
Langford submitted a letter dated Dec. 28, 2001, to the council tendering his resignation effective Jan. 1, 2002. Langford's resignation was accepted at January's meeting.
The city published an ad soliciting interested mayoral or council candidates, but the only response came from Leenderts, Jellema and Svoboda.
Jellema told the Crescent he's unsure why he volunteered to step in as mayor. "Just to have somebody do it," he said. "The jobÕs got to be done, and somebody's got to do it."
Svoboda was narrowly defeated in the 2000 City Council election. Dana Dahlquist and Arlen Leenderts won, beating out Svoboda by only six votes.
Svoboda has regularly attended council meetings and kept up on city business since his defeat.
Any appointments would be in effect until the next general election in November.
A change in meeting dates from Tuesday, Feb. 12, to Thursday, Feb. 21, was unrelated to the mayoral appointment, according to City Clerk Connie Wiertzema. The date was changed to maintain a quorum since two council members were unable to attend last Tuesday's meeting.