Wanted!

A citizen living within the boundaries of the North Whidbey Fire and Rescue District who would like to serve the community.

With the resignation of Commissioner Ron Muzzall on Dec. 18, the North Whidbey Fire and Rescue board of commissioners is short one person and a chair needs to be filled.

Chief Marv Koorn said Muzzall resigned from the commissioner’s position he has held for the past five years because he simply didn’t have the time to attend the district’s meetings.

“Since he sold his dairy cows, he has been a member of the Land-O-Lakes board and as a result, he flies all around the country to attend meetings,” Koorn said. “He was having a difficult time juggling his schedule so he could attend all the meetings. He felt he should attend and he resigned because he didn’t think it was fair to the district.”

Muzzall had served a total of 11 years as a member of the fire district’s board. He was first elected to a six-year term and then took two years off before running again when another positioned opened. He had one year left to serve on his current six-year term.

On Thursday, Dec. 21, the fire board held a special meeting to discuss how an appointment should be made to fill the vacancy.

At an earlier meeting, Commissioner T.J. Lamont suggested appointing Bruce Carman to the position and questioned Chairman Larry Morse why his suggestion to appoint Carman wasn’t approved.

Morse said there had been no announcement in the newspaper regarding the vacancy and he wanted to see “what kind of talent is available” before making a decision.

“I have no objection to Bruce Carman. I just would like to see who is out there who might be interested in the position,” Morse said.

Carman served on the fire district’s board for 13 years before Morse defeated him in the last election.

Lamont said Muzzall told him a year ago he was having problems attending meetings and offered to tender his resignation at that time if Carmen was appointed to fill the vacancy.

Morse said the board could not do something like that — accept a resignation on the contingency that a particular person be appointed to fill the position.

It was decided to put an announcement in the Whidbey News-Times that the board is seeking someone to fill out the year remaining on Muzzall’s term. Those persons who are interested will have until Jan. 9 to submit an application.