By Matt Clevenger
For Miami Valley Today
WEST MILTON — The West Milton Village Council has selected a new municipal manager, ending a five-month search that started with the resignation of former municipal manager Matt Kline last November.
Council members voted to approve a resolution hiring D. Jeffrey Sheridan as the village’s new municipal manager during their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, April 13. Sheridan will officially take office on Monday, April 26, after relocating to West Milton from Iowa.
“I’d like to welcome him,” Mayor Anthony Miller said. “He has over 30 years of experience in different local government positions. Most recently, he’s coming from Webster City, Iowa.”
Sheridan defeated more than 25 other candidates for the municipal manager position.
“We went through a lot of applications,” vice-mayor Scott Hurst said. “They were all incredible candidates, and they all did great.”
“I’m excited to work with Jeff,” interim municipal manager Ben Herron said. “I thank council for taking so much time to make the right hire. I think this is really going to work out for us.”
“I would also like to say thank you to our hiring committee, vice-mayor Hurst and councilman Tracy,” Miller said. “They went through many extra meetings and put in a lot of extra work to really narrow down our candidate list. We had a lot of qualified candidates.”
The salary for the municipal manager position will be $120,000 per year. Service director Ben Herron has been serving as acting municipal manager since last November, when former municipal manager Matt Kline resigned in the midst of an investigation.
“When he resigned, we stopped the investigation,” Miller said of Kline’s departure. “Since he no longer worked here, there was no purpose to continue the investigation. Other than that, it was a personnel issue, and I can’t really share any more details.”
Several council members also thanked Ben Herron for his service as interim municipal manager.
“I want to express my thanks to you for everything that you’ve done,” Miller said. “Without you and without everything that you’ve done, I don’t know where we would have been.”
“You’ve kept this city running,” he said. “The work that you have done in the interim as acting manager has been phenomenal.”
Council members also heard an announcement from councilwoman Sarah Copp regarding the annual spring open house planned for downtown West Milton from 10 a.m to 5 p.m. Thursday, April 15, Friday, April 16 and Saturday, April 17. Door prizes and refreshments will be provided, and several food trucks will also be onsite.
“We are having an open house this Thursday, Friday and Saturday downtown,” Copp said. “We have some food trucks coming; it will be a fun weekend.”
On Thursday, April 15, Buckeye Burgers, Billy Gould’s Bubble Tea and Kona Ice food trucks will be featured from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Buckeye Burgers, Wild Bananas and Kona Ice are scheduled for Friday; and Buckeye Burgers, Holy Smokes BBQ and Kona Ice food trucks are scheduled for Saturday, April 17.
The village council’s next regularly scheduled meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 27.
