by WES FERGUSON
An alderman in Uhland who had been feuding with his neighbors over a road-improvement project in the town of 1,014 has resigned. A second alderman has also resigned, according to Uhland Mayor Daniel Heideman.
The two aldermen, Gordon Sassman and John Franklin, gave no reason for their resignations in letters they sent to the Uhland City Council, Heideman said.
“They just wanted to resign, so we accepted their resignations,” he said. “We did find a couple of other people to take their place, so we’re back to a full council again.”
The two new council members are Elsie Bolton and Rick Tobias.
Sassman and Franklin did not return phone calls by the Free Press’ deadline. Heideman commended the two former aldermen for their service to the town.
“I know they were part of the council and part of the community for many years,” he said. “They put in a lot of hours helping the community, and we certainly appreciate that.”
Sassman’s dispute with his neighbors stemmed from the city’s decision to lower a section of Seeliger Drive to control flooding in a residential area. Sassman has said the roadwork diverted excess rainwater runoff onto his property. (Click here to read more extensive coverage of the dispute).
Sassman has also said he was threatened by one of his neighbors during the public comment period of a city council meeting on March 2. When he tried to obtain a copy of the audio recording from that meeting, the recording had been lost.
Heideman said the city still does not know what happened to the recording.
“It was not on the computer. It was just static,” he said. “Something failed.”
In another change for Uhland, Heideman said the city council has voted to begin mandatory trash pickup beginning in June.
“We had a whole bunch of different companies coming into town picking up trash,” the mayor said. “That was putting a lot more heavy trucks on the roads, and a lot of people did not have trash service, and it started to be a problem.”
“There were a lot of places in town that were accumulating trash,” he continued. “I guess (some residents) chose not to have trash service for themselves, and it was building up on their property. Now they’ll have to pay for it anyway, so they’ll use it, I hope.”
