BERMUDA RUN – It has been a year of transition for the Bermuda Run Town Council in 2017 with three new members sitting up front at town hall.

In last Tuesday night’s meeting, Rick Cross, Mike Ernst and Chris Fowler took the oaths of office from Judge Jimmy Myers. The three were elected to seats on the council in the Nov. 7 municipal election. Cross and Ernst were appointed to positions earlier this year after the resignation of Shirley Cagle in January and Ken Bateman in February and were ultimately reelected.

Fowler, who is a newcomer, joins the group.

Outgoing council member Ed Coley, who has served the town since 2005, was also recognized. He received a box that contained a key to the town, a plaque and a photo.

Mayor Ken Rethmeier praised the longtime contributions of Coley.

“It’s difficult when we say goodbye to someone and this is particularly difficult because Ed has been a part of the leadership of this town for 12 years,” Rethmeier said. “He tells me when he first came here, he didn’t have a gray hair in his head. We recognize that for him it was his time that he decided he wanted to move on and to open up opportunities for someone else. We will miss him and wish him all the best.”

Coley said he has been honored to serve the town and pleased to see the progress that has been made.

“The town itself has come so far in 12 years, and it’s not my doing but the doing of the whole council,” Coley said. “I voted for a few things that I shouldn’t have and voted against a few things that I shouldn’t have, but I always voted my conscience. We’ve done a lot of really good things. Everybody now has sewer, and we didn’t have that when I started. We didn’t have a Town Hall. We didn’t even have an ABC store.”

Longtime council member John Guglielmi was again appointed to serve as mayor pro tem.

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In business items, the council approved text amendment 2017-03 Self Storage in Existing Buildings.

George Webb, who applied to the town for Hillsdale Mini Storage at 5226 US 158 in a vacant building, made the request to allow self-storage warehousing uses within existing buildings in the Town Center, Village Mixed and Commercial Mixed zoning districts. Webb’s building is in the Town Center zoning district. Self-storage warehousing had previously only been allowed in the General Business zoning district.

Planner Erin Burris said that a provision was added by staff to only allow the use in buildings within these districts that were constructed prior to the adoption of the Zoning Ordinance in 2005 with no footprint expansion, and that the Commercial Mixed district be excluded.

After a public hearing, where no one spoke, the council approved the text amendment with the changes as presented.

The council also approved the 2018 Town Council schedule of meetings on the second Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. and agenda meetings the fourth Tuesday of each month at 9 a.m.

The council ended the night by going into closed session to discuss the potential acquisition of real property. No action was taken.