Troy council fills vacancy

The Troy City Council appointed a local

businessman and former councilmember on Monday to fill the vacancy

created last month when Loretta Jones resigned.

John Clogston, a regular at city

council meetings, was chosen to finish out the remaining 11 months

of the term. He served on the council in 2005 through 2006 after

being appointed to fill a vacancy.

“All I can say is I’d try to do my best

on the board,” he told councilmembers before they conducted a vote,

“and I’m sure that everybody here realizes that none of us walk on

water and you better not believe that I do because I know I

don’t.”

The three members of council

unanimously voted in favor of appointing Clogston over a second

candidate, Jim Carr.

Clogston moved to Troy with his wife

eight years ago from southern Nevada. The couple owned and operated

the Home Bar until about six months ago when they closed the

establishment.

“I can do civic duty things now,”

Clogston said. “I thought about running (in the election) last time

but I couldn’t afford to lose one patron.”

Clogston said he recognizes the

difficulties facing the council and Mayor Don Banning, who have

been at odds with each other for a year now, but that one

councilmember alone can’t change the circumstances.

“We all have to pull together or try

to,” he said.

A familiar face at council meetings,

Clogston has on occasion posed questions to the council and voiced

his opinions. In a particularly stressful meeting between council

and mayor last October, Clogston caused thunderous applause when he

told the city leaders to quit “bickering” and begin the “business

of running the city.”

“All small towns have their politics

that they put into things,” Clogston said Monday following his

appointment. “You have to just sort of bend with the wind a little

bit like the willow tree.”

In addition to his short time on

council, Clogston served six years on the board of a large electric

cooperative in Nevada and four years on a water company board.

After remaining neutral for most of the

tumultuous year, Jones quit last month, citing the way in which

Banning handled an issue with the council as the last straw. Jones

had been appointed to replace Larry Coryell, who also cited Banning

as his reason for resigning from the council in January 2010.