Furgeson sworn in as next mayor of Shelbyville

Saturday, December 23, 2023 at 8:22 AM

furgeson-sworn-in-as-next-mayor-of-shelbyville

In front of a standing-room only crowd gathered at the City Hall council chambers Saturday morning, Scott Furgeson was sworn in as the next Mayor of Shelbyville.

Furgeson (photo, right), the owner of Cagney’s Pizza King restaurant in Shelbyville, was a two-term mayor of the city from 2004 to 2011. He most recently has served as the Fourth Ward representative on Shelbyville’s Common Council.

Furgeson, a Republican, defeated his Democrat challenger Nic Weber in the November election. On Jan. 1, the role of mayor will officially be Furgeson’s again.

“Today was a good day. We got everybody sworn in and I am looking forward to a good year,” he said. “We’ve been working a lot. I told someone the other day I think I’ve got two months worth of comp time already I could take off but I wanted to be ready to take office so we’ve done a lot of the due diligence.

“I am still meeting with the current department heads, getting their projects they’re working on now so we don’t stop doing. We need to keep going and moving Shelbyville forward.”

Rob Nolley, chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party, hosted the swearing in ceremony for the new Morristown Clerk-Treasurer Morgan Stratton, all seven Common Council members and the mayor – all Republicans.

Furgeson then took over and handled the swearing in of the city’s department heads (photo) which includes a new Police Chief, Fire Chief and Street Department director, and two new Board of Works members.

“It is a lot of change but I am confident in those gentlemen I picked to do those jobs will do a great job,” said Furgeson. “Chief (Bill) Dwenger has been around a long time and has the lay of it all. And Chief (Doug) Lutes being a retired fireman has done every job over there.”

Shane Peters will take over as Street Department director following the retirement of Doug Hunt at the end of 2023.

The Shelbyville Common Council now includes Kassy Wilson (First Ward), Betsy Means-Davis (Second Ward), Mike Johnson (Third Ward), Linda Sanders (Fourth Ward), Thurman Adams (Fifth Ward), Denny Harrold (At-Large) and Chuck Reed (At Large).

Also sworn in Saturday morning were the two new members of the Board of Works and Public Safety – Val Phares and Tom Reaves.

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