The Merrill Common Council will consider a petition next Tuesday related to an ordinance that eliminates the city’s elected street commissioner position and replaces it with an appointed street superintendent.
The ordinance was passed by the council in December and published Dec. 18, to go into effect 60 days later on Feb. 15. The petition with 277 signatures was submitted to the city on Feb. 15. The petition demands that the charter ordinance be submitted to a vote by the electors of the city of Merrill.
Of the signatures, 263 were verified as valid, and only 230 are required to submit the petition. The number of required signatures is equal to seven percent of the votes cast in the city during the most recent governor election. In the November 2014 election, 3,276 votes were cast in the city of Merrill.