Dicke retiring as NB administrator, Minster needs 1-year councilor

NEW BREMEN — Village administrator Chris Dicke announced her retirement during Tuesday night’s New Bremen village council meeting.

She will be leaving her position in December.

Dicke made her announcement following executive session.

“I think it's time to move onto something part-time or whatever because it's just a little bit too much sometimes,” she said. “I appreciate everything everybody's done but it's been rough this year. I think everything's going real well and I feel good about going out and hopefully everybody continues to do what's right for the tax payers, keeping it in line.”

Dicke, a 1979 graduate of New Bremen High School, assumed her role of village administrator in May of 2016.

She worked 25 years for the Ohio Department of Transportation, serving in various roles including county maintenance and transportation and project management.

“It's been fun. To a certain extent it hasn't been but it did what it needed for me,” an emotional Dicke said to councilors on Tuesday. “And right now, I need something else.”

Mayor Bob Parker expressed his gratitude to Dicke for all the work she’s done since beginning in 2016.

“I’d like to take a moment and just thank Chris for everything she's done for the village over the last five years,” he said. “Acknowledge it's been a good partnership and wish her well in retirement.”

Parker said that council will be putting together a job description for the village administrator position and will be posting that within the next week.

“We hope to start interviewing the first week of November but we'll be announcing that at the next council meeting when we formalize it more,” said Parker.

The Village of Minster is currently looking to fill an open Council seat being vacated by Rick Schwartz on December 31, 2020. There is one year remaining on the unexpired term. Any Minster resident interested in filling the vacant Council position should submit a written letter of interest to the Village Administrative Offices – Attn: Donald W. Harrod, no later than November 6, 2020.