FRANKLIN
Franklin’s City Council voted unanimously on Monday to reappoint two members of the Franklin City school board to new three-year terms, and to appoint a new member to the at-large seat on the board.

Bob Holt, who serves as chairman of the school board, was reappointed to the Ward 6 seat and Marchelle Williams was reappointed to the Ward 4 seat. The new at-large member is Carrie Johnson.

Johnson is an alumna of Franklin High School and Old Dominion University, and is a certified, licensed teacher in Virginia. She has two children enrolled in Franklin City Public Schools: a seventh grader at J.P. King Jr. Middle School and a junior at Franklin High School.

She will be replacing outgoing at-large school board member Ron Rusnak effective July 1. Rusnak has served on the school board since December 2016 when he was appointed to fill out the term vacated by Edna King earlier that year.

In other business, the council also voted unanimously to abate approximately $220 in real estate taxes owed on the land donated by International Paper earlier this year for the city’s riverwalk park. IP had paid all taxes on the land current as of Dec. 31, 2017, anticipating that the transfer would occur prior to Jan. 1, but because the transfer of the deed did not officially occur until March, IP incurred new taxes over the three-month period, which are now forgiven.

They also voted unanimously to amend Franklin City Public Schools’ current fiscal year budget to reflect $129,706 in additional state and local revenues and associated changes to expenditures in the same amount.