Mitchell selects Davison County's Mark Jenniges for city planner role

Jun. 23—Mark Jenniges, the deputy administrator for the Davison County Planning and Zoning and Emergency Management departments, has resigned from his role to become Mitchell's new city planner.

The Davison County Commission accepted Jenniges' resignation on Tuesday, effective July 2, commending him for his work for the county. He has worked for Davison County since September 2015.

He replaces Neil Putnam, who resigned after 23 years working for the city of Mitchell in the city's Planning Department.

Jenniges recently operated the county's Planning and Zoning and Emergency Management departments while Administrator Jeff Bathke was completing a year-long military deployment overseas.

The city had advertised the job opening, seeking to help customers with land and development planning, plats, variances, conditional use permits, rezoning and data analysis, with an advertised starting salary of $63,230.

The commission and Bathke congratulated Jenniges on the new job and for his years of service to the county, and agreed that having a former employee working for the city of Mitchell would be helpful in forwarding the mission of the city and county governments working better together.

"It's a great opportunity for him," Bathke said.

The move comes as the city changes up the structure of its Public Works and Planning departments. Joe Schroeder, who has been Mitchell's city engineer for the last three years, was promoted on Monday, June 21 to the dual role of public works director and city engineer, by appointment of Mayor Bob Everson. Schroeder will oversee the city's airport, code enforcement, engineering, planning, building inspections, street and sanitation, and water and wastewater divisions.

Schroeder replaces Kyle Croce, who left Mitchell in May to take on a public works director job in his native Florida in Orange Park, a suburb of Jacksonville.