DeGroot joins Marshall council
New Ward 2 council member sworn in
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MARSHALL -- The Marshall City Council started its regular meeting Tuesday by swearing in a new member.
Eric DeGroot took the oath of office as he attended his first meeting as the new council member for Marshall's Ward 2.
DeGroot will be filling a vacancy left on the council when former council member Amanda Schwartz stepped down earlier this year. He ran unopposed in a special election to fill the Ward 2 vacancy.
"I've just always been interested in city government, and government in general," DeGroot said Tuesday. "Marshall has a lot of great services," he said, and he was interested in balancing being able to continue them, while still keeping taxes at a reasonable level.
DeGroot grew up in the Lake Wilson area and is a Southwest Minnesota State University alumnus. He has been a Marshall resident for the past 27 years, and has been active in community organizations like youth sports and serving on the Marshall-Lyon County Library Board.
DeGroot said it was exciting to go through the swearing-in process Tuesday.
"It's a little nerve-wracking, because it feels like public speaking. But as the meeting went on, I got a little more comfortable," he said. "It seems like a good group to work with, and I think it helps so much that the (city) staff seems so on top of everything."Running for office, and then preparing for joining city council, involved doing "a lot of homework," including watching meetings and learning about how city government worked, DeGroot said.
"I think a lot of it is doing your homework beforehand, so you know what's going on when you get to the meeting," he said.