Newly-elected Mayor of Sedalia John Kehde was sworn into office Monday night during during a regular City Council meeting, along with four Council members.

City Clerk Arlene Silvey did the honors in front of a packed Chamber auditorium. A public reception honoring the outgoing mayor, Stephen J. Galliher, and the new mayor followed the meeting.

Kehde spoke with KSIS about his agenda and the future of Sedalia.

“I'm excited. I have an agenda. And the first order of business is going to be to establish a new development committee. All the east-side Council members will be involved in that. We're going to approach all the residential and commercial areas that's deteriorating and we're going to do whatever we can to turn that around,” Kehde said.

“Everybody is on my side. We're going to be aggressive towards the slum landlords. And it all goes back to trying to eliminate this drug community that we have, too. But it's not going to happen overnight, you know what I mean? But we're going to make a big dent in it,” Kehde noted, adding that he will take it one block at a time, and one day at a time.

The new Sedalia mayor said that Third Ward Councilman and newly-appointed Mayor Pro-Tem Don Meier will co-chair the committee along with Second Ward Councilwoman Bonita Nash.

“Nobody's going to tell us no,” Mayor Kehde proclaimed. “We can do it.”

Council members Nash, Meier, former Mayor Pro-Tem Jeff Leeman and Tollie Rowe were also sworn in at Monday night's meeting.

Two-term former Mayor Galliher was presented with a plaque by City Administrator Kelvin Shaw for his eight years of dedicated service.

Kehde won the April 3 mayoral election by a 49-vote margin over incumbent Galliher.

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