Shannon Rummel appointed to fill Fawn supervisor vacancy

A new Fawn Supervisor was appointed by the township’s vacancy board following two tie votes by supervisors.

Vacancy board member Tom Kuhns cast the deciding vote for Republican Shannon Rummel, saying, “I truly thought that both candidates were qualified to hold the position.”

Longtime resident Carrie White, a Democrat, also sought the open seat. The two will face off again on the November ballot when they compete for a full six-year term.

Rummel could not be reached for comment. She will serve the remainder of this year in a seat vacated in June by Phillip Smozski.

Kuhns said he was bombarded by phone calls in support of both candidates prior to Tuesday’s special meeting.

“I didn’t want to make a decision based on those, so I went out and talked to about 14 people from around the township from both of their political sides of the fence,” Kuhns said.

“I wanted to be fair to both candidates.”

A supervisor’s vote on July 8 ended in a draw, with Jay Swager and Paula Legge voting for White, and Dan and Barb Selfridge voting for Rummel.

Another tie was reached by supervisors, who were sitting as the vacancy board on July 22, prior to Kuhns being called in.

According to a “Rummel for Supervisor” Facebook post, Rummel is a firefighter at Fawn Volunteer Fire Department No. 1, as well as Citizens Hose in Harrison.

She also serves on the township’s sewer authority.

Kuhns said fire membership came into play because he didn’t want to skew supervisors’ future decisions in one direction — Dan and Barb Selfridge are both members of Fawn No. 1.

“Anything that would come up relative to the fire departments, Dan would have to abstain because he is the fire chief,” Kuhns said. “That put us back to balance.”