From left, new Marquette County Board of Commissioners Chairman Joe Derocha discusses the process to replace the late Gerry Corkin. At right, Commissioner Bill Nordeen listens to the comments. (Journal photo by Randy Crouch)

MARQUETTE — The Marquette County Board of Commissioners honored the late Commissioner Gerry Corkin while taking steps to appoint a replacement during the board’s Tuesday meeting.

Tuesday afternoon marks the first time the Marquette County Board of Commissioners met since Chairman Corkin passed away last week. The meeting started with a moment of silence for Corkin.

“Wish his family our thoughts and our prayers,” said Commissioner Joe Derocha. “Very thankful for his leadership over the numerous decades that he sat in this chair.”

During the meeting, the board unanimously chose Derocha to replace Corkin as the chairman of the County Board, with Commissioner Bill Nordeen, the representative from Marquette County’s 5th district, as vice-chair.

The board then moved on to the next steps for finding Corkin’s replacement to represent the 4th district, which constitutes the cities of Ishpeming and Negaunee.

“I would like to see applications be opened up and started with the clerk. The clerk’s office will have to vet appropriate registered voters in that district. All candidates that would like to be looked at to be appointed can submit an application,” Derocha said. “In the scope of transparency, we certainly want to see who is the best viable candidate for District 4 to fill that seat. We want to do our due diligence to get the right individual in that seat.”

The board approved a motion to accept applications until noon Oct. 10.

Interested parties must be registered to vote in the 4th district and must also be a resident of that district.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to know who we are going to appoint, and their background? We get applications for commissions and all of the appointments that we do now. I think that’s in lock-step with the process we already have in place,” Derocha said. “We certainly don’t want to leave a vacated seat with no representation.”

While the deadline for applications is set, the determination of the date for a final decision has not yet been made, with a possibility of the Oct. 17 meeting or a special meeting, depending on the numbers of applicants.

Randy Crouch can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 542. His email address is rcrouch@miningjournal.net.