UPDATED: Normal’s Fritzen won’t seek ninth term on town council

Posted on October 15, 2018

 

Fritzen
Long-time Normal Town Councilman Jeff Fritzen attended Monday night’s council meeting shortly after announcing he won’t seek a ninth four-year term.
(Photo by Howard Packowitz/WJBC)

 

By Howard Packowitz

NORMAL – The senior member of the Normal Town Council announced Monday he is not running for re-election.

Jeff Fritzen is finishing his eighth four-year term as a council member. He was first elected in 1983, and is currently Mayor Pro-Tem.

Fritzen, 66, said he might find some future projects exciting, but questioned whether he would be able to put his heart into a job that also includes the sometimes mundane tasks of dealing with town finances. Fritzen said the job is not about pursuing a personal agenda.

“You have to have, I think, the right things in mind when you seek an office like this, and for me, the level of public service that it deserves is something that requires your heart to be in it,” Fritzen said.

Fritzen ran for mayor against incumbent Chris Koos in 2005. He lost to Koos, but believes his idea won out in the end of having a privately-owned Uptown hotel instead of a publicly-owned hotel. Fritzen wound up supporting Koos in the last mayoral election in 2017.

Fritzen attended Illinois State University and worked in the 1970’s as a sports writer and assistant sports editor at The Pantagraph.

Fritzen has been Executive Vice President of Bloomington Offset Process, Inc. since 1994.

Seats held by Fritzen, Kathleen Lorenz, and R.C. McBride are up for election next spring. Lorenz and McBride are each seeking second terms. So far, they are the only announced candidates.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]

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