LEBANON — State Rep. George Sykes will rejoin the City Council this month after being appointed Wednesday to fill an open seat on the nine-member body.
Sykes, 68, will replace Shane Smith representing Ward 2 until the March 2020 election. He was the only resident who filed for the opening by Sunday’s deadline.
“I’m looking forward to serving the people of Lebanon in a different capacity,” he said in a phone interview Thursday. “I’ve always enjoyed being on the City Council.”
Sykes, a former Lebanon deputy fire chief, has lived in Lebanon for more than 30 years and first served as a city councilor from 2008-10.
He stepped down that August to take a long-term assignment assisting the American Red Cross in Haiti, and the council appointed Erling Heistad a month later to fill the seat.
After returning, Sykes was elected to the House in 2012 as part of a Democratic wave that saw the party reclaim control of the state’s lower chamber. He’s in the middle of his fourth term and chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
Sykes said serving in the Legislature and municipal government isn’t unusual. Former Lebanon Mayor Terri Dudley served in both the House and City Council, he said, as did House Speaker Steve Shurtleff, who was a Concord city councilor for more than a dozen years.
“It can be done. It’s just, you’ve got to work at it,” Sykes said.
Longtime Lebanon Councilor Karen Liot Hill said Wednesday that Sykes will bring “a real wealth of expertise to the job” both from his former days as a firefighter and as chairman of Grafton County’s Statehouse delegation. The 27-member delegation is responsible for approving the county’s annual budget.
“I think with Councilor Sykes, the people of Lebanon will be well-served,” she said in an audio recording of the meeting.
Sykes will be sworn in during the City Council’s next meeting, which is scheduled for Aug. 21, and he will serve until someone is elected to the Ward 2 seat in March.
Sykes said he’s not yet sure whether he’ll run at that point.
“We’ll see how it goes and if I enjoy it as much as I used to,” he said.