Cold Spring City Council chooses Ryan Hennen as new member

Becca Most, St. Cloud Times
·2 min read

COLD SPRING — The Cold Spring City Council selected Ryan Hennen to replace former council member Shannon Miller at its meeting Tuesday night.

Miller recently moved out of the city and is no longer eligible for office, said City Administrator Brigid Murphy. Hennen will serve the remainder of her term through December.

Hennen grew up near Cold Spring, graduated from ROCORI schools and moved back to the area with his family in 2013. He is land surveyor for Stearns County and said he wanted to help the city find its identity and oversee the development of new public safety buildings in town.

Ryan Hennen was selected to replace former Cold Spring City Council member Shannon Miller on May 24, 2022.
Ryan Hennen was selected to replace former Cold Spring City Council member Shannon Miller on May 24, 2022.

"Over the last couple of years we've been hit sort of hard with different racial and diversity issues … and some of those things were happening close to where I live and to a family that I'm friends with and neighbors with," Hennen said. "So I wanted to kind of help be a voice for people like that and also just to kind of bring another perspective to the council that isn't maybe necessarily there right now."

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Those running for the seat included Tom LeGassa, Paul Waletzko, Stephanie Ferguson and Andrea Robinson.

LeGassa and Robinson ran for former council member Gary Theisen's seat last November following his resignation. Mike Fall was appointed to Theisen's seat in November.

Fall made a motion to appoint Robinson to the seat, but the motion failed for a lack of a second, Murphy said. Council member Doug Schmitz made a motion for Hennen and that was passed, she said.

The Cold Spring water tower is pictured Friday, March 19, 2021.
The Cold Spring water tower is pictured Friday, March 19, 2021.

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Robinson announced her bid for the Senate District 13A seat last week, and said the city council "demonstrated its ongoing commitment to the community and continues to make progress in the right direction in appointing Ryan," in a message to the St. Cloud Times.

"His experience, integrity and character will be both an asset to the city and a balancing point for the council," she said.

Becca Most is a cities reporter with the St. Cloud Times. Reach her at 320-241-8213 or bmost@stcloudtimes.com. Follow her on Twitter at @becca_most. 

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This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Cold Spring City Council filled a seat vacated by Shannon Miller