Mullan Mayor steps down

MULLAN — The city of Mullan is under new leadership after Don Kotschevar stepped down from his position as mayor Thursday evening during a special meeting of the Mullan City Council.

Nothing nefarious forced the beloved mayor out, but actually a rule from the company that handles all of Idaho’s government retirement and benefits.

Kotschevar retired as an educator and principal of Mullan Jr./Sr. High School in May of this year and in order for him to begin collecting his retirement from the Public Employment Retirement System of Idaho or PERSI, he had to retire from being mayor as well.

Even though Kotschevar has donated his mayoral salary back to the city during his seven year, eight month tenure, due to retirement legalese, the city was required to pay a small portion into PERSI each month for him. As such, he was technically paying into his PERSI through his mayoral position.

Until the next mayoral election is held this November, Mullan City Council Chairman Sam Davis will take up the mantle for the remaining four months of Kotschevar’s term.

Kotschevar is excited to move into the next chapter of his life and had no intentions of seeking the position for another term.

“My plan was always to step down at the end of my term,” Kotschevar said. “I believe in term limits. People shouldn’t sit in an office and do it for years. People need new blood, new minds in the office. I have a store to run — which is a full-time job. I have a 20-year list of, well they’re not honey-dos, they’re Don-dos.”

Over his two terms, Kotschevar worked tirelessly to improve his city — this included several beautification projects, but also some exceptionally important infrastructure updates as well.

“During my time I think we have made significant progress in cleaning up the town and handling some blight issues,” Kotschevar said. “We also redid our sidewalks and sewers when our roads got redone. We wrote numerous grants, most importantly the Hecla Charitable Grant that paid for our summer youth work program. We have several kids who got hands-on experience running tools, working on the sewers, and just a ton of other stuff.”

Kotschevar has developed a love of the sea, which may keep him away during the summer months, but he is still going to be a prominent fixture in Mullan. He hopes that whoever takes over in January 2022 will approach things with the same diplomatic and level headed approach that he used during his tenure.

According to Kotschevar, Interim Mayor Davis is also a multi-time councilman and has no intentions of running for the spot himself.

“I am hoping we get some level-headed people to run for mayor,” Kotschevar said. “And you can print this, I don’t want someone with loose screws.”

Those who have worked with and lived in the city of Mullan will never forget the service Kotschevar has provided to his community over the years.

“We have appreciated everything that he has done for this city,” Mullan City Clerk Trisha Crandall said.

Interim Mayor Davis could not be reached for comment as of press time.