Garry Ellingson takes over as the chairman of the Mower County Board of Commissioners.

Dick Lang shifted from the Austin Municipal Building to the Mower County government center.

Ellingson said he was coached for stepping into the county board's "hot seat" by a fellow county commissioner.

Lang said he was more nervous attending his last meeting as an Austin City Council member, than his first as a county commissioner.

So it went on the first day for the county officials.

The county board rotates its chairman duties each year and this year it was Ellingson's turn. The 5th District council commissioner was elected to his first four-year term last November.

Ellingson was originally appointed to the county board in March 2001 to succeed Gary Nemitz, who resigned in mid-term due to health reasons.

"I've learned a lot from the commissioners in my two years on the county board," Ellingson said. "All have been very helpful to me. I've learned it takes all five of us to cooperate in order to get anything done."

Ellingson said it is an "awesome responsibility and an honor" to be chosen to serve as county board chairman by his fellow county commissioners.

He praised David Hillier, then-county board chairman and 3rd District commissioner, with putting Ellingson on committees "where I didn't know anything, but learned quickly."

Ellingson was unanimously elected chairman at Tuesday's organizational meeting of the county board.

Richard P. Cummings, 1st District, was unanimously elected vice chairman. Cummings is the senior member of the county board.

Other key appointments include Ray Tucker, 2nd District, and Hillier to the finance and purchasing committee; Tucker and Ellingson to the personnel committee; Ellingson and Cummings to the buildings and grounds committee; and Lang and Cummings to the solid waste committee.

Lang said his goal in the first year of his four-year term is to fulfill his campaign pledges for "common sense government."

Ellingson said he and Lang, as well as the other three county commissioners have a "full plate" of issues before them.

"My first priority is to see to it that the new fairgrounds buildings are completed in time for the 2003 Mower County Fair," he said.

Other issues include the new industrial project near Dexter, a new communications system for the Mower County Sheriff's Office and Highway Department and handling the jail-overcrowding situation among other issues.