TR Cares plans further recall effort

Members of the group TR Cares plan to assemble a slate of candidates for the local school board and a county position in elections next year.
During what was promoted as a town-hall meeting Tuesday at the JOCO Center in Three Rivers, attorney Kelly Ward addressed more than 60 people who heard a recap of the timeline related to an unsuccessful recall process against Three Rivers school board members Waneta Truckey, Mike Bosma and Carl Barth, as well as the subsequent legal dispute that followed involving county clerk Lindsay Oswald.
The circumstances prompted TR Cares to begin its focus on a recall effort against Barth, Pete Bennett, Diana DeGraaf, and Erin Nowak in 2016. TR Cares plans to run a team of candidates if the recall election is authorized and potentially staged in May, Ward said.
Furthermore, it is planning to endorse a candidate to challenge Oswald in the August primary election for county clerk/register of deeds. Oswald was appointed to the post July 1 and is serving a term that expires Dec. 31, 2016.
TR Cares was formed in the aftermath of the Three Rivers school board voting in April to not renew contracts of athletic director Pete Anderson, dean of educational services Kevin Hamilton and middle school principal Bradley Coon.
Meanwhile, Oswald’s signature-verification process was scrutinized by Ward and TR Cares members, who allege Oswald dismissed signatures arbitrarily, inconsistently and in many cases, without explanation.
TR Cares, a non-profit organization, plans to open headquarters at 72 N. Main St. and is launching a website: trcares4kids.org.