Well, sort of. He’s the new junior council member for the city. He was appointed by the school after his history teacher nominated him. “I’m excited to see how my involvement could shape the future of Centerville,” said Peterson. “I live right by Laurie LaMotte Park–that’s one of the things I mentioned when I was there at my first meeting. I want to try to influence things for people my age.” Centerville city leaders decided to create a position as a way to reach out to the school, where its residents attend but is miles away in another city. “Maybe we lack a little bit of (connection) sometimes,” said City Administrator Mark Statz at an October meeting of the Economic Development Administration. “Because it’s not ‘Centerville High School,’ because we’re part of a conglomerate, there’s a little bit of disconnect there sometimes. So (we want to) find a way to connect.” Mayor D. Love said the idea may go deeper than that. “We want to engage our youth here,” said Love. “We want to know how we can embrace our city even more to make it more valuable to not only our generation, but generations to come.” Peterson seems to already be in lockstep with that idea. “When your board is just people over the age of 30-40, there’s a disconnect with the younger population,” he said. “There’s an amount of (young people) that are going to stay here, and those are going to be your citizens, and there’s a group of them that will eventually be your board members.” Peterson will join the council officially at the first meeting in January. He will not have any voting power, but will be able to take part in discussions.
CENTERVILLE’S NEWEST CITY COUNCIL MEMBER IS ONE WAY THE CITY HOPES TO STRENGTHEN TIES WITH CENTENNIAL HIGH SCHOOL
CENTERVILLE – (Dec. 16, 2021) – Danny Peterson, a junior at Centennial High School, attended the hours-long Centerville City Council meeting on December 8, but unlike so many of his peers who attend meetings across the region, he wasn’t completing an assignment.
