Ruston Mayor Bob Everding resigned Monday, a day before residents apparently voted down a measure that would transfer the town’s executive power to an administrator.

Entering Wednesday evening, 91 people had voted against the change. Sixty-six voted for it.

Ruston has 452 active voters, according to the Piece County auditor’s office.

“This shows that not everyone agrees with the way the council wants to go,” said Karen Pickett, a vocal opponent of the proposition. “The council still has a fairly strong base, but clearly not everyone agrees with all the changes they propose.”

Proponents of the switch said the job responsibilities of the mayor have become too much to handle for one person. Opponents were wary of adding another layer of bureaucracy, the cost involved and losing an elected official who is responsive to citizens.

Now it appears the town needs a new mayor.

Everding e-mailed his resignation letter to some members of council ahead of its Monday meeting. Councilman Jim Hedrick, who said he read a copy of the letter e-mailed to Councilwoman Jane Hunt, said Everding said he would serve through Sunday and would help the council find a replacement.

Everding didn’t return a voicemail Wednesday.

The council has the task of appointing a new mayor, provided the change-of-government measure ultimately fails, Councilman Jim Hedrick said.

“The only thing officially we have done is appoint Councilman (Bradley) Huson as mayor pro tem,” Hedrick said.

Everding served on the council until Jan. 19, when he resigned amid growing frustration over in-fighting between the members of the council and Mayor Michael Transue.

Transue resigned on June 2, saying the atmosphere at council meetings was growing increasingly tense. The council unanimously appointed Everding to the vacancy two days later.

Everding wasn’t showing any obvious displeasure with his position, Hedrick said.

“This is completely out of the blue,” he said.

Pierce County definitely felt the crunch of the rising price and shrinking supply of asphalt – so much so that it suspended its chipsealing operations for the rest of the year.

Tacoma, which operates its own asphalt plant, wasn’t forced to take as drastic measures but is feeling the squeeze.

“We’re certainly feeling an impact when we buy our oil,” Jim Parvey with the public works department said. “We have a different contracting arrangement and don’t use as much of the product as the country uses. Our supply of chipseal mix is pretty much secure. But we’re definitely seeing prices going up on that.”

(Parvey couldn’t give me exact numbers but said he would e-mail them later today. I’ll post them when I get them.)

Still, some critics of the asphalt plant have said the city could operate at a lower cost if it sold off the plant. Parvey said the public works department is preparing to put together a performance audit. It should start in a few months and take less than six months to complete.

“Every few years, we evaluate whether it’s a good idea for the city to be in this line of business,” he said.

But he believes the asphalt plant is cost-effective and allows the city to operate efficiently. Its central location means trucks can easily access it and cut down on travel time). Also, trucks don’t have to wait to be loaded before heading to a job site like they would at a commercial plant.

“It’s a small plant, and we don’t do big jobs like the commercial guys do,” he said. “Sometimes, it would difficult – especially if we don’t want to impact traffic – to get asphalt mix when we want to.”

After writing about immigration and the military, it looks like we're going to get cracking again on that potholes project.