After 30 Years, Grand Forks Council Member Glassheim Retiring

• Eliot Glassheim

Eliot Glassheim

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GRAND FORKS (WDAZ-TV) - After 30 years of helping make a difference in city government and Grand Forks, a much-loved city council member is retiring.

Eliot Glassheim has impacted both people in the community and those he has worked with.

Glassheim may be resigning, but the impact he made on the city, especially the near north and south side neighborhoods, will stay with the council.

"I bought my first house, which is this house in 1974. It was a chance to get involved in the neighborhood," Glassheim said.

Glassheim was always interested in city government. He wanted to speak up for people that maybe couldn't or didn't know how to.

"He's intelligent, passionate, he's extremely fair and he's considerate and he really never shies away from his principles," city council president Hal Gershman said.

Over the past 30 years, Glassheim has worked hard ensuring growth and investment in Riverside and the Near North and South Neighborhoods.

"We've been there together through most of the things he was proud that he worked on and I'm proud I worked on those things with him too," council member Doug Christensen said.

Hal: He was always understanding of how we need to make the city a better place as a community to live.

The council member has served on multiple community boards including the Grand Forks Library Board and the Immigration Integration Initiative.

Glassheim hopes whoever takes over his position will continue some of the work he helped start.

"Make some improvements in the library, I think the city should put more resources behind a partnership with the university," Glassheim said.

He will still run for another term in the North Dakota House of Representatives and continue to be active in the community.

"I hope to be nominated for my party on the 18th of February and then I'll run in November," Glassheim said.

Glassheim says he will miss council members along with department heads and employees. He said there was no real reason or event that led him to retire, but after 30 years he would like to spend more time with family and maybe do some traveling.

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