The commission makes decisions and recommendations regarding development and land-use proposals.
The appointment terms for the seats representing supervisorial districts one, four and five, along with an at-large seat, all expired last month. The seats have been held by Ryan Relei, Mark Banks, Charlotte Frazier and Dick Pland.
New District One Supervisor David Goldemberg nominated Jerry Morrow for his district’s seat, Supervisor Kathleen Haff recommended Catherine Santa Maria for District Four, and Supervisor Jaron Brandon proposed Linda Emerson for District Five. There was consensus among the board to allow the individual supervisors to pick the appointments for their districts.
The Morrows had a big family 15 children between them, 39 grandchildren and 53 great-grandchildren.
Now that big family is trying to cope with losing both of them less than a day apart due to complications of COVID-19. Both had strokes; Jerry, 63, died at 1:05 p.m. Nov. 21, and Rosie, 81, died less than 12 hours later on Nov. 22.
The Cedar Rapids couple is part of a grim trend of families losing multiple members to the novel coronavirus as the death toll has climbed. The Gazette this week has profiled three families facing that loss.
The couple were married for 35 years. Rosie was retired after a career as a caretaker in nursing homes. Jerry worked in roofing and had hoped to retire this year.