Marion fills
empty council seat
Staff writer
Jeremiah Lange was appointed Monday to fill Zach Collett’s vacant seat on Marion City Council.
Lange was appointed over Darvin Markley and Perry Lesofski. Lesofski did not speak at the meeting.
“I didn’t have any expectations,” Lange said of when he applied for the role. “I knew Darvin had applied, and Darvin’s a good representative of the community. I trust the city council’s decision.”
Almost as soon as he was appointed, Lange took an oath and found himself a seat at the council members’ table.
Lange and Markley also shook hands.
Powers said he and his colleagues made the “correct choice” when appointing Lange.
“He’s a community leader,” Powers said. “He’s intelligent. He’s young by my standards. He is a leader.”
Powers also credited Markley for being a capable candidate.
“Mr. Markley would have been just fine,” Powers said. “I felt like I had two good choices, but I think Mr. Lange will fit in well and make good decisions for the city.”
A native of Tucson, Arizona, Lange and his wife, Dani, moved to Kansas 20 years ago and have raised two kids together. He and Dani met while in Spokane, Washington, before he attended Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California, while she taught there.
While becoming a pastor, he said, he and Dani “both agreed that we needed to go where God was calling us.”
Soon, an email arrived from Marion Presbyterian Church.
“We both laughed,” he said. “We were like, ‘We’ve never been to Kansas,’ then we came here and visited. We just fell in love with it.”
Lange previously served three terms on the school board, and is still pastor of Marion Presbyterian Church. He is also a co-convener of the Cuba Partners network, which connects Presbyterians in Cuba and the U.S., as well as Marion’s police chaplain.
Lange will serve until after an election in 2027.