A seat on the Soldotna City Council is now open to suitors.

Council member Meggean Bos-Marquez moved up her resignation from the city council, originally scheduled for June, announcing it at Wednesday’s meeting. At a previous meeting, she had announced that will be moving to the Lower 48 and so must leave her position.

“Originally I had talked about June, and the reason why this will be my last meeting is so then we can have a new council member who is appointed for the entire budget cycle,” she said. “So we have our upcoming budget cycle, and if I am here I’ll be here only for part of the budget cycle, where this way, whoever is appointed to council will be able to be here for the entire process.”

The city will hold a budget work session at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Bos-Marquez began on the city council in 2013, and she told the other council members Wednesday that, looking back at the statistics, she had won that initial race by 32 votes.

“I don’t know if that’s good or bad,” she joked.

Soldotna City Clerk Shellie Saner said applications for appointment to the council become available on the city’s website and at the city hall building starting Thursday morning. The deadline to submit applications is May 17, she said.

“The council will conduct interviews at the May 25 council meeting,” Saner said.

This leaves the council with one vacant seat for its May 11 regular meeting.

The other council members thanked Bos-Marquez and praised her service.

“We didn’t always agree on all the votes but, you know, that’s a good thing,” said council member Linda Murphy. “If we agreed on everything all the time we wouldn’t need a city council, and I appreciate hearing different points of view on issues even when we don’t agree.”

Council members also encouraged members of the public to come forward and submit applications.

“It’s been wonderful being on council,” Bos-Marquez said. “I’ve definitely learned a lot about the political process, and I want to just thank the community for all of their support.”

Reach Megan Pacer at megan.pacer@peninsulaclarion.com.