Judge finds ailing Peru mayor unfit, names city council president to serve

PERU, Ind. (AP) — A north-central Indiana judge determined a hospitalized mayor was unfit for office and appointed the city’s council president to be acting mayor.

Peru Mayor Miles Hewitt is still recuperating at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne following a heart attack on April 29.

City Council President Patricia Russell told Miami Circuit Court Judge Tim Spahr on Wednesday that Hewitt was recently taken off a ventilator, but has trouble speaking and writing, so he can’t conduct official business.

The Kokomo Tribune reports that has become an issue with deadlines looming on grants and other documents that required the mayor’s signature, leading Russell to ask to serve as interim mayor.