OLIVIA — Randy Kramer will serve as the chair and Greg Snow as the vice chair of the Renville County Board of Commissioners in 2022.
The commissioners unanimously elected each to the positions during their organizational meeting on Tuesday. Kramer succeeds Bob Fox as chair. Fox served two consecutive years in the position.
The vote to elect Kramer as chair came almost one year to the day after he had received a diagnosis for multiple myeloma.
Kramer, who had served as vice chair in 2020, was expected to be elected chair in 2021. His diagnosis came on the day before the 2021 organizational meeting. Kramer said he called then-chair Box Fox shortly after receiving the diagnosis and informed him of it. He asked Fox if he would return as chair in 2021.
“Graciously, (he said) ‘yes, I will do that,” said Kramer after being elected chair for 2022. “Thank you, Commissioner Fox, I truly appreciate it.”
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Kramer said his need for treatments during the past year would have made it almost impossible for him to serve as chair.
Kramer received his diagnosis after his family physician, Dr. Jon Kemp, of Olivia, had convinced him not to postpone a routine physical in 2020. Kramer had thought of postponing the physical due to his concerns about the demands that the COVID-19 pandemic had created on the health care system.
Kramer later credited the routine physical with saving his life. It made possible an early diagnosis of the cancer. Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells in bone marrow. It is the second-most-common blood cancer.
