Build­ing Com­mis­sion­er, Jer­ry Foust­night, is offi­cial­ly retir­ing after serv­ing ten years with the Build­ing Depart­ment fol­low­ing a long career as a fire­fight­er – serv­ing a total of 40 ½ years with the City of Marion.

Foust­night was first hired as a fire­fight­er with the Mar­i­on Fire Depart­ment in 1977. After 30 ½ years, he retired from MFD in Decem­ber of 2007. 

In 2016, he was first appoint­ed by for­mer May­or Jess Alum­baugh as Build­ing Com­mis­sion­er, then retained his posi­tion when May­or Ronald Mor­rell, Jr. took office in 2024. 

Through­out his career as Build­ing Com­mis­sion­er, Foust­night over­saw numer­ous blight elim­i­na­tion ini­tia­tives such as unsafe struc­ture demo­li­tions, home repair finan­cial assis­tance pro­grams, and also played a key role in May­or Morrell’s city­wide cleanups. For the past ten years, he served as the super­vi­sor of Code Enforce­ment as well as Ani­mal Care and Con­trol in addi­tion to the Build­ing Department’s oper­a­tions – over­see­ing three sep­a­rate depart­ments who close­ly work together.

Of all the projects and pro­grams Foust­night has led, he said he takes the most pride in get­ting to help the cit­i­zens through ways of assis­tance pro­grams, edu­ca­tion of the process, and guid­ance of best prac­tices. ​“A big part of what we do is help indi­vid­u­als real­ize that the City can help you do things cor­rect­ly. Sim­ply fol­low­ing the prop­er pro­ce­dures can save lives. When it’s all said and done, and I’m gone, I’d like to know that at least I taught peo­ple,” Foust­night said.

A retire­ment par­ty was held on Feb­ru­ary 9th where cur­rent and for­mer col­leagues, and fam­i­ly cel­e­brat­ed Foust­night with sto­ries, gifts, refresh­ments and a cake rep­re­sent­ing his nick­name, ​‘Bull­dog.’

Build­ing Per­mit Com­pli­ance Offi­cer, R.J. Pas­ant, said Foust­night had to be tough, but he was always fair. ​“When I hired in, Jer­ry told me he treat­ed every­one the same. Pas­ant then reflect­ed, ​“He’s one of the best guys I’ve ever worked for. I don’t con­sid­er him just a boss, I con­sid­er Jer­ry a very good friend. I couldn’t have asked for a bet­ter boss.”

Foustnight’s last offi­cial day with the City is Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 27th. He said he looks for­ward to spend­ing more time with his fam­i­ly and being able to trav­el to see Mount Rush­more and oth­er sites around the Unit­ed States.