Matt Powell will be sworn in as the new Cedar Park mayor at the beginning of the May 24 City Council meeting.
Texas Senior Supreme Court Justice Nathan L. Hecht will officiate the ceremony, Powell confirmed. Powell defeated challengers Eddie Hurst and Wayne Ruark on May 12 by earning 74.52 percent of the vote. He will replace outgoing Mayor Bob Lemon, who was first elected to the council in 1995 and served four terms as councilman before taking a break. Lemon ran for mayor and won in 2005 and has served as Cedar Park's mayor ever since.
City Councilmen Stephen Thomas, Mitch Fuller, Lowell Moore and Don Tracy will also be sworn in. They each won unopposed elections on May 12.
Joe Lanane’s career is rooted in community journalism, having worked for a variety of Midwest-area publications before landing south of the Mason-Dixon line in 2011 as the Stillwater News-Press news editor. He arrived at Community Impact Newspaper in 2012, gaining experience as editor of the company’s second-oldest publication in Leander/Cedar Park. He eventually became Central Austin editor, covering City Hall and the urban core of the city.
Lanane leveraged that experience to become Austin managing editor in 2016. He managed eight Central Texas editions from Georgetown to San Marcos. Working from company headquarters, Lanane also became heavily involved in enacting corporate-wide editorial improvements. In 2017, Lanane was promoted to executive editor, overseeing editorial operations throughout the company. The Illinois native received his bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University and his journalism master’s degree from Ball State University.
