New faces picked to serve on city council

City Council candiates Jinsie Bingham and Eric Birt were tied as of Tuesday evening.

There will be more new faces than not when the Greencastle City Council convenes for the first time in January.

Incumbent Councilman Russ Evans (D) lost his bid for re-election to first-timer T.J. Smith (R).

Adam Cohen (D) outpaced Jeremy Carver (R) to replace current Councilman Tom Roach, who did not run for re-election.

As of Tuesday night, it wasn't clear whether Jinsie Bingham (D) or Eric Birt (R) would be the one to replace current Councilman Bob Sedlack in his Ward 3 seat. Sedlack also did not run for re-election.

County Clerk Marty Watts said the county election board will meet on Wednesday to review the tied race between Birt and Bingham. She said she has already spoken to the state election board and was told that the tiebreaker could be up to members of the current city council to decide.

The council is currently comprised of four Democrats and one Republican. Watts said state officials told her that there are a total of three tied races in the state right now.

In remaining council races, incumbent Mark Hammer will be back in January, having run unopposed in Tuesday night's race.

Incumbent John Lanie (D) will also be back, having outpaced his opponent, Republic-an Karen Hill Ambler.

Ambler is said to have suffered a broken hip at a polling site Tuesday morning and was reportedly taken to Hendricks Regional Health in Danville. An update on her condition was unavailable as of presstime Tuesday.

Another city race decided Tuesday was that between incumbent city Clerk-Treasurer Teresa Glenn (D) and challenger Rhonda Chaney (R). Glenn won the race and said she doesn't plan any major changes for the next four years.

"I am excited to be chosen to serve my community again for another four years," she said. "My goals are going to be the same. I'm going to continue to do the job I've been doing for four years, regardless of who is sitting in the mayor's seat and who sits on the council."

Meanwhile, the newcomers to the city council said Tuesday that they are looking forward to serving the citizens who voted for them and getting down to the business of running the city.

"I want to address some of the issues I promised," Cohen told the BannerGraphic. "One of which was spending more time as a councilman listening to the people in the community, making sure that every single voice is heard. And then sitting down and trying to address the simpler issues that we can get through right away -- ‘town-gown' relations, taking a closer look at the issues around the downtown and push forward with the community center."

Smith echoed a similar sentiment.

"It's great," he said of his victory. "I'd just like to thank my friends and family, all the support they've had and the voters that came out. I'll be back to their doors. What I said is what I'm gonna stick to. I'm here for the voters."

If he turns out to the be the next councilman in Ward 3, Birt said, "I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve the citizens of Greencastle. That's why I ran to begin with. It's time to give back a little of what Greencastle's given me over the years."

Lanie, who is currently the president of the city council, said he is continuing to move through the recent tragedy in his life and is looking forward to continuing to serve.

"I'm really excited about it and I sure owe it to the citizens of Greencastle and Tobacco Coalition for supporting me and my decision to make Greencastle smoke-free," Lanie said. "I just want to continue to try to make Greencastle a better place to live in and promote it and try to develop it, so we can get more people to move in, so that we can increase our population."

Those candidates who were defeated, including Carver who lost to Cohen, said they felt they ran a good campaign and were glad for the opportunity.

"With this being the first time that I have run, it was definitely a learning experience," Carver said. "I learned how to better organize a campaign -- I think is the big thing. In a small election like this, it all boils down to getting out the vote and getting out your message and having a good organizational team behind us."

Council candidates Evans, Bingham and Ambler could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.