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GOP caucus selects Tyler Wade, 25, for Fourth Ward City Council vacancy
Tyler Wade, who as a elementary school student once told a Putnam County Republican Lincoln Day audience he wanted to be mayor of Greencastle one day, is now a member of the City Council.
At 25, Wade is easily the youngest City Council member in at least five decades following his appointment Tuesday by a Republican Caucus.
A unanimous first-ballot choice, Wade was selected by Fourth Ward precinct captains Steve Fenwick and Stevie Smith over the lone other candidate, James Wright, a retired former Greencastle street commissioner for 20 years and current Fourth Ward Neighborhood Watch organizer.
Justin Long, originally a third candidate for the seat vacated after the felony conviction of former deputy T.J. (Terry Joe) Smith last month, withdrew his name from consideration, Putnam County GOP Chairman Jerry Ensor said.
A 2008 Greencastle High School graduate, Wade earned his degree from Wabash College in 2012 and is now employed as an admissions counselor at his alma mater.
Wade recalled how when he was in first grade and already politically aware, Pat and Terry McCarter of Greencastle Offset printed up campaign cards for him proclaiming "Tyler Wade for Mayor."
Republican Chairman Ensor, who moderated the brief caucus at the courthouse, was excited to see the torch at least partially passed to the next generation.
"We've got to get these young people involved in their community," Ensor said. "It belongs to them, not us old people."
A fourth-generation Fourth Ward resident whose great-grandparents, Clifford and Dorothy Monnett, owned and operated Monnetts' Grocery in Greencastle's South End, Wade said he knows the Fourth Ward well. His grandmother, Janice Inman, was a former city clerk-treasurer, while his grandfather, Vic Inman, was a fixture at GOP political events and helped expose Wade to politics.
"My family has always been into politics," Wade said after receiving congratulatory handshakes from Wright and others. "I spent a lot of time with my grandpa at the American Legion and the Moose Lodge back when a kid could do that."
Wade was also a Lincoln Day fixture in his youth, whether leading the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance or filling in as impromptu speaker the time the Republicans' keynoter failed to arrive from Indianapolis.
Early on it was the gamesmanship of politics that intrigued him, but as an adult now, Wade realizes problem solving is where it's at.
And he sees that as an important aspect of the work he will do as a member of the City Council while assuming the last 14 months of Smith's second term.
"I'm not here to be a Republican or a Democrat," Wade said, "but as a problem solver."
Wade said bouncing back from the "scars of IBM leaving" in 1987 was "a monumental task," but with consistent good leadership the city has improved its infrastructure and the downtown. The next step, he said, is bringing in jobs and business.
"It's now 2014," he stressed. "We need new leadership and new ideas to move Greencastle forward.
"It starts with our schools and maintaining a grade A rating," Wade said, adding that working closely with DePauw University is always "mutually beneficial."
"We need to find ways to attract jobs and talented folks to live and work here," he added.
Although born in Indianapolis, Wade has called Putnam County home most of his young life.
"I'm excited to be back home," he said Tuesday.
The son of Keith and Tammy Wade, he resides at 711 S. Locust St. and has a brother, Abraham, who is a 15-year-old freshman at Greencastle High School.
Wade joins a City Council that includes Adam Cohen, First Ward and Council president; Mark Hammer, Second Ward; Jinsie Bingham, Third Ward; and Phyllis Rokicki, at-large member.
Cohen, Bingham and Rokicki are all Democrats, while Wade joins Hammer on the Republican side.