Three more GOP filings for City Council

With two weeks remaining in the filing period for the 2015 City of Greencastle election, Republican candidates have emerged for six of the nine offices up for grabs Tuesday, May 5.

Just three new declarations of candidacy were reported this week as the noon Friday, Feb. 6 filing deadline nears.

The latest filings were all Republican City Council hopefuls:

-- Incumbent Mark Hammer, the longest-serving city councilman, who has filed for one of the three at-large Council seats instead of the Second Ward spot he has held the past 19 years.

-- First-time candidate Danny Mesecher, a North Locust Street resident, has filed for the First Ward seat on the GOP ticket.

-- Another first-timer, Stacie Langdon, has filed for the Second Ward seat currently held by Hammer.

Meanwhile, after earlier filings since Jan. 7 the city primary field includes two Republican candidates for mayor. However, no Democrat mayoral candidate has emerged since the primary filing period began.

Already on the record as seeking a mayoral office held by Democrats the past 28 years are former Street Commissioner Jim Wright, who announced his intentions in November and kept his promise of filing on the first day, and local businessman and former Texas city mayor Haywood L. Ware.

Ware, who resides at 208 S. Arlington St., Greencastle, served as mayor of Pflugerville, an Austin suburb of 46,936 residents, from 1992-98.

Also, each party already has a clerk-treasurer candidate with incumbent Republican Lynda Dunbar filing for re-election and Democrat Eric Wolfe, a local realtor and DePauw University employee, throwing his hat into the ring.

The other candidate to file thus far has been Republican Tyler Wade, who was appointed to the Fourth Ward Council seat late last year as a replacement for T. J. Smith.

Democrat and Republican hopefuls can file a declaration of candidacy for any of the nine city positions in the Voter Registration Office (Room 21) at the Putnam County Courthouse.

The primary election is set for May 5 when Greencastle voters will choose their party's candidates for mayor, clerk-treasurer and -- for the first time ever -- seven City Council seats instead of five. The two additional at-large seats have been added by virtue of Greencastle topping the 10,000 population mark, which means the city will seat a seven-member Council in 2016 and beyond.

Voter registration clerk Stacia Hathaway said potential candidates can pick up a packet of information from her office any time during office hours (8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday).

Meanwhile, those contemplating an independent bid for any of the city spots will need to go through a petition process with a June 30 deadline to complete and file necessary documents to get on the November ballot.