King gets utilities position as Norman leaves planner’s role

Greencastle Mayor Bill Dory (right) introduces Oscar King Jr. as the city’s new utilities superintendent following the Board of Works meeting Wednesday at City Hall. King has been employed by the city for 25 years.

Banner Graphic/ERIC BERNSEE

The City of Greencastle is gaining a utilities superintendent and losing a city planner.

After more than a year and a half, the city has settled on a replacement for Rob Lovell as utilities superintendent, elevating Oscar King Jr. to that role, Mayor Bill Dory has announced.

Meanwhile, after 13-1/2 years, the city is looking for a new planner as Shannon Norman has announced her resignation, effective the first week of November.

Shannon Norman

Mayor Dory informed the Board of Works of those personnel moves Wednesday afternoon during its regular monthly session at City Hall.

King and Tom Swenson had been operating as a utilities superintendent team for the water and sewer department over the past 18 months, Dory said, ever since Lovell resigned the utilities position in February 2016. Lovell had been hired for the post in June 2013 with King serving as assistant superintendent.

Starting his career with the city on Jan. 27, 1992 as a meter reader for the Water Department, the 56-year-old King epitomizes the department head who has worked his way to the top.

Interestingly, he began his 25-year city tenure while Mike Harmless was mayor and has continued through the three mayoral terms of Nancy Michael, the two terms of Sue Murray and now making it to the superintendent’s role in Mayor Dory’s first term.

Dory told the Board of Works that the versatile King carries certifications for both water and wastewater. He has the much-coveted WT-5 designation for water plant operators and holds a Class 3 license for wastewater operations.

King’s ascension to the new position should be nothing short of a smooth transition, Dory said.

“He’s actually been doing it the last year and a half,” the mayor said of the utilities position.

City Planner Norman, meanwhile, has accepted a new position with the City of Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development.

She called her impending departure “bittersweet,” noting there are “a lot of amazing people who work for the City of Greencastle,” doing impressive things “on a small budget with no time.”

“We’ve accomplished a lot,” she said, “and there’s a lot more to do.”

Mayor Dory said the city has already advertised the planner position and has begun receiving responses. No timetable was set for finding Norman’s successor.

In another personnel-related matter, the city has hired an additional WT-5 operator for the Water Department, Dory told the Board of Works.