No contested races mean no primary for Greencastle

According to the calendar, Tuesday is primary election day in Greencastle. City workers are even supposed to have the day off.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the polls -- the primary filing period came and went without a single contested city race emerging on either the Republican or Democrat ballot.

So with no contested races to settle in the primary, there pretty simply is no need for the city to conduct a primary election.

Stacia Hathaway, Putnam County Voter Registration deputy, whole heartedly agreed.

"No matter which ballot they (a voter) would ask for, there is no race," Hathaway said of the city ballot as the filing period ended Feb. 8.

And that results in a cost savings for the City of Greencastle as well as a change in employees' schedule.

"We were going with a preliminary 'guess-timate,' of $10,000," Mayor Bill Dory said of the election cost while noting that the new use of voter centers would probably factor into the savings figure. "We really didn't know what it would be for sure. So I'd say we're probably saving somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000."

Meanwhile, city workers will be on the job as usual Tuesday since their are no polls to frequent. Since that holiday is already on the schedule, it instead will be observed on July 5.

A late flurry of filing activity in February produced six at-large City Council candidates -- the full complement of three per party -- along with a general election challenge in Third Ward and a total ballot vacancy in Fourth Ward.

Meanwhile, incumbent Mayor Dory, a Democrat, is seeking a second term in the city's highest office without a Republican challenger at the moment.

The same is true for incumbent Clerk-Treasurer Lynda Dunbar, a Republican, who is without a Democrat challenger.

In Third Ward, Democrat newcomer Veronica Pejril and Republican Haywood Ware, who ran for mayor against Dory in 2015, are seeking the City Council seat being vacated by Democrat Steve Fields.

With Councilman Tyler Wade filing for an at-large seat as a Republican instead of re-election as Fourth Ward representative, the Fourth Ward remains without a candidate in either party at present.

The parties have until June 30 to appoint candidates to fill vacancies on the ballot, while July 1 is the deadline to file as an independent.

At present, the Greencastle city ballot shapes up as follows:

Mayor -- Bill Dory, incumbent Democrat; no Republican.

Clerk-Treasurer -- Lynda Dunbar, incumbent Republican; no Democrat.

First Ward -- Adam Cohen, incumbent Democrat; no Republican.

Second Ward -- Stacie Langdon, incumbent Republican; no Democrat.

Third Ward -- Haywood Ware, Republican; Veronica Pejril, Democrat.

Fourth Ward -- No candidate for either party.

Council at-large -- Mark Hammer, incumbent, Tyler Wade and Harry Maginity, Republicans; Gary Lemon, incumbent, Kim Fidler and Matt Cummings, Democrats.

Meanwhile, in the only Putnam County election still scheduled Tuesday, all three Cloverdale town council seats have contested races on the Republican ballot.

The Cloverdale ballot includes:

Clerk-Treasurer -- Cheryl Galloway, incumbent Republican.

Town council at-large -- Gary E. Bennington, incumbent, and Sheila K. Anderson, Republicans.

Town council, Ward 1 -- Larry Fidler, incumbent, and Jake Day, Republicans.

Town council, Ward 2 -- Rick Dearwester and Coweta Patton, Republicans.

Primary winners will meet in the Nov. 5 general election.