No changes in City Council assignments

Change may be good, as some suggest, but the status quo might be best -- at least in theory -- for the Greencastle City Council.

Tuesday night marked the Council's first meeting of the new year, a time for board reorganization and determining assignments as department liaisons and appointments to other boards.

Yawn.

Virtually all went unchanged from 2011.

With the exception of a new appointment by the Council to the Putnam Community Foundation Board of Directors, namely Keith Archer, appointments and assignments remain exactly the same for 2012 as they were for 2011.

For the fourth consecutive year, First Ward Councilman Adam Cohen, a Democrat, will continue as president of the City Council.

Cohen began serving in that role in 2009, during just his second year on the Council, when he succeeded John Lanie as president of the five-member panel.

Councilor-at-large Phyllis Rokicki made the motion to retain Cohen as president. There were no other nominations and Cohen's election was unanimous.

It was also agreed that the City Council will continue to meet on the second Tuesday of each month, beginning at 7 p.m., at City Hall.

The Council also reappointed both of its current representatives to the Greencastle Redevelopment Commission, Jim Ruark and Erika Gilmore, to additional one-year tenures.

"Keep a good thing going," Councilman Mark Hammer commented.

That notion continued with members of the City Council again being teamed with the same Greencastle departments for which they served as liaisons during 2011.

Those include T.J. Smith as Fire Department and Utilities Department liaison; Cohen as Police Department liaison; Hammer as Department of Public Works and Planning Department liaison; Rokicki as Parks and Recreation liaison; and Jinsie Bingham as Forest Hill Cemetery liaison.

City Council board assignments likewise remained unchanged for 2012. Those include:

Greencastle Planning Commission -- Hammer.

Park Board -- Rokicki.

Economic Development Commission -- Bingham.

Cable Access Committee -- Cohen.

Chamber of Commerce -- Laurie Hardwick.

Tree Board -- Smith.

Greencastle/Putnam County Development Center Board -- Bingham.

Putnam County 911 -- Smith.

Putnam County Community Foundation -- Rokicki.