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Wright to run for Greencastle mayor's post in GOP primary
The filing period for the 2015 City of Greencastle primary election is still more than a month away from even beginning. And the election itself is nearly six months into the future.
But there is already one declared candidate for mayor of Greencastle.
Jim Wright, former longtime city street commissioner and a previous mayoral hopeful in 1983, has announced his intention to run for mayor on the Republican primary ballot.
Wright, 72, 902 S. Illinois St., said he will make his candidacy official as soon as the filing period opens in January in order to appear on the May 5 city primary ballot.
"I've got my committee all set up," Wright said, listing an adviser and treasurer as already in place as he weighs options for a secretary and campaign manager.
"All good people," he praised, "good, common people."
Wright said he decided to run "to help my community and Putnam County."
Among the issues he sees dominating his campaign are "treating everyone the same, everyone fairly in the City of Greencastle," as well as assuring that all city departments work together to share manpower and equipment whenever possible for the good of the community.
"I feel we do need two more police officers in the city," he added. "I don't know where the money is going to come from but we definitely need two more officers, and I don't mean to just replace the ones that are retiring."
Probably best known for 20 years as Greencastle street commissioner after being appointed by Mayor Jane Harlan in 1980, Wright also worked for the State Highway Department (now INDOT) for 10 years and retired last July after nearly eight years at the Walmart store. He also has been a carpenter and painter for the Opportunity Housing organization.
"I've done a little bit of everything," Wright said.
Never one to shy away from work in his prior role with the city, Wright says he kept a ledger totaling the overtime hours he put in (unpaid as a department head). "I logged over 6,000 overtime hours," he said, adding that his department never operated in the red during his tenure.
One of the founders of the original Humane Society shelter east of Greencastle, Wright most recently has been involved in issues right in his own neighborhood.
He has been active in organizing a Neighborhood Watch program for the Fourth Ward (next meeting is Dec. 2 at First Christian Church) and has pledged the first $100 toward a playground for the proposed Micaela Julletta Cancilla Park, literally located across the street from his house in the city's South End.
Hoping to further serve his area, Wright sought the Fourth Ward City Council seat vacated by T. J. Smith this fall but was passed over for Tyler Wade when the Republican caucus chose Smith's successor.
Wright, who has been married to the former Aggie Carmichael for the past nine years, is a three-year trustee at the Moose Lodge.
A 47-year resident of Putnam County, he was born in the mountainous eastern part of Kentucky but left there when he was 12 to live with his father in Indianapolis, where he graduated from Washington High School in 1961.
Wright is the first announced candidate seeking the Greencastle mayor's position. Current Mayor Sue Murray, a Democrat, will begin the last year of her second term in 2015 and has said she has no plans to seek re-election.
Running for mayor in 1983, Wright lost the GOP primary to Gerald E. Warren, who went on to defeat Democrat Ben Cannon for mayor.
Eight other city positions will be on the 2015 city ballot, including clerk-treasurer and the five existing City Council seats, as well as two more at-large Council berths being added by virtue of the city population going over the 10,000 mark in the last census.