By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — Greenville City Council welcomed a new mayor and a new auditor during its first meeting of 2024 on Tuesday evening. Mayor Jeff Whitaker and Auditor Kim Davis took their seats for the first time in their new positions. Whitaker is a former councilman whose seat is now open, and Davis moves from Deputy Auditor to the Auditor’s position after winning the election in November.

The council also reorganized for the next two-year term with council members accepting committee assignments and appointments to certain boards. With the support of council members, Doug Schmidt was reappointed as President Pro Tempore and will preside over council meetings when Council President John Baumgardner is absent or is filling the mayor’s seat when he is absent.

Some of the positions on committees were left vacant until a new council person is seated by the Darke County Republican Central Committee. The current committees will be comprised as follows:

Finance – Doug Schmidt, chair; Leon Rogers, vice chair; vacant

Law – Rogers, chair; Brian Brown, vice chair; Delores Eley

Safety – Vacant, chair; Rogers, vice chair; Clarence Godwin

Utilities – Godwin, chair; Chris Norris, vice chair; Brown

Personnel and Public Relations – Brown, chair; Eley, vice chair; Norris

Issues of Zoning, Planning, Government Relations – Eley, chair; Godwin, vice chair; Schmidt

Miscellaneous Affairs & Priority Needs – Norris, chair; Schmidt, vice chair; vacant

The council appointed the following members to boards in the community:

Brown and Norris will serve on the Community Improvement Corporation board.

Eley was elected to serve on the Community Action Partnership, Council on Aging and Main Street Greenville boards.

Brown was also selected to serve on the Darke County Visitors Bureau and Architectural Review boards.

Norris and Godwin will serve on the Volunteer Firefighters Dependent Fund board.

In other business, the council heard from Safety Service Director Ryan Delk on the progress of the water line installation on State Route 502 and West Main Streets. Delk announced the project is progressing and will move toward the intersection of West Main and Sycamore Streets by the end of the week. “That part of the intersection will be a bit of a mess this week,” said Delk. “Once they get that complete, they have passed pressure tests, they have chlorinated the line and hopefully later this week they will be hooking people up to the line, which is a big win for that project.” He said they are on track to get it wrapped up by the middle of January and move onto the next project.

To contact Daily Advocate Editor Ryan Berry, email [email protected].