WINONA LAKE - The town of Winona Lake officially has a new clerk-treasurer as of the Republican caucus Tuesday night, but now it needs a Ward 4 council member.
Heather James didn’t have any opposition in the caucus to finish out the remainder of Laurie Renier’s term as clerk-treasurer this year. Renier resigned Oct. 10 effective immediately, citing a number of reasons.
James, the Winona Lake Council vice president representing Ward 4, won the Republican primary in May over Renier for clerk-treasurer and didn’t face any opposition for the general election. Because there were are no contested races in Winona Lake this fall, there will be no election on Nov. 7 for the town.
Before the clerk-treasurer caucus Tuesday, James resigned from the town council as required. With her resignation, another caucus has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 6 in the Town Hall Council Chambers to name James’ replacement on the council for the remainder of 2023, which will be about 55 days. Kosciusko County Republican Chair Mike Ragan will issue an official news release on the caucus.
Barry Andrew ran unopposed this year for the Ward 4 seat and is expected to file for the caucus Nov. 6.
Given an opportunity to address the caucus Tuesday, James told them, “Thank you all for being here tonight, and I just appreciate this opportunity to get started on the new role I’ll be serving in for Winona Lake in January, and I just want to express my appreciation to all the support that I had through this process and just looking forward to serving Winona in this new way.”
The four precinct committee persons who participated in the caucus were Bruce Shaffner, Lynn Howie, Steve Hollar and Mark Nunez. Vote counters were Steve Foster and Scott Clay.
After James won the clerk-treasurer position, she said, “Thank you, again, and really, truly I appreciate everyone’s hard work and commitment to the town.”
James was given the oath of office from Republican Party Secretary Austin Rovenstine so she immediately becomes the town’s new clerk-treasurer.
Asked about taking the post sooner than when she originally was supposed to - Jan. 1 - James said, “I have been trying to prepare for taking office in January, and obviously this is happening sooner, so the points that I made I’m just going to put them in place earlier, different resources that I’ve got in line and contacts that I’ve made.”
One of her first priorities will be to hire staff, she said. When Renier resigned, so, too, did two of her three staff members.
“It will be something I will be doing quickly, yes,” James stated.
Looking ahead, she acknowledged that taking the clerk-treasurer position over will be a big challenge.
“I don’t think anybody can deny that, but I think it is opportunity, especially with what we’ve gone through in the recent past as to we’ve identified some problems and opportunity to get those corrected and move forward and to make sure we’re doing everything as we should,” James said.
She said it will take at least a few months to get things straightened out. She is looking forward to getting the report from the State Board of Accounts on the town’s financial records.
“I think that they’re going to help identify even further some of those problems, give us some direction on how to get them corrected and make sure that we’re doing the right thing,” she said.