By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
Decatur City Council has not had a woman member since 2011, but that will change when council meets for the first time in 2024, on Tuesday, January 2.
The new council will have at least two women on the five-member group … and there could possibly be four!
Abby Wilder is guaranteed to take over the District 3 seat as she is unopposed in Tuesday’s election. The winner of the District 1 race between Democrat Jenny Bowers-Shultz and Republican Gina Melcher will bring a second woman to council.
The District 3 and District 4 seats are currently held, respectively, by Craig Coshow and Wylie Sirk. They were defeated in last spring’s Republican primary.
Meanwhile, incumbent Democrat Tyler Fullenkamp is challenged by another women, Republican Leslie Reilly-Green, for the district 2 seat.
And Democrat Jennifer Hitchcock is seeking to take the only at-large seat from Republican incumbent Matt Dyer.
So two women will be on city council beginning in 2024, andz it could be three or even four, pending the will of the voters.
The last women to serve on council was Democrat Barb Engle. She served two four-year terms before being defeated in the 2011 election by Republican Cam Collier in a race for the at-large seat. Collier served two terms.
Democrat Janet Macklin was appointed to serve the final four months of Grover Odle’s at-large term in 1999 and was unopposed in that year’s election as she secured the seat for a four-year term.
Mayor Dan Rickord, a Democrat, was not opposed this year for a second term, not was Republican Scott Murray, who holds the District 2 seat on council.
Current Utilities Director Kevin Hackman will assume the clerk-treasurer’s position in January, a post held for 26 years by Phyllis Whitright.
Listen to WZBD Tuesday night for all your election night coverage.