{"id":11017,"date":"2023-12-21T08:02:01","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T13:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=11017"},"modified":"2023-12-21T08:02:02","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T13:02:02","slug":"26-plus-years-later-whitright-wraps-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/21\/26-plus-years-later-whitright-wraps-up\/","title":{"rendered":"26-plus years later, Whitright wraps up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A unique and admiral era of public service in Decatur will come to an end, likely on Friday, December, 29, when Phyllis Whitright walks out of City Hall for the final time as the city’s clerk-treasurer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For 26 \u00bd years she has served in that post, providing rock-solid financial leadership that has come to be known and glorified throughout Indiana. She has done so with dignity, grace, and a love of human beings that brought out all sorts of appreciation \u2013 some times emotional \u2013 at her final city council meeting, held Tuesday night in City Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numerous city members of city government, as well as department heads and co-workers rose to thank Whitright for her support, for the assistance she provided them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Dan Rickord kicked it off by explaining that 26 \u00bd years \u201cis like, if my math is correct, 636 (council) meetings \u2013 and she missed just two.\u201d There were hundreds of other non-council meetings as well, he pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou just can’t explain the dedication she has given us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He went on to note \u2013 as he has in the past \u2013 that officials at the State Board of Accounts have told him that \u201cif they had 100 Phyllises across the state, their job would be easy. So it’s good to know the good hands that we have been in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councilman Matt Dyer, whose mother is Phyllis’ sister, said, \u201cMy story about my aunt goes back around 75 years ago,\u201d when John and Loreto (Sis) Eichhorn were married. Eight children later, twins came along, one or them being Phyllis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was an added blessing then and she has been a blessing for this city,\u201d he said. \u201cI’m really proud of you and the job you have done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anne Razo, wrapping up her first four-year term as city attorney, told Whitright: \u201cI couldn’t have done this job without your help. You have set the bar incredibly high for what a city employee should be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Operations Manager Jeremy Gilbert, Utilities Director Kevin Hackman (who will assume the clerk-treasurer duties January 1), Fire Chief Jeff Sheets, Building\/Zoning Director Curt Witte, and Infrastructure Manager Josh Zimmerman \u2013 all department heads \u2013 were among others who offered their thanks and commented how much they had been helped by Whitright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former longtime city attorney Tim Baker (photo) attended the meeting to read a resolution \u2013 as he had done many times at past meetings \u2013 which provided more praise of Whitright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhereas, despite the stress of the job, lengthy meetings, and the ever-increasing responsibilities assigned to her position by the state legislature,\u201d the resolution said, \u201cPhyllis has always acted professionally, with kindness with a sense of humor and a smile, with the expectation of herself that she would do her job as skillfully and competently as possible and always with a positive attitude that ‘We’ll get it’ …\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In brief comments, Phyllis offered thanks and appreciation to many and singled out her \u201cthree angels,\u201d referring to co-workers Wendi Gephart and Cheri Bienz, and Barb Engle (part-time deputy clerk-treasurer). \u201cYou guys have been wonderful; thank you from the bottom of my heart,\u201d she said. \u201cI love you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was then left to Gephart, 13\u00bd years with the department, and Bienz, 1\u00bd years, to present Phyllis with a key to the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Left to right in photo: Bienz, Gephart, Whitright and Rickord.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com A unique and admiral era of public service in Decatur will come to an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-11017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/BF97FF63206643F695FAD65DCBDF1C76.jpg?fit=613%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}