Commissioners Appoint Lucy Brenton to Plan Commission, and a New Historic Designation
- Nathaniel Smith | Editor-in-Chief
- Aug 6
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 13
The Board of Commissioners held their first August meeting on Tuesday the 5th at 9:00 am, featuring public comments from Lucy Brenton and Rhonda Greene as well as topics such as a new Plan Commission appointment. As per usual, the meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance, a word of prayer, and the approval of the previous meeting’s agenda. It was then time for public comments.
Lucy Brenton made her way to the stand to begin her commentary, but what followed was not exactly par for the course. With Brenton’s unapologetic history of critiquing the board, one could expect nothing less. However, she instead brought forth a simple message: “Leave it better than you found it.”
“I’m coming before you this morning to say, ‘leave it better than you found it,’” Brenton began. “That’s what my mom said. She said, ‘leave it better than you found it.’ My goal in coming to Washington County six years ago was to have a place where I could build strong roots, build the type of community that thrives and helps each other, and really get to know my neighbors. The tech bros have created all of these algorithms that are dividing us. If you are not aware, the algorithms are designed to continually serve you the things that you agree with and hide the things you disagree with, lest you become empathetic or understanding toward people that are viewed as your enemies on the other side.
“This is happening in our communities as well,” Brenton continued. “It is almost like a digital prison that’s fed on the dopamine that we ourselves produce, and that dopamine is designed to keep us in front of our computers instead of out in our communities where we belong. So, I’m coming to you to say we are the ancestors now. We are the last generation that will remember what it was like before AI. Are we at Skynet with Starlink and Neuralink and all the other things they are trying to do to us? And how do we maintain our humanity?
So, with nothing on the agenda for me to complain about, my call this morning is for us to come together as a community and find out, if you don’t already know, who is your neighbor on either side and down the road. Create friendships with those people so that, God forbid, should we have any sort of event like the hurricanes that came through North Carolina that we, and our neighbors, will be the ones helping each other when the Feds come in and FEMA denies generators and other help to the people that need it. But that won’t happen if we don’t create those relationships now. A wise man once said, ‘dig your well before you’re thirsty.’
“That’s what I am asking all of us to do as a community. Figure out the things and talents and the God given resources that you have. Can you give two hours a week, 100 hours a year, to a cause you believe in? Can you volunteer at the food bank? Can you spend an extra five or ten bucks at the grocery store and put something in your neighbor’s cup? Washington County, it is up to us. We have to build a community that is resilient, and I’m asking you to help. Thank you,” concluded Brenton.
As Brenton left the stand, Rhonda Greene made her way to the front for her public comment.
“Washington County is not compliant with state law HEA 1167,” Greene stated. “The county must have the following on the county website to stop breaking the law: you must have links to your live streaming meeting video on the county website and downloadable copies of all documents that pertain to the meeting, like the agenda and appropriations that are discussed and voted on in the meeting. Every board in the county must, by law, provide these links and documents on the county website or their own website.
“Boards that break the law expose the county and the board members to liability,” she continued. “Boards that break the law lose in court. A prime example is the county zoning board. The easiest way to fix this problem is to set all of these organizations up with their own public Google calendars. Now, you’re going to want to do the exact opposite of what I am asking you to do even though it is the most effective, easiest, and cheapest way possible to fix this problem. Go ahead and be stubborn. I want you to because Washington County is the example. The rest of the state, and the rest of the country, can learn from how you react to this problem.
“Now, as an example, I have a public Google calendar on Indiana Proud that has the link to this live stream that we are using right now and this document I put up there, if that makes any sense. It is easy, and I can help you with it if you have questions. If not, that’s fine too. Thank you for your time.”
Immediately following Greene’s comments, Attorney April Geltmaker instructed someone in the room to log on to the Washington County website to show that the link to the live streams, as well as meeting agendas, are available for anyone to access. The link can be found below:
After brief deliberation, Commissioner Todd Ewen stated, “We are compliant. Thank you.”
The final order of business was a new appointment to the Plan Commission.
“I would like to make a motion to appoint Lucy Brenton as our newest member to the Plan Commission to fill the vacancy,” said Commissioner Ewen. “Lucy and I spoke at length one day last week. She’s on board and she’s willing to go to work, and we look forward to having her. I’ll put that forward with a motion.”
“Before I second that, do you have anything to say, Lucy?” asked Commissioner Tony Cardwell.
“I look very much forward to helping to be the citizen conscience for personal liberty and property rights in the county,” Brenton replied.
“I’ll second that motion,” Commissioner Cardwell said.
“Tony seconded,” said Commissioner Philip Marshall. “All in favor, say ‘aye.’”
With that, the motion was passed with three votes in favor, and the meeting was about to be adjourned following brief updates from Paul Eckart regarding highway projects and Rick Voyles of the Highway Department when Commissioner Ewen stated he had an announcement.
“I have a couple of things to say. We recently received notification from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, who is the administrator for historic related things in the State of Indiana, and I’m proud to announce that there is an area just east of town. There is a Blue River Quaker Settlement region there. Early founders of this county settled in that part of the county, and we are I believe just three actual historically designated districts in the state. It includes probably a five or six square mile area designated as a historic district. It had lots of influence with the Underground Railroad and the Quaker community… It’s something we should all be very proud of. It basically gives people an opportunity if they choose to be eligible for grants and things like that to maintain our history here in this county.
“Some of you have been asking about the Fairgrounds building that we had planned on constructing,” he added. “The building project itself has not been put on hold, however, we are waiting on the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) because when the new governor took office, he ordered a forensic audit of all the books from the IEDC. Which, it’s not unusual when a new governor takes office to do something like this. So, what it means in a nutshell is it’s just kind of prolonging this process, unfortunately. Some of the people who sit up in Indianapolis in cubicles don’t understand that if you walk outside, we do have weather here. Sometimes the latter part of the year doesn’t allow you to work like you would in the summer time because you’re fighting the elements. So, this is going to kind of put us into a little bit of a crunch when it comes to completing this project. However, I was promised by a person at the IEDC yesterday that a decision would be made regarding a release of the funds within the next week or two. So, take that for what it’s worth.”
The August 5 meeting of the Washington County Board of Commissioners highlighted a notable shift in collaboration. Public comments from Lucy Brenton and Rhonda Greene called for stronger community ties and improved transparency for county meetings. And in what some might call a surprising conclusion, Brenton – long known for her critical stance against the board – was unanimously appointed to the Plan Commission. Her first meeting as a member of the commission was August 5 at 6:30 pm. The live stream of the meeting can be found by visiting the Washington County website as stated earlier in the article, or by visiting this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB7D0eT3NyQ.
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