Plymouth Appoints New Chair, Vice Chair

Plymouth Township has a new council chair.

Sheldon Simpson was named township council chair at Monday night’s reorganization meeting, replacing outgoing chair Vince Gillen after a 4-1 vote in his favor.

“It is a great pleasure to be elected chair,” Simpson said at the meeting.

The newly appointed chair said that his focus would be on addressing the township’s financial concerns in the coming year.

“Plymouth had a tough road ahead in the next couple of years,” he said. “We’re running out of our reserves and we need to find new ways to cut costs and produce more income.”

Simpson said that he hopes the council will act in a manner that will “benefit the residents of Plymouth township [without] serving personal agendas.”

“We are not in favor of laying off anyone and … our goal is to make sure that doesn’t happen,” he said. “We have a great staff that works hard and I think everyone who lives in this township knows our services are second to none.”

Simpson retained his council seat after beating challenger Bridget Sudall in November’s election.

Gillen will remain as a council member.

Lenora Bruno, who was elected in November to fill outgoing council member Mary Lou Readinger’s seat, was named vice-chair in a 4-1 vote.

“I look forward to working with my fellow council members and moving Plymouth forward,” she said.

The newly organized council will meet for a work session on Tuesday, then again for its first regular meeting of 2012 on Jan. 9.