MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – In its final meeting of 2015, the Middletown Area Town Hall gathered nominations for a board election to be held in January.       

The brief meeting, which lasted just over a half hour, took place on Thursday evening at the Middletown Senior Center.

Vice Chair Claude Brown led the meeting in the absence of Board Chair Fletcher Thornton.

At the start of the meeting, Brown introduced new Board Secretary Margaret Greenley, who is succeeding Ken Gonzales, whose term is up.

“I'm excited to do this. I've never done anything like this before,” she said.

Greenley added that she hopes to help make Middletown strong again, noting that – even in the wake of the Valley fire – it's still a great place to live.

One of the evening's main items of business was nominations for the MATH Board for 2016.

The board has five seats, three of which will be up for election at the start of the new year.

Board member Mike Tabacchi said there are two seats open representing Middletown proper – his and Gonzales' – that expire next month, and one at-large seat, currently held by Brown, that covers areas including Anderson Springs, Cobb and Hidden Valley Lake.

Tabacchi indicated he was not seeking another term on the board.

Brown suggested that anyone interested in being on the board needed to be ready to serve.

“This is not a Thursday night get-together social club,” Brown said, explaining that the group has relevance within the county and community, and facilitates discussions of issues of concern to area residents.

He said it's a two-year commitment, and anyone wanting to be a board member shouldn't come with preconceived ideas but with an open mind in order to pass on to the county leadership the community's views on the issues.

Nominees included Nate Duff, John Hess and Gregg Van Oss. Brown also added his name for consideration for reelection, and Linda Diehl-Darms asked to be added to the ballot.

At January's meeting, each of the nominees will give a presentation about themselves, with the election to be held afterward, Brown said.

Brown said how the south county comes back from the Valley fire will be a big agenda item for 2016.

A presentation by Phoenix Rising, which had been anticipated to take place at the Thursday meeting, has been rescheduled to January.

MATH also briefly held a discussion on replacing the damaged “Welcome to Middletown” signs, and will bring the matter back for further consideration next month after a representative contacts the Middletown Rotary, who is believed to have originally been responsible for the signs.

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