Pictured, from left, are at-large Warsaw Common Council candidate Cindy Dobbins, district 1 Warsaw Common Council candidate Jeff Grose, district 4 Warsaw Common Council candidate Jerry Frush, Warsaw mayoral candidate Joseph Thallemer, district 5 Warsaw Common Council candidate Diane Quance, district 3 Warsaw Common Council Candidate Mike Klondaris, Warsaw Clerk-Treasurer candidate Lynne Christiansen and at-large Warsaw Common Council candidate Jack Wilhite.

KOSCIUSKO — Today, Jan. 9, marked that first day that candidates can officially file for the upcoming primary election.

When the Kosciusko County Justice Building doors opened at 8 a.m. this morning, Kent Adams was already patiently waiting. He noted that he got to the building around 7:40 a.m.

Adams was the only person who showed up to file immediately in the morning. When asked why he came so early, he said that that’s how he has always done it. Adams is running for his third term as Winona Lake’s clerk-treasurer.

Around 3:30 p.m., a group of eight incumbent candidates from Warsaw arrived at the justice building to file together. The candidates included Warsaw mayoral candidate Joseph Thallemer, Warsaw Clerk-Treasurer candidate Lynne Christiansen, district 1 Warsaw Common Council candidate Jeff Grose, district 3 Warsaw Common Council Candidate Mike Klondaris, district 4 Warsaw Common Council candidate Jerry Frush, district 5 Warsaw Common Council candidate Diane Quance, at-large Warsaw Common Council candidate Cindy Dobbins and at-large Warsaw Common Council candidate Jack Wilhite.

“We felt like collectively it was important to show the support of the commitment, the future and past commitment, of these council members and our clerk-treasurer and myself. We’ve all worked very hard together to get a lot done,” commented Thallemer. “We don’t look at this as any type of strict endorsement of one campaign or another, it’s just collective support of what we’ve done in the past and what we want to do in the future.”

Three other candidates filed throughout the day today. These included Jim Zachary for Ward 1 of Winona Lake Council, Heather James for Ward 4 of Winona Lake Council and Josh Finch for district 2 of Warsaw Common Council.

Candidates have until noon on Feb. 8 to file. All of the open positions include:

• Warsaw — Mayor, clerk-treasurer, city common council districts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 and two common council at-large seats.
• Winona Lake — Clerk-treasurer, council districts 1, 2 and 4.
• Syracuse — Clerk-treasurer, town council districts 3, 4 and 5.

Small town filings also began but those positions have a deadline of noon on Aug. 1. Each of the following towns has positions open for election of clerk-treasurer and three town council positions.

• Claypool
• Etna Green
• Leesburg
• Mentone
• North Webster
• Sidney
• Silver Lake
• Pierceton

Kent Adams was the only candidate to file immediately at 8 a.m. this morning.