GREENFIELD — It’s been a “crazy busy” two weeks for Greenfield’s new mayor, Guy Titus, who started his new job on January 2.
This past week, he ran his first Board of Works meeting on Tuesday, his first city council meeting on Wednesday, and delivered a State of the City address at a chamber of commerce luncheon.
It’s all in a week’s work for the city’s top official, who said becoming mayor “was on my bucket list for many, many years.”
A lifelong Greenfield resident and 44-year employee of Greenfield Power & Light, Titus feels fortunate to have made his dream come true.
The past two weeks have been packed with meetings and luncheons and strategy sessions.
“I’m just trying to get all my ducks in a row, but it’s been a lot of fun,” he said.
Among the first orders of business was shopping for some new suits with his wife, Kathy.
“I’m more of a jeans and sweater kind of guy,” said Titus, sporting a dapper blue suit and crisp blue shirt and tie earlier this week.
Looking out at Main Street from behind his desk in city hall, Titus knows his parents would be proud of his decision to serve the city he’s always called home.
For years, Greg and Lois Titus owned and operated the Titus Amoco station on the northeast corner of State Road 9 and McKenzie Road, where CVS now sits.
“They were businessmen for many years, and they raised five kids. I give them credit for giving me a great upbringing,” said Titus, the firstborn of his siblings, not including his best friend who his parents adopted when the boys were freshmen in high school.
“I get my outgoing personality from my mom. She never met a stranger, and she was a very giving, loving individual,” said Titus, whose father passed away over 20 years ago.
His mother passed away four years to the day that Titus won the primary election in May 2023, paving the way for him to win the general election in the fall.
“People were saying it was like a divine intervention, that she must have been with me that night,” he said.
Titus hopes to make his parents, wife and children proud by leading Greenfield in a positive direction as mayor.
The job somewhat runs in the family. His wife’s grandfather, Bill Blue, served as Greenfield’s mayor from 1972-1975.
To get a head start, Titus attended “mayor school,” as he calls it, at a three-day session in Noblesville in mid-November.
He’ll attend a more intensive three-day session for mayors throughout the state next week in Indianapolis. Both classes are led by AIM — Accelerate Indiana Municipalities.
“They teach us about economic development, legislation, how to get funding for projects, grants… all the policy and procedures and guidelines of what a mayor’s expectations are,” he said.
One of Titus’ first goals has been to gradually meet with each of his department heads to gauge the state of each department and what goals they have for the coming year.
“I want to hear their long-range plans and their wishlists and give them my wishlist,” he said.
“I want to address all the employees at some point and get a chance to talk to them in each department,” said the mayor.
“I want happy employees, so that communication is going to be important,” he said. “They’re my messengers out there in the community, and I want them to do a good job and be courteous to the citizens because that’s who gives them their paycheck.”
As for his former job as business services coordinator at Greenfield Power & Light, Titus spent the past six months training his successor — Melissa Farmer-Keomanivong — in hopes that he would win the general election and hand the reins over to her.
“She’s been training for years … so it will be a pretty easy transition for her,” he said.
Farmer, who joined Power & Light as an administrative assistant in 2011, said she learned from the best.
“I’ve worked closely with Guy for the past 13 years, and his knowledge — first as a lineman and then in the purchasing role — is invaluable,” she said.
Farmer said the power and light staff celebrated Titus’ election, knowing they’d have a friendly, familiar face to work with for at least the next four years.
“Often the elected mayor is someone we aren’t familiar with already, and there’s a process of getting to know them,” she said. “I happily supported Guy’s campaign because he spent over four decades as the employee before he became the boss.”
Even though he’s worked for the city for more than two thirds of his life, Titus said there’s still things he’s yet to learn about how the city is run, but he’s anxious to learn them.
“I’ve grown up in and loved this community for so many years, and so I’m excited about the opportunity to help Greenfield grow in a positive way,” he said.
“We’ve got a good start, and I want to continue that progress. I want to build it up to where people want to come to Greenfield, to make it a destination community.”
Titus said one of the things he’s most excited about doing his first year in office is helping create a downtown development plan, working with the city’s planners and engineers.
“The city and county are also working on a comprehensive plan for 10 to 20 years out, but we want to get a short-term plan put together just for the downtown,” he said.
Titus said it’s felt strange to drive downtown to city hall rather than the power and light office on Franklin Street since starting his new job, but it’s starting to feel more natural.
Each morning he drives downtown and steers his car into the spot that says, “RESERVED PARKING FOR MAYOR,” which would no doubt make his parents smile.
