Whitestown hires first town manager

Jul 28, 2010 — Zionsville Times Sentinel

Emily Atwood

Jul. 28, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Tom Combiths was hired to become Whitestown's first town manager on Tuesday, July 13.

After sifting through about 120 candidates, Whitestown Town Council members chose Combiths.

"He's the one that came out on top," Whitestown Clerk Treasurer Deb Zachelmeyer said.

Combiths, originally from Virginia, has worked in local government for 30 years. Picked for his background in city planning and zoning, Combiths is looking forward to the challenge.

"It seemed like a wonderful opportunity," he said.

He compares being a town manager to being a captain of a ship. He makes sure the town council goes in the direction that they and the community would like to head.

And as previous town and city managers, he has a background in organizing towns to achieve their goals.

His last job was city manager for eight years in a suburb in Atlanta, Ga. Previous to this, he was town manager for his hometown, Pulaski, Va, for six years. He spent 17 years in California working for local government.

Now, starting his third week at Whitestown, he is striving to make working relationships with groups like the Boone County Economic Development Corp., Zionsville and the Indiana Department of Transportation.

"All of those parts are key to developing a good future," Combiths said.

A future that he thinks is going to be a developing one.

"I think most people agree that Whitestown is gonna grow and is growing," he said.

In aiding this growth, Combiths is helping the town council in making its plans and statutes.

That's where the captain in him comes back into play. Not only does he help steer his crew, but he has to get them to their final destination.

"I make sure the organization gets there," he said.

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