The Tusculum Board of Mayor and Commissioners on Monday evening appointed retired educator James "Jim" Seip to succeed Mark Easterly on the board.

Seip's appointment is for the period until the next Tusculum municipal election in June 2011.

Easterly, who had resigned effective March 1, did not attend Monday's monthly meeting of the Tusculum board.

He had served as a member of the three-member Board of Mayor and Commissioners since being elected in June 2007.

During the meeting, Mayor John Foster read Easterly's letter of resignation aloud.

In that letter, Easterly said he was resigning for "personal reasons" and wished to thank his fellow commissioners, Tusculum Recorder Eva Sams and other Tusculum employees for their assistance to him during his tenure on the board.

Mayor Foster then said that Tusculum resident James "Jim" Seip had agreed to succeed Easterly as a Tusculum commissioner if that was the board's pleasure.

The mayor formally nominated Seip, who, prior to his retirement 14 years ago, served as assistant principal of Greeneville Middle School and was a long-time teacher and administrator in both the Greeneville and Greene County school systems.

After the meeting, Seip noted that he had been the first principal of the Greeneville-Greene County Center for Technology and also had held several principalships in the Greene County School System during his career.

Seip has been a Tusculum resident for the last five years.

The mayor then called for a vote on the nomination, which had been seconded by Commissioner Alan Corley.

Both Foster and Corley then cast votes in favor of naming Seip to complete the remainder of Easterly's unexpired term on the Board of Mayor and Commissioners.

The next Tusculum election is not scheduled to be held until June 2011, Mayor Foster said.

Under Tusculum's form of government, three commissioners are elected to staggered terms of office, and the commissioners themselves choose, in the first meeting after an election, one of their members to serve as mayor for the next two years.

Easterly also had been appointed in January 2005 by Tusculum Mayor John Foster as a member of the Tusculum Planning Commission.

He was named to complete the term of Charles Shelton, who resigned in December 2004.

On Monday evening, Mayor Foster also appointed Seip to succeed Easterly on the Tusculum Planning Commission.

Tusculum Police Officer Dustin Jeffers told the board that during the month of February, TPD Officers issued 17 citations, including 10 for speeding; filed three reports and made 13 arrests, including: four for DUI, three for driving with revoked or suspended licenses, one for possessing a handgun while under the influence, one for reckless driving, one for resisting arrest, one for drug possession and two "other" arrests.

Commissioner Corley, who is the Tusculum Volunteer Fire Department's safety officer, told the board that during February, the TVFD responded to 11 calls, including five structure fires, one traffic accident, one grass/woods fire and four "other" calls.

Only two of the calls were to locations within Tusculum, Corley told the board.