The newly formed Auburn Downtown Development Authority (DDA) held its first meeting at City Hall Chambers on Wednesday night and among several items accomplished on the agenda was the election of three officers.

Blechinger offered to step in as Chair following a motion made by Dottie Coffman to nominate Janet Jeans.

"I would like to offer ... to step in as Chair and for you (Jeanes) to serve as vice chair and then when the grants have been initiated and everything is up and running, you can step into Chair and I will gladly step down," Blechinger said.

"Only because we have been meeting for the last three months ... getting things up and moving and we’re at the end of finalizing things ... I’ll get everybody up to speed on things and that will give you the opportunity to get on board," she said.

The group agreed unanimously that nominating Blechinger to help finalize current projects was the best choice for the committee.

"There are a lot of things that go on in starting a DDA," said Ron Griffith, city administrator. "Linda being here all the time and this being the first year I think that to start the program off that [she] would be the best choice. Not to say that someone else couldn’t do it," he said. "It’s just there is a lot going on ... there are several grants we’re applying for and we are trying to get money for the DDA and we’re trying to build buildings ... there is a lot of vision ... and she is here [at City Hall] a lot."

DDA member Howard Hawthorne made the motion to nominate Blechinger as Chairman of the committee and Bob Vogel seconded the motion.

The group voted unanimously to accept the motion.

Jeanes was voted in as vice chair and Griffith was unanimously voted in to be the committee’s secretary of treasure.

The group also discussed several current issues the city is facing with Downtown development.

The committee went over duties and requirements of DDA members, the conceptual master plan for Downtown, discussed sewer plans, landscaping projects and plans for the new sports complex.

"This is an exciting time for the City of Auburn," Griffith said. "Being a part of the Downtown Development Authority ... you have a lot of powers. Some powers are restricted to you, we’ll go over those tonight. But, hopefully we will be able to accomplish everything that we need to accomplish for the Downtown area," he said.

Members of the DDA are Paul Nadeau, Bob Vogel, Tina Parks, Howard Hawthorne, Janet Jeanes. Mayor Linda Blechinger, Dottie Coffman and Ron Griffith.