MERCER COUNTY Seamans to finish Shipley's term

Kenneth Seamans was selected from a list of 38 people interviewed by the court.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- A Wilmington Township supervisor has been picked to complete the unexpired term of former Mercer County Commissioner Brian Shipley, who resigned nearly two weeks ago.
Kenneth A. Seamans, who has served as a township supervisor for 10 years, was selected by the Mercer County Court of Common Pleas to fill the remaining two years and two months in Shipley's term.
He was one of 38 applicants for the job interviewed by the court since Wednesday and will take the oath of office at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in courtroom one. The courthouse is closed Monday for Veterans Day.
Criticism: Shipley, 30, who had been under criticism since summer for his personal use of a county credit card, stepped down just four days after records of his use of a county cellular telephone assigned to him showed he had used it to make numerous calls to escort services, massage parlors and similar businesses.
Shipley is a Republican, and the court was bound by state election law to name a Republican to succeed him.
A total of 47 people applied for the post. Two were ineligible and several others either removed their names from contention voluntarily or were unable to meet with the judges at the assigned time.
Seamans, reached late Friday night, expressed surprise and pleasure at his selection. "I was shocked. There were a lot of good candidates," he said. "I am still on cloud 9."
Seamans, who lives on Pulaski-Mercer Road, is a graduate of Union High School in Lawrence County and served in the U.S. Army as a military police officer. He earned an American University Certificate in Police and Public Administration in Washington, D.C., and later worked as an officer with the Washington Metropolitan Police Department. He later worked for the American Cyanamid Co. in New Castle and is now a self-employed farmer.
Seamans is his township's representative on the Mercer County Regional Council of Governments, the Mercer County Regional Planning Commission and the Metropolitan Planning Organization and is a member of the Mercer County Cooperative Extension Board and the County Committee of the Farm Service Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.