The clerk-treasurer's line: two named holders, one open seat of paper

REINHOLTZ 1993 · THE LINE DARK TO 2012 · THORNBURG 2012–2023 · THE CURRENT HOLDER UNNAMED IN THE RECORD REACHED

The clerk-treasurer is the town's memory, and Osceola's memory has a hole in it. The first holder the record names is Donna Reinholtz, Town Clerk in May 1993, when she asked the Mishawaka Enterprise to publish the town's annexation ordinance — the federal court file in the Kirk case preserves her name and act (the annexation entry below). Between Reinholtz and the next named holder the line is dark in every source reached. The State Board of Accounts' Schedule of Officials names Denese Thornburg as Clerk-Treasurer for a term running January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2019; the clerk-treasurer of the 2012 and 2014 Public Access Counselor opinions is the same officer, though the opinions' bodies spell her "Denise Thornburg" while the audit schedule, the opinions' own copy lines, and the clerks' association newsletters spell her "Denese" — both spellings print, unharmonized. The audit's closing date is not the end of her service: the Region V newsletter of the International Institute of Municipal Clerks lists "Denese Thornburg, CMC, Clerk/Treasurer, Town of Osceola" in its Summer 2023 issue and again in its Winter 2024 issue, on designations reported July–December 2023; and the minutes of the Town of Bristol for January 18, 2024, record that Denese Thornburg began work there as utility clerk on January 8, 2024 — the natural reading is that she left Osceola at the turn of the 2024 term, though no Osceola document reached says so in words. For the term that began January 1, 2024, the town's own clerk page names no one — it carries the office's contact block (850 Lincolnway West; 574-674-8114) and nothing else. A salary aggregator republishing the State's Gateway compensation data lists a Christina Miller as the town's "Treasurer Clerk" in 2025; she is named on no town document reached, and whether she holds the elected clerk-treasurership in November 2026 is unconfirmed. The current holder is therefore carried as a named gap, GAP-OSGOV-2, with its settlers: the Schedule of Officials in the State Board of Accounts' next audit of the town, the town's own minutes and salary ordinances, and the county clerk's certified 2023 election returns — any one of which names the officer the town's website does not.

Sources:

1. Petition for Writ of Certiorari, Kirk v. Town of Osceola, No. 97-277: Donna Reinholtz, Town Clerk, May 1993.
2. Indiana State Board of Accounts, audit of the Town of Osceola (May 29, 2018), Schedule of Officials: Denese Thornburg, Clerk-Treasurer, 01-01-12 to 12-31-19.
3. International Institute of Municipal Clerks, Region V Newsletters, Summer 2023 and Winter 2024: Thornburg as Osceola Clerk/Treasurer through the July–December 2023 reporting window.
4. Town of Bristol, Town Council minutes, January 18, 2024 (Municode): Thornburg began as Bristol utility clerk, January 8, 2024.
5. Town of Osceola, clerk page (osceola.in.gov/clerk), crawled 2025: contact block only, no name; GovSalaries (Indiana Gateway compensation republished), 2025: Christina Miller, "Treasurer Clerk," Osceola Civil Town — a secondary line, printed as unconfirmed.