Blaine County Commissioner Larry Schoen shifted seats Tuesday to take over as chairman of the commission for the next two years.
The commissioners voted unanimously to have Schoen replace outgoing chairman Tom Bowman. They also named Commissioner Angenie McCleary as vice-chairwoman.
After taking his seat at the center of the commission, Schoen thanked Bowman for his leadership during the past two years. Bowman led the commission during the hearings and subsequent legal challenges over the Cove Springs development application and its ultimate rejection and a several-year travel-planning process for U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands in the county.
"That went very smoothly," Schoen said of the BLM effort.
Schoen also commended Bowman for his "very capable leadership" during one of the greatest emergencies to ever face the county, the 48,520-acre Castle Rock Fire in summer 2007.
Bowman seemed content to give up the reins to the county commission.
"I'm just going to be a foot soldier," he said.