Three new faces will take their places on the Butler County Commission Tuesday.

Joey Peavy, Darrell Sanders and Allin Whittle will officially join the commission following a swearing in ceremony that will be held at the Butler County Courthouse Annex Building courtroom.

The ceremony is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

Peavy, Sanders and Whittle will join Frank Hickman and Jesse McWilliams on the commission.

Peavy defeated incumbent Jerry Hartin in last Tuesday’s election for the District 1 seat, while Whittle defeated Republican challenger Charles Rogers for the District 4 seat last Tuesday.

Sanders defeated incumbent Lynn Harold Watson for the District 5 seat in the Democratic primary in March. He faced no Republican opposition in the General Election.

Hickman (District 3) and McWilliams (District 2) also faced no opposition in the General Election.

According to Butler County Administrator Diane Kilpatrick, the ceremony is being held one day prior to when the newly elected commission can officially meet so that it can “get right to business” during its regular meeting on Wednesday. That meeting will be held at 8:30 a.m.

“The swearing in ceremony will not be considered a meeting of the commissioners,” Kilpatrick said.

Kilpatrick said that the first order of business for Wednesday’s meeting will be to elect a chairman and a vice chairman and to determine how long the chairman will serve in that capacity. Once that is done, the newly elected chairman will preside over the commission meeting.

McWilliams, who has served as the chairman since 2004, announced in October that he plans to step down from that role.

“This is not something I just want to do, but it’s something that I feel is necessary for the county to go forward,” he said at the Oct. 8 meeting.

“I’ve been here for a long time, and I believe there needs to be a change going forward.”

McWilliams said that Hickman has agreed to serve as the chairman if elected to the role by the new commission. Hickman has served on the Commission since 2001 when he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Joe Hendrix, who had passed away.

McWilliams didn’t rule out the possibility of serving as chairman again if asked by the newly elected commission.

“If asked to serve again, I want to, but right now, I think it’s probably best that I turn this loose,” he said.