Power changed hands without a shot being fired.

As residents piled into the North Irwin town hall, councilman Gordon Stoves kicked off Monday's council meeting with a sudden pronouncement. He made a motion to realign council, opening up the positions of council president and vice president.

Without discussion, the matter came to a vote. Council Vice President Kim Macalus and members Kenneth Galley and John McIntyre joined Stove, while Bernard Reynolds, Mel Ostrom and President Edwin "Bo" Anthony opposed the motion.

The motion's 4-3 passage mirrored the ones that followed in rapid succession. When the dust had cleared, council had removed Anthony from his post as president and installed McIntyre in his place. Macalus remained vice president. Council created a new position of president pro-tem and selected Stoves to fill it.

It took less than five minutes, and when it was done Stoves, looking at the nearly 50 people crammed into the building, made a motion to move the meeting to the North Irwin fire hall. People walked several blocks down Second Street, and with the assistance of volunteer firefighters, set up chairs and a table in the hall's garage.

As the crowd settled in, McIntyre explained the drama of the past few minutes.

"Tonight's reason for reorganization is us trying to bring some peace back to government in North Irwin," he said.

McIntyre did not name anyone nor point to any incident, only saying that he and the other three council members felt they had to do something.

"I just didn't think I could go on as a council member the way things were going," he said. "With that said, let's move forward."

That final pronouncement prompted a burst of applause from the audience.

As the meeting wound to a close, council members once again addressed the crowd. Stoves responded to a series of comments made on a blog on www.yournorwin.com criticizing some of council's previous actions.

Stoves said people upset with council should run themselves and contribute to the borough, rather than posting anonymous comments online.

He pointed out that running for office requires 10 signatures on a petition and costs no money. Stoves added that those complaining did not understand the magnitude of the work that went into making the borough run.

"It's not a picnic. It's not fun," Stoves said. "You cannot be a once-a-month council person."

Galley praised the people who came to the meeting, and he said that kind of civic engagement helped motivate council to do a better job.

"It was nice to have the need for this," he said about the fire hall.

After the meeting, Ostrom said he hoped things would go smoothly under the new leadership.

"I just hope that the bickering and so forth that's gone on stops," he said.

Anthony said he hoped things worked out, and he said his wife would thank council for freeing up the time he had previously devoted to borough business.