Expect economic development to come front and center during the next term of the Barrington Town Council.

June Speakman, who was re-elected to her second term as president of the Town Council Monday night, Dec. 3, at an organizational meeting after a swearing-in ceremony, said there is a significant amount of interest in “creating a more vital downtown area.”

Speakman said the town really has no one official working on economic development.

“The town planner is more of a land-use specialist,” she said.

Speakman said she is even considering the possibility of creating a new standing board or commission to look at developing new business in Barrington.

Speakman’s re-election as president of the Town Council followed the swearing in of the new town councilors and members of the Barrington School Committee.

RI Attorney General Peter Kilmartin did the honors. He quipped that he didn’t even pack a bag to come to Barrington after Mary Alice Gasbarro, who served as master of ceremonies, said he came all the way from Pawtucket to swear in the elected officials.

Joining Speakman on the Town Council again is Kate Weymouth, who was elected vice-president of the council, and Ann Strong, who fills the seat previously held by Jeff Brenner.

The other councilors are Cynthia Coyne and Bill DeWitt, who was described by Gasbarro as the “baby’s breath” among the four flowers on the council.

Two School Committee members were sworn in: Robert Shea Jr. and Paula Dominguez. Patrick Guida could not attend the ceremony, said Kilmartin. He was sworn in earlier in the day.

The other two School Committee members are Kate Brody and Scott Fuller.

Kilmartin also swore in Town Moderator Julia Califano to another term.

Only a couple of dozen people, most of them family members and Barrington’s three state legislators, attended the low-key swearing-in ceremony in the Council Chamber.