City candidates speak at GOP event

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

There was a bigger crowd, but fewer questions, when candidates for city office spoke before fellow Republicans Thursday evening at Wassenberg Art Center.

Thursday’s event used the same format as a candidate’s night held earlier by the Heart Land Patriots group at Trinity Friends Church in Van Wert.

County Republican Central Committee Chairman Thad Lichtensteiger first introduced candidates running unopposed for city office, including City Auditor Martha Balyeat, First Ward Councilman John Marshall, Second Ward Councilman Joi Mergy and Ken Markward, who is running unopposed for the Third Ward Council seat being vacated by mayoral candidate Jerry Mazur. None of those candidates spoke at Thursday’s event.

Candidates involved in contested races then took the podium to first speak for a maximum of five minutes, followed by the same amount of time for questions. Those included mayoral candidates Mazur and Ken Mengerink, City Council president candidates Stan Agler and Pete Weir, Fourth Ward Council candidates Steve Trittschuh and Louis Ehmer and at-large Council candidates Jon Tomlinson, Don Farmer, Fred Fisher, Denny Staude and Warren Straley.

Economic development was the primary topic for most of the candidates, with mayoral candidates Mazur and Mengerink having clear views on the subject.

Mengerink has praised the city economic development program, and notes he feels things are going well in the city, overall. He has said he sees little need for a closer relationship with the county development office at this point, although he would not oppose a better working relationship between the two entities.

Mengerink has also stressed in one or both of the candidates events his governmental experience, including nearly 10 years on City Council, 20 years on the Van Wert City Board of Education (board president for 14 years) and 14 years as a member of Vantage Board of Education (president for eight years).

Mazur again stated his opinion that the city and county ED programs need to work together, and also promoted what he feels is the need for a five-year plan to better prepare the city for the future.

A relative newcomer to politics, Mazur stressed his business management experience with several companies, including Otis Elevator.

Candidates for city office tend to either have extensive political experience or business experience, or a little of both.

Three former city mayors — Agler, Ehmer and current Mayor Don Farmer — are seeking seats on City Council. All also have extensive City Council experience, while Ehmer was a former manager for Chrysler Amplex in Van Wert and Farmer has been a city businessman for several decades.

Other candidates with business/management experience include Mazur, Trittschuh (a systems analyst with Central Insurance Companies), Mengerink (a retired IT employee at Central), Weir (an officer and NCO in the U.S. Navy for 20 years), Staude (a former manager for Borden’s and Fisher Cheese), Tomlinson (a professor at the University of Northwest Ohio and former patient-community coordinator for Van Wert County Hospital), Fisher (owner of a local maintenance business and maintenance director for Lincolnview Local Schools), and Straley (a local real estate agent).

Of the candidates for contested city elected offices, six (Farmer, Mengerink, Mazur, Agler, Tomlinson and Trittschuh) are currently serving in city government and two of those (Tomlinson and Trittschuh) are incumbents for the positions they are seeking (the Van Wert independent will have complete voter profiles on each candidate prior to the May 5 primary election).