Wolfrum formally seeks commish seat

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Local attorney and business owner Todd Wolfrum has announced his candidacy for Van Wert County Commissioner. Wolfrum will compete in the March Republican primary for the seat being vacated by Gary Adams at year’s end.

Wolfrum has lived in Van Wert County for nearly his entire life, leaving only for purposes of education. He is a 1989 graduate of Lincolnview High School and 1993 graduate of Bluffton College, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in sociology.

Upon graduation from college, Wolfrum returned to Van Wert and worked for years on the floor of several factories, including Federal-Mogul, Eaton, Cooper’s, and Fleetwood. He also spent two years working on construction crews for local contractor Wortman Brothers.

In 1999, Wolfrum took the Law School Admissions Test and placed highly enough to receive a full academic scholarship to attend the University of Toledo College of Law, graduating with a juris doctorate three years later. Shortly thereafter, he opened his own law office in Van Wert and has practiced as an attorney here ever since.

Wolfrum wants to bring a new perspective to the commissioner’s office. As a business owner (he also owns Firehouse Pizza in Middle Point) and an attorney in solo practice, he offers the county critical experience in entrepreneurship and business start-up.

“I hope to bring to the commissioner’s office and to Van Wert new ideas,” Wolfrum said. “The most important of those ideas being that our children and grandchildren can pursue an education and their ambitions and still live in this county. I have small children and I would like Van Wert to be an option in their future.”

Wolfrum said he believes this county’s best resource is intelligent and industrious young people. Every community has them, but for too long, he believes, we have been losing most of ours because of the seemingly limited opportunities here. It just takes one of these with a good idea to create hundreds of jobs.

That is why Wolfrum promotes bringing a college branch campus to Van Wert where high school graduates and adults can begin a four-year degree. He believes that not only would this encourage talented people to stay here and cheaply get a start on their careers, but it would also enter Van Wert more broadly into the field of advanced education, an area that is one of the fastest growing business sectors nationally.

“Manufacturing is this county’s backbone,” Wolfrum noted. “The megasite north of town was a great idea and some very good people have worked on it. But whether or not any large manufacturer ever locates here, there needs to be other plans.”

Wolfrum also believes we need to encourage reinvestment in our small towns as our county’s financial health depends on a vibrant countywide economy. The county’s outstanding highway system, including a four-lane with plenty of access, should allow us to better promote our once great network of small towns as possible destinations for manufacturing plants and other business. Wolfrum doesn’t think we can continue to let these towns deteriorate and not expect the county as a whole to eventually suffer the consequences.

In his weekly column for a local newspaper, Wolfrum has consistently shown an understanding of and penchant for conservative values and fiscal responsibility. He hopes to use that column to communicate on the issues confronting the county if elected.