Council candidates tout leadership

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The two men seeking the Republican nomination for the Van Wert City Council president’s position now held by Gary Corcoran each tout their leadership experience, although they earned that experience in very different ways.

Ken Mengerink, 63, has decades of experience in public service, starting with an eight-year stint on Van Wert City Council back in the 1980s. He also has served 20 years on the Van Wert City Board of Education, with 14 of those years as board president, and 12 years on the Vantage Board of Education, with eight of those years as board president.

Mengerink, a retired computer programmer who worked for Central Insurance Company, said he feels his ability to run meetings is a plus for him, since that’s a good part of the job duties of City Council president.

“I feel I have the knowledge to run a very good meeting, and to direct the city the way that we need,” Mengerink has said, noting that he received his “baptism of fire” into city politics during his original four terms on City Council, when the city was dealing with several important, but controversial, projects, including renovations to Fountain Park and the purchase of land for what is now the new city reservoir.

In addition to his public service, Mengerink is very much involved in the Van Wert community. He is a member of American Legion Post 178 and is a member of the Van Wert County Council on Aging Board of Directors. He also formerly served on the Ohio School Boards Association’s Northwest Regional board.

While acknowledging that the city faces a number of important issues, Mengerink said he feels his experience in public service would make him a strong candidate for leading City Council through any future challenges.

“There are no magic answers, but I think I have a lot of experience running board meetings,” Mengerink has noted, while adding that he also is not afraid to tell confront city officials and others over any issues that may arise.

Mengerink is a lifelong resident of Van Wert and 1968 graduate of Van Wert High School. He and his wife, Karen, have four grown children.

Although a relative newcomer to politics, Pete Weir, 53, has plenty of leadership experience gained while serving 20 years in the U.S. Navy. Weir, who is completing his first term on City Council, rose through the ranks while in the Navy and retired as a master chief petty officer (E-9), the highest enlisted rank in the navy. He later was commissioned as an officer and spent four years as a naval officer prior to his retirement.

Weir, a Van Wert High School graduate of the Class of 1978, returned to Van Wert following his retirement from the Navy.

His educational resume also includes a bachelor’s degree in computer science from National University and an associate’s degree in applied business/computer programming from what was then Lima Technical College. He is currently working on a degree in quality engineering technology at Rhodes State University.

Weir was recently was hired as program manager for Vantage Career Center’s Adult Education Trade & Industry program.

The current Fourth Ward Councilman is also very much involved in the community. He currently served on the Van Wert County Regional Airport Authority, Van Wert County Regional Planning Committee, Van Wert Economic Advisory Group, is a member of Van Wert Optimist Club, American Legion Post 178 and its 40 et 8 organization, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5803, Moose Lodge 1320, and is a member of the local Masonic lodge.

He also attends Community Improvement Corporation meetings as a non-member, as well as Main Street Van Wert programs.

It’s his community involvement, Weir said, that has led him to seek the Council president’s position.

“I’d like to be Council president because I am committed to the improvement of our community,” he noted, noting that he attended Council meetings for well over a year before seeking the Fourth Ward seat he now holds. “The desire to help find solutions for issues in areas such as trash, junk vehicles, parking, speed limits, traffic signals, condemned buildings and budgets drives me to participate in our local government.

“With my current involvement and high level of leadership and management positions held in the military, I am uniquely qualified to fulfill this position,” Weir said.

Weir is married and he and his wife, Sue, have six children, Zach, Cory, Kaley, Codi, Cori, and Nick, and he is expecting his first two grandchildren this summer.