{"id":199093,"date":"2025-11-03T21:49:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T02:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=199093"},"modified":"2025-11-04T21:59:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T02:59:26","slug":"council-school-board-trustee-races-issues-on-the-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/11\/03\/council-school-board-trustee-races-issues-on-the-ballot\/","title":{"rendered":"Various local races, issues on the ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today is Election Day throughout Ohio. The polls will be open statewide until 7:30 p.m. Locally, there are just a handful of races on the ballot, but over a dozen issues. Local results will be published on the News page as they become available tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council races<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five people are running for three Van Wert City Council At-Large seats. Two of the candidates are incumbents seeking re-election: Judy Bowers, who is serving her second term and Jana Ringwald, who is finishing her first term. The remaining three candidates are Hall Block, Dewaine Johnson and Kirby Kelly. Incumbent Councilman At-Large Jeff Kallas is not seeking re-election.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Incumbent Council President Thad Eikenbary is running unopposed, along with three other incumbent council members \u2013 First Ward Councilman Jeff Agler, Second Ward Councilman Greg Roberts, and Third Ward Councilwoman Julie Moore. Incumbent Fourth Ward Councilman Bill Marshall is not seeking re-election and will be replaced by Eric Hurless, who is running unopposed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johanna M. Quarles is the only person to file for Van Wert city treasurer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Convoy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four people filed to run for four village council seats \u2013 Gregory A. Black, Michael Dirr, William B. Dull and Neal Orsbon. In addition, just one person, Donal Duncan, filed to run for the Convoy Village Board of Trustees of Public Affairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elgin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one filed to run for mayor and no one filed for any of the four seats that are up for election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middle Point<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five people filed to run for four village council seats and four of them are incumbents \u2013 Adam Blockberger, Tonya L. Hoghe, Lisa A. Merkle and Toni C. Wisher. Shane Shugart is the lone challenger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio City<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie R. Mulvey Linn was the only person to file for mayor. The unexpired term will end December 31, 2027. Four people filed for four seats on Ohio City Village Council \u2013 Gloria L. Agler, Robin E. McConn, Timothy E. Moody and Charles Zappa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four village council seats are coming open and two people filed to run \u2013 Eric Baker and Stephen Yoder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venedocia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two people filed petitions to run for an unexpired term as mayor \u2013 P.J. Burnett and Vernon Hobbs. The term will end December 31, 2027. In addition, four council seats are up for election but just two people filed to run \u2013 Doug Price and Isaac Young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Willshire<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four people filed to run for four village council seats \u2013 John T. Havill, Bryan Hess, Denise Knowles and Gaige Slaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wren<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four council seats are up for grabs, but no one filed petitions to run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

School board races<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Van Wert City Schools Board of Education will have a new member in 2026, but there is no race. Incumbent Scott Mull is not seeking re-election, so his spot will be filed by Thaison E. Leaser. Incumbent Gregory Blackmore is seeking re-election and incumbent Anthony Adams filed to fill an unexpired term for his own seat. He too is running unopposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four people are running for three seats on the Crestview school board. Three are incumbents \u2013 Lori A. Bittner, Nanette Grace and Bradley D. Perrott. The challenger is John William Dowler. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three seats are up for election in Lincolnview Local Schools district and three incumbents are running unopposed \u2013 Eric Germann, Lori L. Snyder and Mark Zielke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Township trustee races<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are just two township trustee races in Van Wert County. Three people are running for two Harrison Township trustee seats \u2013 Dustin K. Figley, James W. Kitson and John Staten. Three people are running for two trustee seats in Willshire Township \u2013 Bradley E. Michaud, Randy Oechsle and Adam M. Schumm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Issues<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

15 issues will appear on the ballot, but only two are countywide. Both countywide issues are property tax replacement levies for Van Wert County Council on Aging. One is a five year, 0.25 mill levy, while the other is a five year, 0.2 mill levy. The latter also benefits Delphos Senior Citizens Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The majority of Van Wert County voters, but not all, will decide on two other levies this fall. One is a property tax replacement levy for the Brumback Library District, 0.5 mills for a continuing period of time. The other is for Vantage Career Center, a continuing 0.7 mill property tax renewal for permanent improvements. Voters in Allen, Auglaize, Mercer, Paulding and Putnam counties will also decide on the issue for the vocational school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11 other local issues are on the November ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Village of Convoy \u2013 five year, 2.7 mill property tax renewal for operating expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Village of Middle Point \u2013 five year, 3 mill property tax renewal for fire expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Village of Middle Point \u2013 five year 1.3 mill property tax renewal for current expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Village of Scott (overlaps Van Wert and Paulding counties) \u2013 five year, 3 mill property tax renewal for current operating expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Village of Wren \u2013 five year, 2.5 mill property tax renewal for current operating expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Village of Wren \u2013 five year, 3.5 mill property tax renewal for current operating expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jennings Township \u2013 five year, 1.7 mill property tax replacement for fire and EMS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tully Township \u2013 five year, 0.7 mill property tax renewal for current expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spencerville Local School District (overlaps with Allen and Auglaize counties) \u2013 five year, 1.4 mill property tax renewal for permanent improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ridge Township Fire District \u2013 five year, 2.2 property tax renewal for fire and EMS protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wayne Trace Local School District (overlaps with Paulding County) \u2013 0.75 percent proposed income tax renewal for current expenses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor Today is Election Day throughout Ohio. The polls will be open statewide until 7:30 p.m. Locally, there are just a handful of races on the ballot, but over a dozen issues. Local results will be published on the News page as they become available tonight. Council races Five people are running for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 10:34:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199093"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199152,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199093\/revisions\/199152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}