11/5/13 Voters turn down health district levy, East Holmes schools sees two incumbents voted out

  • By Nick Sabo
  • November 5, 2013
  • 353
                        
The Holmes County Health District faces an uncertain future after voters turned down a .75 mill levy, the East Holmes School Board will bid farewell to two long standing boardmembers and a municipal court judge held on to the bench for another term. As elections go in Holmes County, Nov. 5 was hardly business as usual. Incumbency does not appear to be the safe haven it has been over the last 10 years or so. And, the outcome of the health district levy could see some very real, and not very pretty, changes to the face of public health. The majority decision of voters in the health district levy - 2,701 against and 2,487 for - will have a long term effect on public health, health commissioner Dr. D.J. McFadden said. The levy would have largely funded the district’s campaign to achieve state accreditation, a status that McFadden said will determine whether the district will receive state funding in the future. McFadden said the health district may have to look at partnering with another entity to survive. “The question the board has to consider is do we partner with someone, and who is that partner,” McFadden said. “If we are not accredited, we have to find a significant amount of money...$400,000 of our $1.2 million budget comes through the state.” The accreditation process requires extensive record keeping and reporting, and with it, quite a bit of expense. Without it, McFadden said he does not believe the health district will get funds through the state. McFadden said the health board will meet over the next two months to develop a short term, and long term, plan. On the cutting board could very well be the district’s clinic, which sees some 2,000 individuals every year. In an election that was not kind to incumbents, voters gave Municipal Court Judge Jane Irving another six year term by a margin of more than 16 percent. Irving defeated assistant prosecuting attorney Sean Warner with 2,742 votes over Warner's 1,983. Irving said the end results indicated that voters “understand that this is a job that requires experience”. Irving said she is looking forward to her next term. Incumbency meant little to voters in the East Holmes School Board race. Voters shook up the East Holmes Board of Education, voting out two long-standing boardmembers. With three seats open, East Holmes voters elected Thurman Mullet with 29.4 percent of the vote, Kevin Mast with 24.7 percent of the vote, and Jeremy Kauffman with 21.4 percent. Incumbent Paul Shutt received only 10 percent of the vote, and incumbent Monika Zinck, 14 percent. The totals do not include votes in overlapping precincts in Wayne and Ashland counties, which were not available as of press time. Incumbents on the West Holmes School Board held on to their seats, but newcomer Tina Zickefoose led the number of votes with 2,222, above incumbents David Kick with 1,935 and Brad Welsh with 1,778. In the Millersburg Village Council race, incumbents retained three of four available seats, with Devone Polen taking 335 votes, Brent Hofstetter taking 331 and Ruby Baird, 326. New to council is Bob Shoemaker, with 303 votes, over candidates Andrea Kellogg with 292 and Kelly Hoffee with 242. One of the four seats is that of current councilman Greg Hardesty, who decided not to run for another term. Also in Millersburg, voters passed an electrical aggregation issue with 351 votes for and 231 against. The voters have opened the way for the village to continue to look into a single electrical supplier to serve village residents. By bidding the village out in bulk, council is hoping to provide savings on residential bills. Village Administrator Nate Troyer said the next step in aggregation will be to prepare a operations and governance plan. Once the plan is approved, the village will seek Requests For Proposals (RFPs), essentially bids from interested suppliers. Millersburg voters further passed a renewal levy with 405 votes for and 204 votes against. Full results of the Nov. 5 elections are available at www.holmescountyboardofelections.com


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