Dennison Village Council Election

  • By Curtis Robert Tyree
  • October 4, 2011
  • 471
                        
In the second of the Bargain Hunter’s series of local political races, we will highlight the candidates for village council in Dennison. There are four candidates, three are interviewed here; Franklin Golec, Jr. could not be reached for this article. Name: Paul Collins Age: 55 Family: Married with with step daughters Education: Tuscarawas Central Catholic High School Hometown: Dennison Occupation: laid off Political Party: Democratic Party Previous Elected Offices: Mayor of Dennison Applicable Experience: Village council, then Mayor What is the primary reason you are running for this office, and why should someone vote for you? “I noticed that there was no concern at the primaries and no one wanted to return to office, I just did not want to see Dennison have no representation. My experience will certainly help the council, the mayor and obviously the village.” What are the biggest problems facing your community, and how do you propose solving them? “Government grant money is a major factor, it’s difficult right now to know what’s going to happen with that since there are cuts being made at all levels of government. We need to find a way to get money to help the village with problems like streets and sidewalks.” Limited only to the office you are seeking, where specifically would you cut budgets if needed? “I’d have to look at the finances to answer that, it’s difficult to know how the money is being spent, how much is coming in and other things like that without seeing the finances myself. Why are you running for public office, and how can you make a difference in the community? “It would come back to experience, I didn’t want to see the village go without any representation. I just didn’t want to see those seats not filled.” How can local cities and towns work together to improve the entire area, rather than just do what’s best for them? “A lot of it is working together, like what takes place within Uhrichsville and Dennison, and how we work with each other; there’s already a lot of mutual aid between the cities. Hopefully that will continue with the new mayors both town will be getting. Name: Stephanie Harris Age: 57 Family: Single Education: Ohio University, Bachelor’s degree in Journalism Hometown: Zanesville, Ohio Occupation: laid off, formerly a journalist Political Party: Democratic Party Previous Elected Offices: None Applicable Experience: Political reporting, organizing committee for 922 day. What is the primary reason you are running for this office, and why should someone vote for you? “Dennison is a great town to live in, I’ve been here for 14 years, there’s a lot of potential here but we have a problem with getting things moving. With so many great locations to visit, like the [Dennison] Depot [Museum] and other places it would be great if we could capitalize on those aspects and bring more people to visit. We also have large amounts of land we could turn into a park system to compliment the bike trail as it passes through in a couple of years. Those opportunities would help create a lot of business.” What are the biggest problems facing your community, and how do you propose solving them? “The economy is a great problem for all communities, and I think the current administration and council have done a good job of managing the money, but I know there are more opportunities out there to help with the budget, such as having volunteers work to clean up parks or maintain buildings, there are people here who care about the village and want to maintain it.” Limited only to the office you are seeking, where specifically would you cut budgets if needed? “I don’t like the idea of laying off people, because if you don’t have people working you don’t have people spending money at local businesses. I don’t think there needs to be any major budget cuts, but we do need to raise revenue, and with cuts coming down through the state and Washington, D.C. it’s important to be prepared.” Why are you running for public office, and how can you make a difference in the community? “I’ve always been interested in public office, but as a journalist I had to maintain a certain air of objective. But I’ve always been interested in helping the community and letting people know that Dennison is a great place to live and has much to offer.” How can local cities and towns work together to improve the entire area, rather than just do what’s best for them? “Communication is always important, sometimes communities don’t talk to each other. Now with the economic condition each community is worried about their own budgets, but I know there are opportunities to work with each other.” Name: Greg DiDonato Age: 50 Family: Single Education: Kent State Hometown: Dennison, Ohio Occupation: Owner, Trainmaster Inn Political Party: Democratic Party Previous Elected Offices: Dennison Village Council, Dennison Mayor, State Representative, and State Senator. Applicable Experience: Previous elected offices, business experience, chairman of Dennison Railroad Festival. What is the primary reason you are running for this office, and why should someone vote for you? “The main reason is to apply my years of experience and knowledge and use it to do some positive things to keep the town moving forward. We’ve developed more tourism and some improvements have been made; despite the rough economic times it’s important to maintain the village, to have goals and continue to make improvements to the town.” What are the biggest problems facing your community, and how do you propose solving them? “The biggest thing is the economy, we need to do more to continue attracting businesses of all sizes here. We also need to work on raising the wages for people. We also need to focus on infrastructure improvements, especially with our streets.” Limited only to the office you are seeking, where specifically would you cut budgets if needed? “We really don’t have much room to cut budgets, we have minimal staff as it is and when you have police or firefighters making 12 or 13 dollars per hour you can’t cut them down anymore. What we’re facing right now isn’t a situation where we need to cut budgets, what we need is to address revenue; we need to raise it to focus on our problems, such as the streets. We run a pretty barebones operation; if we can’t meet that level then we’re in trouble.” Why are you running for public office, and how can you make a difference in the community? “Well, I’m already actively engaged here, with being the president of the Railroad Festival and owning the Trainmaster Inn. I’ve also lived here my entire life; I was born and raised here. I just think that it’s important to have people willing to run, to take the time to make the commitment and to stay focused on doing things that are positive for the community. How can local cities and towns work together to improve the entire area, rather than just do what’s best for them? “When it comes to attracting jobs to our area, we all need to work together. Whenever a local community hires someone it impacts the entire area, those workers can spend money here in Dennison and other locations so it’s important to work together to promote our area. We also are partnered with the city of Uhrichsville for the sharing of ambulance service along with police and fire departments since both of our cities are running on minimal staff, so it’s important to continue that relationship as well."


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