Why vote for me?

PUBLIC HIGHWAY SAFETY – The U.S. Route 33 intersections area of State Route 374, Rockbridge, the Hocking Hills Market, Buena Vista Road, Apple Max Road, Miller Road, and Darl Road are death traps waiting for their next victim(s).  I have been trying for a few years to get the State Highway Department to put in a temporary light and as soon as possible a full interchange.  I need the clout of the County Commissioner’s office to get this done.

TRAFFIC FLOW – The intersection of State Route 664 and Lake Logan Road is so congested and yet easily fixed.  A roundabout would be an easy solution. The State Highway Garage is located at this intersection and a roundabout even benefits them. I want to be your County Commissioner to remedy this situation.

PROPERTY TAXES – I want to get your residential property taxes lowered.  To offset this decrease in tax revenue, I want to increase  property taxes on vacation rental cabins.  I know I must check into State laws and regulations to do this, but residents need more than the current deductions on their residences that they are getting. It looks to me like the County Commissioners have some authority to do this.

ILLEGAL DRUGS – Illegal drugs are a curse on the fabric of our society.  Hocking County is suffering more than most.  I will pledge to do all I can to fight all types of illegal and deadly drugs that are killing so many of our residents.  If we make Hocking County a place where drug trafficking is known to be heavily prosecuted, we can force drug sellers elsewhere.

MOVING THE COUNTY FORWARD – There are a lot of things that need to be fixed in the County, but nothing seems to be happening. The days of saying we do not have any money are over. Those of you who have complained about the recent influx of tourists may not realize how they have brought back our slowly dying community. The number of State sales tax dollars coming to the County due to tourism has increased significantly.  There is a combination of regular sales tax dollars on what the tourists buy while here and sales tax dollars on short term overnight rental fees.  Both are increasing every year.

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES – There is $450,000,000 left in project grant dollars designated only for the Ohio counties of Appalachia.  I have helped our Logan Theater get 4.75 million of these dollars. Hocking County should be applying for as many projects as possible while working closely with the City of Logan.  I have yet to hear of any of these funds that the County Commissioners have applied for.  We need them just as badly as other counties.

COUNTY LAND BANK – We need to establish a county Land Bank to deal with plighted properties.  This would deal with properties inside and outside of the City of Logan.

HOCKING RIVER – The Hocking River is a beautiful scenic waterway.  It deserves to be elevated to State of Ohio Scenic River status.  As your County Commissioner I will work with the state to  make the Hocking River a Scenic River.

Joyce is my beautiful wife of 16 years. She has two children and 3 grandchildren. She is a retired Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Once she moved to Hocking County from California she was followed by her mother, her sister and husband, her daughter and husband, and two grandchildren.  Everyone in her family loves Hocking County as much as I do.

I have three sisters with two living in Columbus and one in Colorado. Our Golden Retriever dog Annie is my best friend.

Here are some historical highlights of our extraordinary family.

My mother’s father was a head engineer with Frigidaire refrigerators in Dayton, Ohio. He held many of their patents, but the coolest one was the old-style metal ice cube tray with the metal release handle.

My father’s father was one of the sons of H. Gerstner and Sons Tool Chest Company of Dayton, Ohio. It is well over 100 years old and still in business. This unusually popular tool and die maker tool chest has now found an array of uses and is still considered the best of its kind on the market.

My Dad was also a civil engineer and surveyor and had many different interests, one of which was really cool.  He was an original owner and designer of Snow Trails Ski Area.  As a 13 and 14 year old I worked helping to get the ski area up and running.  Cleaning out the barn, putting together a rope tow, putting the chair lift seats together, and installing snow making equipment were some of the areas I assisted in.  I did get to ski the first day Snow Trails was opened in 1961 and still to this day take annual ski trips.

Joyce’s family had many interesting members like pro football players, but I have to concentrate on her great uncle.  His name was Norman Borlaug.  You have probably never heard of him, but he is one of the most influential people the world has ever known.  He is credited with starting the Green Revolution, with saving 2 billion people from starvation, accepting the Congressional Gold Medal, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 1970 the Nobel Peace Prize.  His lifelong work to greatly increase wheat’s yield and resistance to disease kept the world from starving.  He worked up until two weeks before his death at the age of 95 in 2006.  I was very fortunate to get to spend his 92^nd birthday weekend at his home in Texas.

I was born in Grove City, Ohio and at the age of 8 moved to a small farm in Hilliard, Ohio where I graduated from Hilliard High School.  I then attended the University of Cincinnati where I received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.

After a year of working in the engineering field, I joined the U.S. Peace Corps where I spent three years in the Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific.  As an engineer I was in charge of the main island’s road construction and maintenance. For my third year I oversaw completing the construction of the country’s first ever jet airfield. I was on the very first jet to take off from Tonga and circled around the country before landing on my new airfield. There were many highlights of being a Peace Corps volunteer.  Many long term relationships were made.  I did get to meet the King and Queen of Tonga several times and during a short royal navy layover also got to meet a young British Prince who is now King Charles of England.