BUCYRUS — Three candidates are seeking to continue their service to the City of Bucyrus as they seek to obtain the role of mayor.
Republican incumbent Jeff Reser, Democrat candidate Ron Bores and Independent candidate Dan Wirebaugh will appear on Tuesday’s ballot for the mayor’s office.
All three candidates, at one time, had long-term employment with the City of Bucyrus.
After moving to Bucyrus in 1972 for employment, Bores eventually became an employee of the city maintenance department and continued that work for 30 years.
He said he would be conscientious of taxpayer dollars.
“I feel that I am the best candidate for mayor due to my 30 years of experience working for the city of Bucyrus in maintenance,” Bores said. “I have had to make some tough decisions on how to spend taxpayer money. I know how government runs and I will also be bringing an experienced service director along who knows how to be conservative with taxpayer’s money and balance the budget. We both have the experience in dealing with contractors and engineering to get a job completed without wasting tax dollars.”
Wirebaugh has served on Bucyrus City Council as an at-large member since 2010. He credits that experience along with his other professional ventures as reasons he believes he would be a successful mayor.
“I have 30 years’ experience in maintenance and engineering, the majority of that at the former Swan Hose here in Bucyrus,” Wirebaugh said. “I have 20 years managing in those positions. I have dealt with contractors, contracts and vendors. I have managed million-dollar projects and multi-million-dollar budgets. I have been on both sides of union negotiations, managed dozens of employees, dug ditches and pushed papers.”
He also credited his experiences studying mechanical engineering and real estate, as well as being a certified drug and alcohol counselor and, along with his wife, operating Affinity HealthWorks in Bucyrus, Galion and Columbus, having led him to run for mayor “with the experience, passion and innovative thinking.” He also mentioned former city council member Steve Pifer would be his service safety director.
Incumbent Mayor Jeff Reser has served as mayor for the past five years and will seek his second reelection.
Reser said a combination of being a born-and-raised Bucyrus native and Bucyrus High School graduate along with co-owning a local family business and being involved in leadership positions in civic and church organizations have added to his experience to continue as mayor.
Reser said he believes his administration has brought many positive things to the community and plans to continue his work.
“By every objective assessment, our administration has achieved many things since taking office,” Reser said. “We signed an historic agreement with the Federal EPA to clean up our Sandusky River. We opened just the third water treatment plant in our history. Schines Art Park opened, and we’ve improved other city parks.”
He also referenced the city’s work with the Crawford Partnership in economic development.
“We have jobs for anyone who wants one,” Reser said.
Reser also said the city’s appearance in streets and parks have been improved in his time as mayor. He said his administration is not resting and is working on preparing for a busy second term.
Bores said something currently happening in Bucyrus he would like to continue, would be the work on the water separation project as well as other work with the Environmental Protection Agency.
Wirebaugh said he would like to continue with the economic development of the city.
“I truly believe that if we promote and build on what we have, we will attract businesses and with those businesses will come the good jobs,” Wirebaugh said. “The ones that we had 20 or 30 years ago, we have the facilities, transportation and infrastructure, there’s absolutely no reason we can’t succeed. Jobs and revenue are what the city needs, and I believe that one can stimulate the other and this can continue as long as we nurture it.”
He did say, however, he would like Bucyrus to handle more of its ventures in-house.
“First, we need to direct our own economic development department to support existing and attract new businesses,” Wirebaugh said. “For the $50,000 annually we give the partnership, I am positive we can find better use for these funds…. We need to quit depending on the (Central Joint Ambulance District) to provide services for our citizens and do it ourselves. We need to quit depending on an engineering firm located three hours away costing us over half a million dollars a year.”
He said reviving an engineering position with the city would be a positive change.
Bores agreed that positions needed added with the city staff.
“I would like to be able to hire more employees at the street garage in order to have our street sweeper out on a regular basis, to have an engineer technician to oversee many projects that go unchecked and a full-time custodian,” Bores said.
Reser said his desired change is the direction of the city’s population.
“I’ve said for several years that we need to reverse our population loss,” Reser said. “We need to make sure that our city is attractive to young families and that are workforce is prepared for the jobs that are offered by our local employers. We need to keep focusing on population growth and we must address the housing and apartment shortage.”
Voters will have the opportunity to cast their vote when the polls open Tuesday across Crawford County at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.