CRESTLINE, Ohio – Four candidates are vying for the mayoral seat in Crestline in next month’s election.
On the ticket are Gloria McDonald, Eugene (Gene) Toy, Gerald (Joe) Dowell, and John Mills.
All of the candidates, save for one, are running as independents and will appear on the ballot, according to the Crawford County Board of Elections.
Current mayor David Sharrock is not seeking re-election.
GLORIA McDONALD
McDonald lives at 521 N. Henry St. and is running as an independent.
After 18 years working for the village in several positions, including assistant to the clerk treasurer, she retired last November as Crestline’s fiscal officer.
“I love Crestline, and I’ve been through a lot and worked there, but I’ve never actually had any authority in village operations,” she said. “But through the course of 18 years, I’ve seen a lot, and I understand how things operate.”
If elected, McDonald hopes to fix the budget and improve moral within the village.
“We need to do something with our budget – we have lost a lot of business, and we’re a bedroom community,” she said. “People are older and retiring, and kids who graduate aren’t staying here, so we’re losing population and also losing our tax base. We need to figure out how to work the budget within our means – just like we do at home.”
She believes fixing the budget can be accomplished by working more with village departments individually.
EUGENE M. (GENE) TOY
A resident of 428 Oldfield Rd., Toy’s career includes doing environmental work at an architectural and engineering firm in Columbus and as village administrator in Crestline.
He also served as city manager in Galion and works as executive director of the Lorain County Rural Wastewater District. He’s on Crestline Village Council and is running as an independent.
“I care a lot about the village. I was born there when the hospital still had babies, and I went to school and graduated from there,” he said. “We have some significant money issues in our general fund that are being ignored, and they cannot be.”
Toy plans establish a budget and follow it. He said he has the skills to do that.
“Our problems are significant, but they’re manageable and fixable – we just have to do the work,” he said. “Over the last about four years, we have spent between $60,000 and $80,000 over budget in the general fund, and there have been Band-Aids put on that and transfers made, but not while I was on council.”
He added that the village has essentially been borrowing from its savings to fix problems but is out of savings money. He said he wants to fix that before it is “too late.”
GERALD (JOE) DOWELL
Dowell resides at 895 Cloverdale Ave. and is running as a Democrat, according to the Crawford County Board of Elections.
Over his career, Dowell, now retired, has worked as Crestline’s chief of police, passing his chief of police civil service test in 1977. He holds various college degrees and also graduated from the Federal Bureau of Investigations National Academy in 1988.
“I want to give back to my community because I’ve watched it die,” he said. “And part of my training is to take mediocrity and make it excellent, and I can do that by using management and leadership techniques.”
He wants to develop business, improve the Crestline Exempted Village School District, take care of citizen and village mandates, and work with village council in all endeavors.
“I like to see a win-win situation,” he said. “I don’t like a win-lose situation because any time you have a win-lose situation, you’re in competition, and I don’t believe we’re in competition; that’s why I don’t want council and I to work in opposition of each other.”
If elected, he plans to provide in-house training for all supervisors and department heads on budgeting and personnel management.
JOHN MILLS
Mills lives at 343 N. Pearl St. and is running as a nonpartisan candidate.
Despite repeated attempts, he could not be reached for comment.
