MANSFIELD, Ohio — Tim Wert is seeking another four years as Richland County commissioner.
In the upcoming Republican primary, Wert is challenged by David Morgenstern and Bellville Mayor Darrell Banks. The winner will face Democratic challenger Ron Davis in the November election for a term that begins Jan. 2, 2017.
Wert was appointed commissioner in 2004 after former Commissioner Dave Swartz resigned. Wert’s first full term began Jan. 2, 2005. He’s been reelected twice since that time.
Before he became commissioner, Wert was the owner/operator of Wert Produce.
“We raised 20 acres of sweet corn and took it from field to market,” he said.
In the off-season, he cut firewood and framed houses in an allotment in Lexington.
He also served as Washington Township trustee for 13 years.
One of his successes as county commissioner, he said, was helping institute a spay and neuter program in the county. Having animals spayed and neutered can help reduce the number of unwanted, abandoned animals and the cost associated with taking care of them at shelters.
Additionally, Wert was integral in drafting oversize/overweight regulations for vehicles that traverse county roads.
“That is a project in which I helped the engineer be protected so that if any of our roads are damaged by oversize/overweight loads, it is then put upon the perpetrator to repair the roads up to standard,” he said.
The regulations were implemented beginning in 2011. He said that they’re grounded in state law.
“They are for all county roads, and then when the townships want us to represent them on their township roads, they sign an agreement with the county engineer and then he enforces these codes on the township roads,” Wert said. “I also instituted a $10 license plate surcharge.”
The $10 fee was developed as a way to help support the county engineer’s office because the gasoline tax — which helps fund the services provided by the engineer’s office — wasn’t keeping pace with inflation, he said.
“I own seven vehicles myself, so I also pay this $10 increase of which $2.50 goes to the local municipality or township where there’s a domicile of the car,” he said.
Wert said he was also the main proponent for building the Richland County Jail.
“Our old jail, one, didn’t have the capacity to hold the people that we needed to incarcerate,” he said. “Two, it barely passed the standards for minimum jail standards of square footage per person and things like that.”
He said commissioner boards before him had missed the opportunity to utilize a $6 million grant from the state.
“The commissioners were thinking about passing a tax issue wherein the people of the county would vote a new tax upon themselves to pay for incarceration,” he said. “We were able to build the jail without any additional tax.”
“When we built this jail, we built it with an eye to the future, so we could not only build upon it if the county ever needed more jail cells, but we also built it a few cells too big.”
Wert explained why he’s running for reelection.
“I think it’s important that the rural sector have a voice on the board of commissioners, and I saw no one stepping up to do this, so I thought I’d continue for four more years,” he said.
If reelected he said he’d like to help further economic development.
He foresees the commissioners working with the Richland Community Development Group to help train people for workforce development, he said.
He also said he’s currently working with the codes and permits department to develop a “one-stop shop” for those seeking a permit.
“We’d like to get it to the point where it’s computerized and it can be done online,” he said. “This is my desire to make it so we can simplify this process.”
