CRESTLINE, Ohio – The village of Crestline plunges into 2016 with a new mayor.
Gloria McDonald is new to the chair, but not to the community. For the past 18 years, McDonald served as Crestline’s fiscal officer before retiring a year ago.
“There were some unsettling things happening, and a lot of people told me I should run for mayor,” McDonald said. “It started as a joke, but I decided I wasn’t done serving the community. I love Crestline and I want to do what I can to better our little town.”
McDonald’s first action is tackling Crestline’s budget problems. The village is working with auditors from the state of Ohio to get the budget back under control.
“We’ve lost a lot of income over the years; we don’t have as big of a workforce paying taxes as we used to, plus state cuts,” McDonald said. “It’s going to be a hard process, but it’s something that has to be done.”
One step towards giving the budget more attention is hiring a fiscal officer to replace McDonald. She noted since her retirement Crestline has had a deputy fiscal officer, but the village is still actively searching for a full-time fiscal officer.
Another of McDonald’s goals is generating more community involvement.
“Crestline is a good town, we just need to stimulate some interest from the residents,” she said. “Get people involved in whatever they can be involved in.”
Community involvement takes many forms, including the decoration of Crestline’s downtown gazebo for the holidays, expanding the village’s Santa parade, and boosting the Harvest Festival.
“We want to incorporate local businesses and get schools involved, and try to get community interest ignited,” McDonald said. “There’s been a lot of interest shown in the gazebo, and hopefully from that we can find other projects people can get involved in.”
McDonald is also looking towards more economic development in Crestline. One way of doing so is the addition of a grocery store in the village.
“They’ve been working on it for years, we need to figure out a way to get even just a small grocery store in town for our retired community and people who don’t drive,” she said. “We need to keep working on it and hopefully solve that problem.”
Ultimately, McDonald said her first year as mayor in Crestline is about getting her feet wet and getting more familiar with what her constituents really need.
“I’m looking forward to working with the employees and working with the people that I’ve made good relationships with in the community,” she said.
