MANSFIELD, Ohio — Darrell Banks believes his background in business, education and public office have prepared him for a seat as Richland County commissioner.
Banks is running against David Morgenstern and commissioner Tim Wert in the Republican primary. The winner will face Democratic challenger Ron Davis in the November election for a term that begins Jan. 2, 2017.
Banks has served as mayor of Bellville for the past eight years.
“When I came into office, we had a carryover of the general fund of less than $10,000,” he said. “By collaborating with our department heads, village council, all of the fiscal officers. We now have a carryover of over $200,000, so we’ve become fiscally more responsible.”
Another one of his successes as mayor was helping remedy the village’s storm sewer issue by thinking outside the box, he said.
“We discovered that there wasn’t any money available for storm sewers,” he said. “We were on our own to build them. However, if we were to put in a streetscape, we could use some of that money for storm sewers, so we put in a streetscape.”
That, in turn, has been a catalyst for economic development, he said.
He also highlighted the widening of state Route 97.
“The widening of 97 is something that’s been considered for decades, but it never went anywhere,” Banks said.
He said the village discovered safety grant money was available to help fund this project. But in order to submit a safety grant application, a safety study had to be conducted.
“The safety study was somewhere north of $20,000, and the village didn’t feel they had the money to spend $20,000 on that at the time, so I went and talked to the merchants out there and asked if they’d be willing to contribute to this,” he said. “Most of them were very, very generous with us, and the village decided we would pitch in the last few thousand, and we got the safety study.
“We’ll have a third turn lane from Alexander Road to past Kochheiser Road, and Kochheiser will be relocated to make that a safer intersection.”
Construction for this roughly $2.8 million project will start in the spring, he said.
A couple other successes he noted were the construction of a new water distribution system and the establishment of Amvets Community Park.
Banks discussed his experience as a businessman and vocational teacher.
After serving in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1972, Banks was involved in a number of businesses, including San-Dar Smorgasbord, San-Dar Acres Golf Course, Pizza-in-the-Alley, San-Dar Tours, and San-Dar Hospitality Services.
He also spent 12 years as a vocational educator of the marketing, travel and tourism program at Knox County Career Center in Mount Vernon.
If elected, Banks said he would like to help get the budget “under control” and increase revenues by looking for ways to bring more jobs and businesses to the area instead of raising taxes.
He would also like to focus on improving the county’s infrastructure and its drug problem.
“We have such a drug problem, and I don’t believe the answer is to go hire a bunch of deputies and arrest our way out of it,” he said. “We’ve got to find a better way of combating the drug issue.”
He said he is good about responding to people, adding that he’ll put in whatever hours necessary to see that the job of county commissioner is done well. He also stressed collaboration.
“That’s something we need to promote more often.”
