Galion residents hear from candidates in 56th Town Hall Meeting

Rachel Mendell — Staff

By Rachel Mendell

The Galion Com­mu­nity The­atre hosted the annual Town Hall Meet­ing Oct. 3. Can­di­dates for Galion City Coun­cil and Galion Board of Edu­ca­tion got a chance to intro­duce them­selves and speak about impor­tant issues. Patty Rice Groth served as mod­er­a­tor and stated that Galion has been hold­ing a town hall meet­ing since 1955. Each can­di­date received three min­utes to speak.

Ken­neth Bod­kins is run­ning unop­posed for Galion City Coun­cil. He owns two busi­nesses in town, is a Galion High School grad­u­ate of the class of 1965, worked at the Sohio Gas Sta­tion, ran an auto repair shop (and still does), teaches at Tri Rivers, is a plan­ning and zon­ing com­mit­tee mem­ber, and owns Vic­tory Lanes.

Bod­kins stated that he wants to help make Galion a bet­ter place to live and is will­ing to bring issues to res­o­lu­tion. He thinks coun­cil should lis­ten to the voices of the tax­pay­ers and the elderly and retired population.

Paul Flan­nery is run­ning for coun­cil as well, but was unable to attend the meeting.

Michael (Mick) Chris­tini is run­ning as 1st Ward can­di­date for coun­cil. He moved to the area in 1980, joined the vol­un­teer fire depart­ment in 1984, became a full-time fire fighter in Crest­line in 1985, became a mem­ber of the Galion Fire Depart­ment in 1990, made lieu­tenant in 1995 and chief in 2000. He has a son and a daugh­ter attend­ing Galion schools.

Chris­tini notes a lot of neg­a­tiv­ity in Galion and would like to resolve the issues behind it. He wants his chil­dren to be proud to be from Galion. He is deeply involved in bud­get issues and will be avail­able to the pub­lic, pub­lish­ing his phone num­ber and email address. Chris­tini remem­bers the city pride of the ‘80s and ‘90s and would like to bring that pride back.

Gail Baldinger is run­ning against Shirley Clark for the 3rd Ward spot on coun­cil. Baldinger has been serv­ing as coun­cil pres­i­dent this year and con­sid­ers it a plea­sure to serve. He has been mar­ried for 37 years and has two chil­dren and three grand­chil­dren. He is a 1971 grad­u­ate of GHS, worked at Fleet­wood Mobile Homes in Crest­line and became super­vi­sor there. In 1973 he worked as a fire fighter and did con­tin­ual train­ing in that field.

Baldinger feels the city has made great progress and sees the light at the end of the tun­nel when Galion will be released from fis­cal emer­gency in 2016. He will watch to see that every­one stays on fis­cal track.

Shirley Clark is run­ning as a write-in can­di­date against Gail Baldinger for the 3rd Ward spot on Galion City Coun­cil. She has con­sis­tently voted against util­ity rate hikes dur­ing her four years on coun­cil. With 700 homes and apart­ments vacant, a large por­tion of the city unem­ployed and many on social secu­rity with no raises, Clark feels util­ity rates should not go up. She belongs to the East Park Cit­i­zens Group the efforts of which beau­tify the East Park. She feels Galion needs to con­tinue to bring in new busi­ness and sup­port the busi­nesses that are already in town. She feels there is a need for a healthy, grow­ing city. “The city needs to stop spend­ing with money we do not have,” she said. She feels coun­cil needs to take a sec­ond look at the recent raises.

Den­nis Long is run­ning for Galion City School Board of Edu­ca­tion. He has been on the board for four years, has watched the school grow and get an Excel­lent on the state report card. Long said the school has a great staff and great stu­dents. Long said both of his daugh­ters have gone through Galion schools and done very well.

Brian Owens is run­ning for a spot on the school board as well. He is a 1983 grad­u­ate of GHS, is mar­ried with two boys who are attend­ing Galion City Schools. In 1995 he was a mem­ber of the U.S. Air Force and was deployed sev­eral times to var­i­ous places. He is involved in youth ath­let­ics includ­ing high school foot­ball. He is presently attend­ing OSU Mans­field work­ing on a BA in busi­ness administration.

Owens said he has no agenda except to pro­mote the edu­ca­tion of Galion stu­dents and cre­ate an on-going com­mu­ni­ca­tion between staff, stu­dents, par­ents and com­mu­nity. “I like to give back what was given to me,” he said. He is grate­ful for the oppor­tu­nity to share his life expe­ri­ences. He believes that the many voices of the com­mu­nity need to be heard and that absolute dis­clo­sure is key.

Den­nis Rose feels he is qual­i­fied for a posi­tion on the Galion Board of Edu­ca­tion. With 40 years expe­ri­ence in pub­lic schools, he knows the busi­ness pretty well, he said. Rose has expe­ri­ence as a high school math teacher, a coach, a guid­ance coun­selor, an ath­letic direc­tor, a cur­ricu­lum spe­cial­ist, and a super­in­ten­dent. He has a stand­ing inter­est in the tal­ented and gifted pro­gram and feels Pio­neer has a great train­ing pro­gram that Galion schools could emulate.

Rose said he is con­cerned with the sto­ries he is hear­ing about school admin­is­tra­tion, the prac­tice of giv­ing one-year con­tracts, the hir­ing of the direc­tor of oper­a­tions, the dras­tic drop in school enroll­ment, the 50 per­cent reduc­tion in school main­te­nance staff given the needs of a new $50 mil­lion school com­plex. Rose said he has heard from staff that moral is not as good as it should be at the schools. He promises he will be hon­est, fair and open­ing in his deal­ings with staff, stu­dents and the pub­lic and he wel­comes phone calls.

Ques­tions from the pub­lic were fielded by can­di­dates deal­ing with util­ity rates, pos­si­ble levy requests in the future for the school, and elected offi­cial accountability.

Other can­di­dates for coun­cil, board of edu­ca­tion and town­ship posi­tions were not present to speak. The elec­tion will be Nov. 8. Res­i­dents are encour­aged to go out and vote.

Posted by Rachel Mendell on Oct 4 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.