JOHNSTOWN VILLAGE COUNCIL RACE
Monday November 2, 2015 2:10 PM
oters in the village of Johnstown will be electing members of the Village Council when they go to the polls to vote in the general election Tuesday, Nov. 3.
Five people are running for three seats on Village Council.
The candidates include incumbent Cheryl Robertson and challengers Ben Lee, Lewis Main, Ryan Green and Russell Sparks.
Incumbent councilmen David Keck and Bob Orsini are not running.
Robertson manages her family farms in Sandusky County and previously worked at Johnson & Johnson.
She has served on the Village Council since February 2014 and on the Johnstown Economic Development Commission. Robertson said the village needs to seek economic development opportunities while retaining existing businesses.
She also wants to focus on managing the village budget as the village continues to grow.
Lee is distribution center operations manager at L Brands.
He said his passion for small towns sets him apart from the other candidates.
Lee said he wants to make sure the Johnstown experience he had growing up is the same for his young daughters.
Lee also said he wants to increase communication between the council and the community.
Main is retired. He worked at Western Electric, AT&T and Lucent Technology in a variety of accounting and supervisory positions.
He served 15 years on the council and Village Planning and Zoning Commission in the 1980s and 90s.
Main said he believes the Village Council needs to stick to its budget and sell surplus water and sewer capacities to reduce costs.
He said he also wants the village to prepare to become a city in 2020.
Sparks works in the emergency department at St. Ann’s Hospital and volunteers with the Boy Scouts of America.
Sparks said he is most concerned with traffic, water rates, trash service and police protection.
He said his goal is to bring police protection back up to the level where it was 10 years ago and look into getting a new trash service provider.
Green works in sales at Scotts Miracle Grow.
He said he plans to bring more businesses to Johnstown so people have more things to do and more amenities in the village. Green wants to place a framework in place that will encourage new businesses to move in.
Debbie Gillum Wakefield 