Nine compete for seats on McComb Village Council

McCOMB — Nine candidates are vying for four seats on McComb Village Council in the Nov. 2 general election. The village is rife with controversy and debate over village finances; a perceived lack of official communication and accountability; and the future of the pool, park and police force. Rapid turnover, with years of village officials quitting before completing terms, emptied Village Hall of institutional memory and sowed crisis and confusion. Newly arriving public servants were left to figure things out on their own. The current slate of candidates is pledging to turn things around. Seeking four-year terms on the council are Tyler Brumbaugh, Carol Cary, Michael Fasig, Elizabeth Fenstermaker, Sara Klay and incumbents Anika Midge Ewing-Brown, Brenda Mygrant, James Schroll and Greg Shannon. Tyler Brumbaugh Brumbaugh, 35, of 305 W. Main St., wants to provide more representation on council for McComb's younger generations. "Honestly the biggest reason I wanted to help, I'm 35 years old and in McComb most of the council members have been older than that. I would say 1½ times older than that is probably the average age," he said. "I felt if I ran for council, being a younger person, it would open up a door and get more interest from people my age in the community to start getting more involved and helping out. "I think that will really help our community. You need a good range of people in the community. Each age group or generation has a little different viewpoint on things and it's good to hear all of those." Younger McComb residents would make business growth downtown a higher priority, he said. "I think the older folks value that, too, but I think I would say the top of their list would be, like, safety and security, a strong police force," Brumbaugh said. Younger people take a greater interest in the village park, too, he said. "A lot of people voice concerns of what they would like to see in our swimming pool and our park because they've got younger kids," Brumbaugh said. "It's probably the main attraction in town." Brumbaugh said he would ensure that McComb's storm sewer improvements and other projects would be done properly and efficiently. He is a senior project manager for general contractor and development company DMK Development Group, based in Louisville, Kentucky. "I have good experience for managing multimillion-dollar construction budgets, or budgets in general, tracking those, making sure they are staying on budget or under budget," he said. "I think (with) things like infrastructure work or things being done in the town, I could be a huge asset in that and with my construction background in general, just the planning and organizing and knowing what needs done or what doesn't need done, so money isn't wasted," Brumbaugh said. He supports the road and sewer upgrades being done and those in the planning stages. Carol A. Cary Cary, 77, of 435 Merrimont Drive, has served on council before. She was elected to council in 2013 and then in 2017, and then resigned her seat last December. Cary said she resigned because she was frustrated with other council members. She was not alone in her frustration. At the very same meeting last December, then-Mayor Gordon Myers and council member Leslie Seele also resigned. Cary said she came to that December meeting with her resignation letter in hand just in case, "because we had met for, like, two and a half months and we didn't get anywhere on the budget, at all." She thinks council passed the budget that night after she walked out the door. "I was on council for about 10 years and I just couldn't handle it anymore. There were just a couple of people on there that I don't think were thinking about the residents of the village. They're all money, money, money, money," Cary said. "They didn't want to spend any money except on things that they thought needed to be done. It was just very frustrating being there." Cary is hoping voters elect her along with some newcomers to council. She believes they would make McComb a kinder, gentler village. "The village isn't what it used to be. I think sometimes the people in charge are cold-hearted and don't really care about the people that live there. It's like our swimming pool. They weren't going to fund the swimming pool at all," Cary said. "They took all of the money out of it because they said we couldn't afford it, and there has to be a way that we can afford it. We need something in the village for our kids to do so they don't get in trouble all the time." Cary has said pool rates are too high for people to afford. But Mayor Cathy Schroll said Cary was on the committee that raised the family seasonal rate from $150 to $200 — the current rate — in 2020. Cary is retired. She formerly worked at Dental Center of Northwest Ohio, in Findlay, as office manager. Anika Midge Ewing-Brown Ewing-Brown, 47, of 103 W. South St., was appointed to council a year ago. She said it was her idea to have council meetings recorded and accessible for public viewing on the village website. Many social media posts about the council had been incorrect, and she knew the way to correct the record was to let people see meetings for themselves, she said. "There was a bad rap to some degree, a bad perception about McComb, and I kind of wanted to fix that," she said. "Some people think that … the people over by the old grocery store and Dollar General take precedence because they were on council. That's not really true." She said the public has an additional misperception: that council fired the village police force. "That's not true at all," she said. "We didn't fire anybody. That was never the plan." McComb employed three police officers as recently as January. Within the first two months of 2021, the village police chief retired and another officer left for a position elsewhere. The third officer left in mid-April for a job elsewhere. For a while, McComb had to rely on extra patrols from the Hancock County Sheriff's Office. A new police chief was hired by the village in July. Ewing-Brown said she and some other council members would like to hire an additional officer. But wish lists have to be balanced with what is affordable, and Ewing-Brown said she prefers to be fiscally responsible. A frugal approach has been needed after years of disorder resulting from village offices becoming revolving doors. Five of the six current council members were appointed to vacated seats in the past year, she said, and McComb had three different mayors in 2020. "Due to transition of people in and out, there were some things that kind of fell through the cracks, some free-spending of stuff that we kind of put a clamp down," she said. "It didn't make very many people happy, but I think you have to gain control and figure out what's going on in order to go forward." She described the budget numbers she saw at her first meeting as a council member as "very grim to say the least." "Yeah, we have some savings, but I'm not one that breaks into savings, because you might have an emergency someplace else down the line," Ewing-Brown said. "We ended up figuring out that there were some items sitting around that had sat for years and we didn't use anymore, so we decided to sell them. So that's actually how we funded the park this year, which was great." "The park is a great community service and I don't ever want to see that go," she said. "The pool is not a money-maker. It is what it is. It's a community service. I would have hoped to be open more hours, but we did with what we could and we made it work." Ewing-Brown is an operational support analyst for Pressed Board/Paper Tech. She formerly was with P&A Industries, working four years in accounting and five years as a materials analyst. She also has experience in distribution at Kohl's and Best Buy and a bachelor's degree in business management from the University of Findlay. Michael Fasig Fasig, 55, of 612 W. Main St., wants to improve McComb Village Council's accountability and transparency to residents. "Everybody that is on the council needs to be accountable for decisions being made," he said. "Provide the community breakdowns of how they are spending tax dollars and how it will benefit the community." People have been kept in the dark, Fasig said. "There are some meetings that are being held that are not published," he said. "To me, that's not right." Residents have not been given adequate advance notice of meetings on the website, Fasig said. "People need to know what's going on," he said. "To be involved, how can you expect citizens from the community to show up if they don't know when this meeting is going to be?" Fasig plans to improve council's communication with the public. He would also ensure residents get regular updates on road and infrastructure projects. "With Northwestern Water and Sewer District, they came in and they tore up the town and it's almost like they have nobody to answer to. They don't have any representative that shows up at council meetings and gives people the explanation on what's going on, what's the status, where they are moving to next; what road they are going to close, so on and so forth, all this stuff, right?" Fasig said. "You just wake up some morning. You start driving down the road and all of a sudden, the road's blocked off. They're tearing stuff up. The whole town is tore up and it was just bad. Just a bad situation. "There were a lot of people distraught about it. The road torn up right in front of their house and their driveway, where they had a hard time getting out because there were trucks sitting in the way, just all kinds of stuff." Fasig currently is employed with Midway Products Group, Monroe, Michigan, as an electrical controls engineer. He said his experience would enable him to oversee village finances and projects. "I've been involved with and worked on multimillion dollar projects, so, project-managed them. I have a great understanding of financials and also some of the other projects I've worked with," he said. "I've worked with Poggemeyer Design Group out of Bowling Green and Industrial Fluid Management with waste water and water treatment." He also has 13 years' experience as a maintenance manager, he said. Elizabeth Fenstermaker Fenstermaker, 56, said her 21 years' experience as an office manager would serve the village well for infrastructure projects and budgeting. She is office manager for Grubb Construction, McComb, and graduated from Bowling Green State University with a degree in communications. She would like to enhance the park "in order to bring people to our little town." "I know that there is a budget for the park and I know right now they are trying to figure out ways in cutting some things, and it seems like the park is one of them, which includes the pool," she said. Fenstermaker wants to take a different direction. "Just trying to find different ways and maybe try to create revenue," she said. She wants to spark business growth downtown. "I know our whole downtown is struggling to bring in businesses, so my thing is you try to find incentives and get out there and try to see if anybody would be interested in opening up a small business," Fenstermaker said. She knows opening a small business is a difficult thing. Fenstermaker said she knows all about it because her employer, Grubb Construction, is a small family business. Brenda Mygrant Mygrant, 66, of 311 Southcrest Drive, was appointed to council in December 2018. She said the council has improved its presence on the internet, enabling residents to pay gas bills online, for example. It also has been working with Hancock Regional Planning Commission to post planning and zoning documents online soon so residents and businesses can seek permit or other information online. Council has also been working to improve storm water drainage and reduce flooding. Designs are being made for a project that will reduce flooding on the west side of town. Construction of the $1.3 million Church Street storm sewer interceptor is planned to start in 2022. The village is seeking grants to help pay for the project. McComb has received a $58,250 loan from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to help finance design. The storm sewer interceptor will extend from West Creek to the abandoned railroad. The project also will include storm sewer improvements to Cherry and Pleasant streets and reconstruction of Church Street, between West Cooper and North streets. Mygrant is a retired military officer with over 20 years of service. An Army Nurse Corps officer, she retired in 2000 as a lieutenant colonel. She went on to serve as a private contractor for the Department of Defense. She also owned a business — a dog kennel, boarding and training facility in San Antonio, Texas — and was active in civic efforts in nearby Converse, Texas, including economic development, research of water supplies, utilities and support, planning and zoning, and potable and non-potable water uses. James Schroll Schroll, of 403 W. South St., declined to be interviewed for this story, but responded to questions by email. Appointed to the council in late December 2020, Schroll said he has focused on keeping the village from state receivership and improving its finances. He also wants to improve village infrastructure. He said his priorities in the next term would be to make downtown more attractive and to continue to improve streets and infrastructure. He also would like to rid McComb of dilapidated houses, buildings and drug problems. Schroll said that in the past year the council, village administrator, mayor and other officials have done much to turn the village around and get it moving in the right direction. Schroll said his experience equips him well to serve on council. He owned and operated Schroll Farm Drainage, so he understands drainage and septic issues. He owned and operated Wolford and Keeran Garage and worked for S.E. Johnson, so he understands issues related to road and construction projects, he said. He also owned and operated Schroll Farms, so he has business experience. Sara Klay Attempts to reach Klay, of 131 E. South St., were unsuccessful. Greg Shannon Attempts to reach Shannon, of 320 S. Main St., were unsuccessful. Wilin: 419-427-8413