County commissioner seeks re-election

VW independent/submitted information

Van Wert County Commissioner Todd Wolfrum has filed petitions for re-election as a Republican candidate in the primary to be held in March 2016.

“When I ran four years ago, I talked about stopping our population loss, rebuilding our villages, and bringing a higher education presence to the county,” Wolfrum said. “At that time, almost no one was talking about those things as priorities, but we were able to change the dialogue and make good progress in all of these areas and I hope to continue and expand on that work in a second term.”

With fellow commissioners Thad Lichtensteiger and Stan Owens, Wolfrum created a county economic development office to achieve these and other non-traditional development objectives. The first local programs to deal with the “brain drain” and the loss of young people came out of this office in the form of middle school physics and the Van Wert Works website. Other ED entities are now developing their own initiatives to deal with the demographic slide.

Wolfrum points to the new incoming Van Wert City Council and administration as a unique opportunity for the county and the city to combine their resources and efforts. Currently, the commissioners are working with the Van Wert mayor-elect Jerry Mazur on a framework for such an arrangement.

“It’s exciting to be involved in what is being formed and I’m proud to have been a part in how it all came about,” Wolfrum said. “Three years ago, the powers that were didn’t want the county to have an ED office and didn’t want any new efforts made. To this day I have trouble understanding that, but that’s the way it was.

“We maintained our position that more could be done, and the county office was able to accomplish the grants and the other programs,” he added. “None of it would have happened had we listened to the status quo. Now it’s time to bring what we have been working on together with some of the ideas brewing with the incoming city people.”

Growing up in Hoaglin Township and playing ball in Middle Point and the other county villages growing up, Wolfrum said he feels he has a natural affinity for the county’s small towns. Delphos had always been a second home, as his father had taught high school math and coached baseball at Delphos Jefferson and Delphos St. John’s through the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s.

“Prior economic development efforts had totally excluded our villages,” Wolfrum noted. “In each of them, though, there is still that core of people working to maintain that sense of community and vibrancy. I believe it’s the job of the county administration to aid these efforts.

“Healthy communities are healthy throughout and strong rural areas help make the city stronger,” he added. “ I’m especially proud of how we’ve been able to re-engage our villages and bring Delphos into the county dialogue.”

The county has helped the villages obtain infrastructure grants for over a million dollars during Wolfrum’s term in office. Just in the past year, the county ED office also obtained a $300,000 revitalization grant to rebuild downtown Van Wert and an $800,000 Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP) grant to rebuild homes for low- and moderate-income people in the county.

Wolfrum, also a practicing attorney with an office in Van Wert, used his legal background to the county’s benefit in his first term. On his and Owens’ first day, they were notified that the State of Ohio was requiring a $365,000 payback on a grant due to some misfiled documents in a previous administration. Wolfrum studied the county’s liability insurance policy and developed a legal theory that the insurance should not only cover part of the bill, but should cover it all. The insurer eventually paid in full.

Having learned on a trip to Mercer County that eliminating dilapidated buildings is one of the best things that can be done to foster economic development, Wolfrum also used his legal education to write the contracts and guidelines for the Phoenix Initiative, a program he created to provide cooperation between the county and other political subdivisions in funding the demolition of eyesore properties.

In 2013, Wolfrum’s first year, the commissioners were facing a tight county budget due to skyrocketing employee health insurance costs. They spent that year talking to any insurer that would give them a quote and eventually found a company that saved the county agencies nearly a half million dollars annually, savings that are scheduled to continue into 2016 and keep the county budget well in the black.

But the college presence has proved the most elusive of Wolfrum’s goals.

“We’ve thought we’ve had it on a fast track a few times and there still is an ongoing conversation with the Starr,” he said. “Convincing kids and parents to take those first two years close to home to save a small fortune will be part of the future efforts; hopefully, we’ll have the necessary classes all in county soon, if not at the Starr, then maybe downtown.”

The education goals are part of a branding plan Wolfrum calls “Science County USA” that he hopes to develop in his second term. The blueprint will be to develop and advertise the county’s unique education opportunities in STEM courses and robotics and provide a college “porthole” by bringing in multiple universities to teach their prime classes in a consortium, with Northwest State Community College as the anchor.

An emphasis for Wolfrum has been communication with the public. To keep the public aware of what the county is working on and why, he has written columns released periodically in the media and appears weekly on a radio show with Lichtensteiger, Chris Roberts and guests that airs Sunday morning at 8:20 a.m. on 99.7 FM. Both the column and radio show have been known to veer off into promoting small government and conservative values.

“The feedback from the columns and the radio show have been a great way to bring more people into the conversation,” Wolfrum said. “It is like having a running dialogue with the public. One of the most important things I’ve learned in my first term is that there is no shortage of ideas out there.

“I hope I’ve changed the job description for Van Wert County commissioner in my first term,” he added. “The new challenges we face as a county have required something different of the position than it had traditionally been.

“Working with Thad and Stan to affect that change and accomplish what we have already accomplished has certainly been a life highlight and we’re just getting started,” he concluded.

Wolfrum lives with his wife and children in rural Ridge Township.