Elections board sees changes in personnel
Knight taught history and was principal 35 years at Bloomfield High School.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The Trumbull County Board of Elections said goodbye to two longtime board members while preparing to welcome their two replacements.
Republican Nettie Ashelman of Warren, who served the board for 30 years, and Democrat Nick Melfi of Girard, who served 10 years, participated in their final meeting this week.
Republican Ron Knight and Democrat Barbara Katzenberger, both of Warren, who attended the meeting, are set to take their seats at the next board meeting March 2.
Approved
Knight, of Nicklaus Drive Northeast, won a Republican party election in January to serve on the board. He received verbal approval from the Ohio Secretary of State's office on Thursday of his appointment.
Katzenberger, who is chief deputy in the Trumbull County Treasurer's Office, was sworn in to the job earlier this week. The job pays $14,316 annually.
Knight, who is retired, taught history for 30 years at Bloomfield High School and was principal at the school for five years. He graduated from Bloomfield High School in 1964 and lived in Bloomfield for about 40 years.
He lived in Green Township about 10 years and moved to Nicklaus Drive in Howland about three years ago. His wife, Isabelle, died in May, he said.
Knight is in his third year as a member of the governing board of the Trumbull County Educational Service Center, and has been president of the board since last year.
He ran for state representative in 1992 and lost in the Republican primary. Knight has been Republican Party treasurer since 2002, a position he said he will leave soon because of the board of elections position.
Knight said working for the elections board for a month last year leading up to the November election showed him that the board of elections staff is dedicated. He said he is concerned, however, that the board lost 40 years' worth of experience when Ashelman and Melfi retired.
Background
Katzenberger, originally from Buffalo, N.Y., has worked for the treasurer's office for eight years, seven as chief deputy treasurer. She has been secretary of the county's Democratic Party for eight years and precinct committee person for eight years.
Coming to Warren in 1981, she was a title agent for 10 years before going to work at the treasurer's office. She is married to Brent Katzenberger and has two children.
The two other members of the board are Republican Party Chairman Craig Bonar and Democrat Sherron Platt.
The board also certified the petitions Thursday of levies and candidates for the May 2 primary.
Rejected were petitions for five liquor options because of various errors: Dawlah Discount in Warren Precinct 6-E, American Legion Post 235 in Girard Precinct 3-A, Country Convenience Store in Hartford Precinct C, Kinsman BP in Kinsman Precinct B and Army Navy Garrison 422 in Weathersfield Precinct E.
The board approved a contract with the vendor that supplied the board's new touch-screen voting equipment, Diebold Election Systems of North Canton, for 18 months worth of service contracts. The contract will pay Diebold $30,500 for support from June through December 2006 and a lesser amount of service for 2007, costing $25,000.
runyan@vindy.com