Longtime Mayor Wilkes says she won't run for another term

By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
POLAND -- Her house is for sale, her home telephone disconnected, but Mayor Ruth Wilkes says she still considers the village her home.
"The village of Poland is my home and has been -- except for when I was away at college -- for 55 years," Wilkes said.
She acknowledged that she spends time with her fianc & eacute; of two years, Atty. Michael S. Harshman, at his home in Liberty.
But she also stays "from time to time" at her house in the village, she said.
"I own a home on Poland Manor which is for sale and once it sells, I don't know where we'll end up," Wilkes said.
Jeff Ortega, a spokesman for the office of Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, said that residency for a mayor is determined by where a person is registered to vote and where his "habitation is fixed."
He's unaware of anything in the law that designates the amount of time an elected official must spend in that residence.
Her plans
Mayor since 1990, Wilkes said she won't seek another term when the current one expires at year's end.
"I think 18 years is enough," she said.
Since the November election of Marc Dann to the Ohio attorney general's office, rumors have circulated through the tiny village that Wilkes or Harshman would get a job in Dann's administration.
Wilkes said those are possibilities.
"Nothing has been finalized yet," she said.