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Cranmer to face Wolford, Berlin for mayor of Salem
SALEM
Veteran city police officer Scott Cranmer beat Dennis Groves, former city firefighter and the present 2nd Ward councilman, in the city’s Democratic primary for mayor.
Cranmer said, “I was surprised that the margin was so high.”
He added, “It’s off to November.”
Incumbent first-term Mayor Jerry Wolford is running as an independent for mayor, after Columbiana County Republican Chairman David Johnson criticized Wolford’s administration.
Republican George Berlin was unopposed in the mayor’s race.
In the Democratic primary, Cranmer had 473 votes, while Groves had 170 votes.
The former policeman said Groves had called him to congratulate him.
Cranmer, in turn, thanked Groves for running a clean campaign.
Cranmer retired from the police department after 28 1/2 years, and then served as safety director for the city from 2001 to 2007.
The former lawman said he was concerned about manpower shortages in the police department.
“People want to work with good police,” he said.
He said with the police department short on personnel, the department “has to react instead of acting.”
Officers are going from call to call instead of being able to patrol.
Columbiana County has its own drug task force and needs to have officers that can work undercover. Officers in plain clothes can make arrests that patrol officers can’t, he added.
His top two priorities are adding more officers and starting a program to fix city streets.