43
Republicans challenge ex-mayors for seats in statehouse
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Glenn Holmes of Girard, former McDonald mayor, says he wants to continue stressing the positive if he is elected to a second term as state representative for the 63rd House District.
The Democrat is opposed by Republican James Hughes of Bazetta Township.
Holmes said he thinks the effort he and other state legislators put forth to help HomeGoods/TJX establish a proposed warehouse in Lordstown shows that the community is “open for business.”
Holmes said the Mahoning Valley sometimes struggles with its image, but he sees lots of positives, such as improvements coming to Youngstown State University and Kent State University at Trumbull.
“Can we compete? We will, and when we clean up [the Mahoning River] and get bikes, hiking trails, biking trails, restaurants and wineries on that river, it will change not only the topography but the attitudes around here.”
Holmes said local state legislators have worked to get the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to help the community improve the river. One way that could happen is to designate it as a historic river. Removing dams also will help.
When asked about another environmental issue facing Trumbull County – injection wells – Holmes said he is working to get support from other legislators for his legislation to limit the number of injection wells each county can have.
It’s primarily an effort to limit the number in Trumbull County, which he says is tied with Ashtabula County for most wells (17) in the state.
“It’s egregious to keep putting injection wells in people’s backyards when they don’t want them,” he said. Five additional injection wells are proposed for a site in Brookfield Township and another one in Hubbard Township.
Hughes did not respond to requests for him to attend an interview at The Vindicator or to complete a candidate questionnaire.
The race for 64th District Ohio House of Representatives is a rematch of 2016, when incumbent Democrat Michael O’Brien of Warren defeated Republican Martha Yoder of West Farmington.
O’Brien is former Warren mayor and former Trumbull County commissioner with 34 years of government experience who was first elected state representative in 2014.
Yoder is owner and operator of a company that provides services to developmentally disabled clients and is a former Farmington Township trustee.
She said she’s opposing O’Brien because he has sponsored only two bills during the past four years. She wants something to be done to improve broadband internet service in rural areas and help Ohio “connect education with the jobs available.”
She said O’Brien could do more to “reach across the party lines” to get legislation approved.
She said connecting people to the jobs available entails providing opportunities for internships at younger ages. There are too many barriers to 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds getting into the work world “to see what is out there,” she said.
Apprenticeships are available, but they “are not touted in the way they should be,” she said.
If the next Ohio governor agrees to return some of the money in the state’s rainy-day fund to local communities, it should be targeted to roads, she said.
“That was the biggest request [from residents] when I was a trustee,” she said.
O’Brien says it’s true he is sponsor of only two bills, but he has co-sponsored 150 bills and has had two bills recently drafted. One would raise the qualifications to be a county auditor to having a bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance or administration.
Sheriff candidates must be a sergeant or above, and coroner needs to be a physician, but a county auditor only needs to gather 50 signatures on a petition, O’Brien said.
The county auditors in Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties are all certified public accountants, he noted.
Another bill would require Medicaid and other health insurers to cover unlimited visits to physical therapists, massage therapists and acupuncturists. Now they cover only three to five visits.