Nevada votes in new slate, bumps past

NEVADA — Citizens of Nevada voted for change on Tuesday.
None of the three incumbents were re-elected to their positions as mayor, clerk-treasurer or to council.

The closest vote was for mayor, where challenger Kenneth Kerr Jr. topped Wayne Pelter, who had served the last three terms, 138-125.
Current Clerk-treasurer Audra Riedlinger was unseated by Janice Parsons, 157-105, and current council president David Brunson was the third-place vote getter among three candidates vying for two positions on council.
“I’m pretty happy about it,” Kerr said. “I’m fairly confident that there’s some good changes coming.”
Parsons soundly defeated Riedlinger, 157-105, for clerk-treasurer, and Chad Lucas (205 votes) and Jeffrey Kindler (137) topped Brunson (97) for council. Both Riedlinger and Brunson served more than one term in their positions.
“We’re losing a lot of experience, but we’re losing a lot of the past issues that’s happened here with council,” said Lucas, who formerly served in the army and currently is studying business. “I think it’s going to benefit the town, but I hate to see a lot of the experience go.”
Brunson and Riedlinger often did not get along with Pelter, as evidenced by lawsuits filed against each other in 2008 and 2010.
Ultimately, those cases led to substantially higher insurance costs for the village.
Kerr said he hopes to make necessary changes by working with council.
“I don’t want to go in there and change everything,” he said. “I just want to see what’s not working and see what we can do to fix it. I feel like I can work with the council and see what we can do to get some good things going for the town.”
A general manager for Bob Evans, Kerr was voted onto the board of public affairs and will have to resign his position.
The other two BPA positions were up to vote, and the two incumbents in that case were re-elected. Cheryl Hoffman and Amanda Rex, both of whom were appointed to fill voids left on the BPA earlier this year, picked up 174 and 133 votes, respectively. Maureen Caldwell received 119 votes.
Someone will be appointed in January to replace Kerr on the BPA.
Lucas said positive change will come gradually and take time.
“It just want to thank everybody for the vote and I look forward to meeting more of the community members and hopefuly we can solve some of the issues we have in the village,” he said. “It’s an uphill battle, but I feel good about it.”
Kerr also said he was optimistic about the future.
“I plan on doing the best job I can by being fair and consistent for the village and hopefully we’ll see some good things come up,” he said.

By LONNIE McMILLAN
Sports editor