Ellis beats Leake in mayoral primary

FREMONT – Incumbent Mayor Jim Ellis won the Democratic primary election on Tuesday and will face Republican Danny Sanchez in the November general election.

Ellis beat challenger Dallas Leake by 178 votes -- 664 votes to 486, or 58 percent to 42 percent -- according to unofficial election results from the Sandusky County Board of Elections.

"It's great to know I'm one more step away from another four years of working on these issues," Ellis said of pending city projects and breaching the skills gap in local industry. "I feel grateful the people of Fremont recognized the situation I was in when I came into office."

Ellis, a Fremont attorney, ousted longtime Mayor Terry Overmyer in 2011 and dealt with the city's over-budget reservoir project and helping determine what to do with the aged Ballville Dam, which the state told the city it must repair or remove.

Leake has been council president for two years and is operations director at the Sandusky County Juvenile Detention Center.

"The people have spoken," Leake said. "Once the voters make their decision, I move on."

Voters The News-Messenger interviewed as they left the polls on Tuesday said they felt Ellis did a good job of dealing with problems he inherited when he took office.

"He's holding his own," Lupe Moreno said. "He's not taking any crap from that committee on the Ballville Dam."

Bill Schling, 70, said Ellis is a good leader who is working to put Fremont on the right track.

"He had come around to our house," said Lisa Snively, 59. "I liked his ideas."

Shawn Heidelburg, 38, voted for Leake because he trusts him and thinks he would be a good mayor.

"I know he does a lot of positive work with the community," Heidelburg said.

Some of Ellis' supporters during his first election — including retired Judge Jim Sherck and Councilmen Mike Koebel and Joe Michles — backed Leake this time. Sherck, Koebel and Michles are members of the Save the Ballville Dam Committee and were not pleased that Ellis, after examining the options, supported removing the dam.

While Ellis waits for the next election, he said he will continue to work on major projects, like the fate of the dam and the construction of the city's new wastewater treatment plant.

The Ballville Dam, diversity and economic development were major issues of debate between Ellis and Leake.

City council voted last year to remove the dam after the Ohio Department of Natural Resources deemed it a hazard and told the city to either repair or remove it.

A group gathered petitions to put a referendum on the November ballot that would allow residents to vote on whether to remove the dam. A court will decide whether the referendum can go forward after the city said the residents could not legally put it on the ballot.

If the referendum goes forward, a $2 million U.S. Fish and Wildlife grant for dam removal would expire, causing the city to lose that money.

Leake, who will continue as council president, said the referendum should be on the ballot because residents followed the democratic process to get it there. Ellis said removal is the best and most cost-effective decision.

Leake wants to see the city hire more minorities. If a minority candidate has nearly all the qualifications for the job and needs a certification or additional training, the city could hire him or her and help finish the training, Leake said.

The city has opened the hiring process and takes applications for every job it has, Ellis said. It also has reached out to the black churches in town with information about job openings.

The pair also have differing views on how to bring jobs to Fremont. Leake wants the city to build a factory or have an industrial park ready for businesses to move in.

Ellis does not like Leake's idea and thinks the city should focus on supporting current businesses and making the city a more attractive place for industry to locate.

"Part of luring business to Fremont is going to be retaining and expanding our current businesses," he said. "We want to keep businesses like Heinz and Style Crest happy."

Other election results:

Democratic Fremont City Council at-large candidates Tom Knisely, Joe Michles and Richard Zilch Jr. each will move on to face three Republicans in the November election. Knisely and Michles are incumbents.

The Ballville Township renewal and increase levy passed by 86 votes -- 188 for and 102 against, or 65 percent for and 35 percent against.

The Bellevue city municipal income tax levy passed by 106 votes -- 198 for and 92 against, or 68 percent for and 32 percent against.

mksmith@gannett.com

419-334-1044

Twitter: @kristinasmithNM