GLOUSTER, Ohio — Mayoral candidates for Glouster and Trimble Local School District Board of Education sat and spoke with a handful of community members and the Athens County Independent at a roundtable-style public forum held Tuesday at Hocking Athens Perry Community Action, 3 Cardaras Drive. The event was held by the League of Women Voters of Athens County.
Each candidate gave an opening statement, limited to two minutes, then took seats where they could have discussions with meeting attendees who went from candidate to candidate.
Mayor of Glouster
Lucas Mace (challenger)
In his opening statement, mayoral candidate Lucas Mace said he has been an area resident for about 20 years. He is currently on Glouster Village Council, halfway through serving a four-year term.
“I see what goes on on council, and I think that a few things need to change,” Mace said.
Mace commended incumbent mayoral candidate Nathan Simons’ grant writing skill. But he noted that he feels the village has problems with its police department and “gossiping.” He also proposes shifting the meeting time for council from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. so more members of the public could attend.
Mace also said the police department shouldn’t be involved in “civil matters,” due to the threat of litigation. He also expressed wanting to change how the village funds its police department. He proposed that the village support the department via a levy, not through the general fund. He’d like to see changes to the hiring process for police officers, too, and for the council to review officers after probationary periods.
“We need more police officers, quality police officers,” Mace said. Overall, he said he would like to see more law enforcement in the village.
Mace acknowledged that “if you go Google my name, you’re going to find out that I was a police officer here from 2001 to 2013 … and was criminally charged.” Mace said that his record has since been expunged, and he has obtained his Commercial Driver’s License. He now works as a water delivery man and a licensed auctioneer, he said.
“I’ve been involved in this community, I have kids in this community,” Mace said. “I just think some things could be better.”
Mace said he opposes the village developing more zoning and permitting regulations, and would rather see current laws enforced. “Money’s so tight, and it’s just going to get tighter — that we need to be watching that more, and keeping the money in our people’s pockets, other than trying to build revenue for the village.”
Mace also opposes raising electricity rates for village customers, although he believes the electrical department is one of the village’s biggest strengths. Trimble Local Schools is another strength, he told the Independent, but “I think we’re taxed enough,” regarding the proposed 1% earned income tax levy for the district.
Mace said that he supports the ongoing redevelopment in historic Glouster as well, noting that the work has been largely grant-funded.
Nathan Simons (incumbent)
In his opening statement, incumbent Mayor Nathan Simons said he’s been on Glouster Village Council since 2017 and mayor since 2023. Simons is also a board member of the Athens County Land Bank and president of the Trimble Band Boosters. Simons works at HAPCAP as a community development coordinator. Specifically, he works with Community Development Block Grants.
Simons said he has been “giving back and applying my knowledge and skills as a grant writer to the village of Glouster to bring in revenue and funding to carry out infrastructure projects and development projects in the village.”
He added that his maternal grandfather, Richard Keith, also served as mayor of Glouster.
“He also kind of instilled in me the importance of giving back to your community and helping the community, and doing all that you can do to make where you live a better place,” Simons said.
Simons told the Independent that some of Glouster’s strengths include its utility departments that generate revenue for the village.
“We’re fortunate in that regard, but definitely grant-dependent for larger projects,” Simons said.
Other pluses for the village, Simons said, are “our resiliency, and resourcefulness, doing a lot with a little.”
Ongoing developments in historic downtown Glouster are exciting for the village’s future, Simons said. He noted that work on a building at 93 High St. should be completed in December.
“It’s roughly like, $2.5 million on that structure,” he said.
The Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program is renovating the structure for its New Leaf program, funded in part by a Community Development Block Grant to Athens County that Simons wrote through his work with HAPCAP, he said.
He no longer writes grants for the village as mayor, he said, due to conflicts of interest.
Simons said he would be voting yes on Trimble’s proposed 1% earned income tax.
Simons has two kids who attend district schools, and he volunteers with band boosters and, alongside his wife, will soon volunteer at the school’s community fitness center.
Budget cuts due to the school’s fiscal emergency prompted the band boosters to raise around $5,000 to supplement the district’s stipend for the marching band instructor, Simons noted. Without that funding, Trimble likely would not have had a marching band this season, he said.
Trimble Local Schools Board of Education
Four people are running for three seats on Trimble’s board of education. Incumbent candidates Gary Arnold and Kevin Coey, president and vice president of the board of education, were present at the forum; incumbent John Standley did not.
Carl Fouts seeks to unseat one of the incumbents.
School board races are nonpartisan.
Also on the general election ballot is an unexpired term ending in 2027 currently held by Susan Shafer, who was appointed to the board this past summer. Shafer is running uncontested, according to the Athens County Board of Elections.
However, according to both Arnold and Coey, Shafer is moving out of the district and will be ineligible to serve on the board, so her seat will become vacant. The Independent could not reach Shafer for comment in time for publication.
The board elections come at an important time for the district as it navigates its fiscal emergency. District residents will vote upon a proposed earned income tax supporting the district this fall, too.
Gary Arnold (Incumbent)
Arnold said in his opening statement that he is retired from being an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union representative for 22 years and overall a union member for 50 years. He joined the board of education after his wife passed away, and he finished her term. He then ran for a term successfully, and he is now seeking another. He also serves on other community boards, including that of Athens County Children Services.
“I’ve decided to run because I have three kids that graduate[d] from this school,” Arnold said. “It’s a good school and I just didn’t feel right walking out when we were in so much trouble. So I want to finish up some of the plans that we need to make short-term to survive.”
Arnold, who is currently president of the board of education, said that with the district now in a fiscal emergency, the state “scrutinizes expenses, everything.” As long as it is indebted to the state, the district will be under oversight of an Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Financial Planning and Supervision Commission.
“The state indicated last week that it looks like there are still cuts that need to be made,” Arnold said. The district has already cut more than 40 positions.
“If somebody can show me where there’s six more cuts that we can make that won’t affect our kids, I’d like to see it,” Arnold said.
When asked how he would characterize how the district’s financial crisis came to be, Arnold said “poor judgment,” but declined to comment further.
He said that while on the board of education these past few years, he attempted to make policy changes — including reducing how much district administrators can spend without board approval from a threshold of $50,000 down to $5,000 — but he couldn’t get enough votes.
“We’ve learned a very valuable lesson by not always just taking people’s words,” Arnold said.
He is in favor of the proposed income tax. “If we don’t get the levy, it will be hard,” Arnold said. He expressed optimism that “the working class people will [pass the income tax] because that’s who’s going to pay it.”
Arnold said he attended Athens High School after his home school in Millfield was closed during consolidation.
“I wouldn’t wish that on anybody, because I can tell you, the only thing I learned to do for four years is fight,” he said.
Arnold said Glouster’s biggest strength is its love for its kids.
“I’d come to watch a bus come back in this town after our kids play a state championship or state playoff, and it’s two o’clock in the morning — and see the streets lined with firemen and residents,” Arnold said. “So yeah, it’s definitely the community’s care for the kids.”
He said one of the village’s biggest weaknesses is a lack of employment in the area. His own son spends about five hours commuting to and from work each day. “We need something to keep our kids around,” he said.
Kevin Coey (Incumbent)
In his opening statement, Coey said he is a 60-year resident of Trimble Township and has “always been civic-minded.”
Coey, who is currently vice president of the board of education, has experience serving on other local boards and Trimble Village Council. He is seeking a third term on the school board.
“The reason I’m running is I hope to stick around until we can get our financial situation straight,” Coey said. “When I came into office, there was policies in place that would not let the board control the spending. It was like unbelievable freedoms for the administration, and we finally got some of that changed, got some new policies put in place.”
Coey also has a daughter who attends the district, he added.
Like Arnold, Coey is seeking to see the district through its financial crisis. He expressed that the board has implemented recent policy changes that may have come “too little, too late” but will benefit the district in the long run.
Coey said the district’s strengths include its facilities and its supportive and tight-knit community. He expressed concern for the district’s finances and its test scores.
Coey said that he thinks the district can “get things back in order without” the proposed earned income tax, “but it sure would shorten down the time of emergency and maybe be able to help us retain two or three more teachers in key positions where we’re struggling.”
Coey said he believes the district has room for a couple more cuts in administration, perhaps by contracting with the Athens-Meigs Educational Service Center for services instead. Like Arnold, Coey affirmed that the state is still pushing for the district to make more cost-saving cuts.
Carl Fouts
In his opening statement, Fout said he is a 64-year-old member of the community and township, and is also a local business owner.
“I just feel that I need to run for school board to help get these finances back in place and get a place for my kids to graduate high school, or my grandkids and their kids,” Fouts said in his opening statement. “My whole family has graduated from the township and schools of this area since the 1900s, and we hope that we still have a school here to go to throughout the rest of our time.”
Fouts acknowledged the district’s financial emergency and said that without the district, “we become Murray City.” Murray City has only a population of around 326 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau; Glouster, 1,556.
Fouts noted that Glouster’s historic coal-based economy has had lingering effects on its population and business environment.
Fouts also acknowledged the district’s financial emergency and said that without the district, “we become Murray City.” Murray City has only a population of around 326 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau; Glouster, 1,556. “We can’t shrink no more,” he said.
Murray City also once had its own school that served students from 1914 until it closed in the 1980s. Students who live in Murray City now attend Nelsonville-York City Schools.
“The school is our livelihood,” Fouts said. “That’s all our community has.”
Regarding the district’s proposed earned income tax, Fouts said that “the state funding isn’t fair for our smaller schools.”
Trimble earned income tax proposal
Also at the forum was Trimble elementary literature teacher Kristi Barker, who tabled at the event for the Support Our Trimble Schools committee. Barker offered information pamphlets in favor of the levy, as well as buttons that say “Support our Tomcats.”
The proposed 1% income tax would affect only earned income, not Social Security or pensions. The proposed tax would begin next year and last for five years.
More information
The last day to register to vote in the Nov. 4 general election is Oct. 6. Early voting begins Oct. 7. Find more information on voting and the election from the Athens County Board of Elections.
The League of Women Voters of Athens County is hosting additional candidate events this fall, including a Chauncey and Dover area candidate event Oct. 6; an Ames, Carthage, Coolville, Federal Hocking and Rome Township area candidate event Oct. 8; and a candidate roundtable in Nelsonville Oct. 14.
Correction: We corrected this article around 11 a.m. Oct. 3 because early voting and registration dates were incorrect by one day each. We apologize for this error.
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