Canal Winchester is waking up to a new mayor as Mike Ebert, who will take office in January and who beat the odds as a write-in candidate, defeated incumbent Jeff Miller.
In unofficial Franklin County election results, 1,311 votes were cast for Ebert, with 947 residents voting for Miller, who is in his first term as mayor. In the Fairfield Count portion of the village, the count was 159 for Ebert and 62 for Miller.
Ebert is a sales manager and a 40-year village resident who grew up in Canal Winchester and graduated from Canal Winchester High School. He attended Columbus State and Ohio University-Lancaster.
He served three terms as director of the Ohio Association of Meat Packers, is a past-president of the Lions Club, coached Little League baseball in Canal Winchester, and is a volunteer with the Family Program at
Rickenbacker ANGB.
In a previous interview, regarding the balance between growth and economic development, Ebert said his administration would seek a mix of commercial development including office space, warehousing, non-polluting light industrial and manufacturing, casual dining, and retail facilities to help support the local tax base. He hopes to control residential growth, so as not to place additional burdens on taxpayers and the school district, and limit it to condominiums and homes with larger lots of approximately four homes per acre.
In other village races:
•Incumbent Bruce Jarvis was returned to his council seat, Rick Deeds reclaimed the council seat he previously held, and Marilyn Rush-Ekelberry joins the council as its newest member. In Franklin County, Rush-Ekelberry received 1,225 votes; Deeds 1,211; and Jarvis 1,063. In Fairfield County it was 129 votes for Rush-Ekelberry; 124 for Deeds; and 99 for Jarvis.
•Canal Winchester school board incumbents David Brobst and John Kantner were also re-elected to their board seats. In Franklin County, Kantner received 1,813 and Brobst received 1,677. Unofficial Fairfield County results showed Kantner 548 and Brobst 433.
