Wellman, Vormohr win seats

With no controversial issues to tackle, Greg Wellman figured it might be tough to knock off the current president of the Jay School Board.

It wasn’t.

Wellman, who in the 2000 school board election finished a distant second behind Duane Starr in a crowded field, was chosen by a 2,044-1,587 margin for the District 6 seat on the board.

Scoring a recently-rare victory as an incumbent was easy for local physician Frank Vormohr, who won by a large margin in a three-way race in District 1 (city of Portland).

Michael Masters had no opposition for the District 4 seat that represents Richland Township outside the city of Dunkirk.

Wellman, Vormohr and Masters will take office July 1.

Wellman said this morning that current board members have wrapped up work on several controversial issues — including balancing the budget and signing a new contract with the Jay Classroom Teachers Association.

“They’ve pretty much done all the hard work ... in my case, how do you win an election like that? It was hard to judge what was going to happen,” Wellman said in a phone interview this morning. (I’m) “pleased and surprised. I obviously hoped to win, but didn’t expect that kind of margin.”

Vormohr, who becomes the first incumbent since 1998 to win another term on the school board, said he was surprised by the fact he earned almost twice as many votes (2,460) as the combined total of opponents Don Thomas (658) and Max Ludy (592).

The vote totals for all the candidates do not include votes cast by seven residents of the Shadyside Addition that is within the city of Dunkirk but which is in Blackford County. Here is the break- (Continued on page 2)

of the Shadyside vote: District 1 — Vormohr 5, Ludy 2, Thomas 0; District 4 — Masters 7; District 6 — Wellman 4, Starr 2.

“I was somewhat shocked,” Vormohr said this morning of the margin of victory. “When I decided to run four years ago it wasn’t about any hidden agenda. It was about the kids ... you see things happening all around you, and you want to try to get involved. I just couldn’t walk away.”

Vormohr, who had previously said he was not going to run for re-election, waited until very late in the filing period to bid for another term.

Wellman, who was a spokesperson for a group of northern Jay County residents lobbying several years ago for a third middle school in the county, possibly at the current site of Bloomfield Elementary School, said he doesn’t have a particular agenda as he prepares to take office.

“At this point, there really is nothing I would say is a major issue. My feelings are still the same about community schools and parental involvement. Whatever the issue, that’s how I’m going to approach it,” Wellman said.

Wellman, who lives near New Corydon in the northeast corner of Jay County, said that Masters had campaigned on Wellman’s behalf in the southwest corner of the county.

Vormohr, who said he was looking forward to working with Wellman and Masters on the board, had kind words for Starr.

“I didn’t really know him before I was elected to the school board, but I completely respect Duane Starr. I’m telling you, he is quite a guy. No one worked harder in the four years I was on the school board than Duane Starr,” Vormohr said.

Wellman, who had run strong in or near his home precinct of Wabash Township in 2000 but weakly elsewhere, received more votes than Starr in 17 of 21 precincts Tuesday. Wellman even won five of the seven Wayne Township precincts where Starr had dominated in 2000.

In their home precincts, Wellman won by 89 votes (104-15) in Wabash, while Starr prevailed by 27 votes (70-43) in Madison Township.[[In-content Ad]]