Watson, Ritter to meet again

It’s time for a rematch.
When Dan Watson and Gene Ritter met in the 2011 Dunkirk mayoral election, the margin was 28 votes.
Now they’re running again, this time with Watson as the Democratic incumbent seeking a second term and Ritter trying to give the city its seventh different mayor in as many elections.
Watson, 54, has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Tri-State University and has worked as Jay County’s engineer since 1989. He served two full terms on Dunkirk City Council prior to becoming mayor and is currently president of the Jay County Development Corporation board.
He defeated incumbent Ron Hunt handily in the 2011 Democratic primary before edging Ritter with 52.3 percent of the vote (269-245) in the general election.
Watson is trying to become the first Dunkirk mayor to win re-election since Republican Grant Fager ran unopposed in 1991. Since then, the city has elected a series of one-term mayors — Robert Davenport (1995), Tom Johnson (1999), Sam Hubbard (2003) and Ron Hunt (2007).
Ritter, 51, is also an engineer, having completed his degree at IUPUI. He works at Keter, a manufacturer of plastic storage products and furniture in Anderson. He has lived in Dunkirk for 12 years after growing up in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, and serves on the West Jay Community Center board.
He was slated to run in 2011 after no Republicans took part in the primary.
Watson wants a second term in order to continue the progress the city has made over the course of his first four years in office, he said. Among those accomplishments, he listed downtown development, cleaning up the city, restoring pride and taking steps toward projects such as a senior housing complex.
Ritter noted that he decided prior to the election four years ago that he would run again if his first campaign was unsuccessful. But he added that the biggest factor that brought him back to the ballot this year is economic development.

“I just feel that there’s a lot more that can be done to bring business into our community,” said Ritter. “I think Dunkirk needs a mayor that is going to go and fight for jobs, otherwise I think we’re going to turn into another dying community. We’re already kind of doing that already.
“We need a spark. I feel that I’m that spark.”
His plan to bring new manufacturing jobs to Dunkirk centers around trying to create partnerships with existing companies such as Ardagh and Mosey Manufacturing. He used Indiana Box, which makes boxes used by Ardagh, as an example of an organization that would be worth trying to lure to the city.
He described himself as a tireless worker who would “go hard” after new business.
Watson, who emphasized his knowledge via his involvement in JCDC, discussed a different approach to economic development, saying retention and expansion of current businesses is key. He noted $70 million in investments at Ardagh over the last decade as an example.
He said some of Dunkirk’s realities, such as not being located on a main highway, make it difficult to attract new business and that his vision is to create a quality of life that draws residents who work in other nearby cities.
“Realistically, the majority of the people who live in Dunkirk don’t work in Dunkirk,” he said. “They work in Portland. They work in Muncie. They work in Winchester. … And we understand that.
“I more feel like we have a better opportunity of becoming more of a bedroom community than we do attracting a lot of new industry.
“We still have room for economic development. We have an industrial park with 15 acres that is undeveloped. Everything is there. … We have the infrastructure to handle anything that wants to come in.”
One of the issues at the forefront in Dunkirk over the last four years has been downtown revitalization.
The city was a finalist for the Stellar Communities program through the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, but finished second in the competition to North Liberty. Plans for Stellar funding included a senior housing complex, moving the library and glass museum to the former Stewart Brothers building and installing downtown lighting.
Watson remains focused on those goals — the city is resubmitting an application this fall for tax credits for the senior housing facility — and said as mayor he would continue to find avenues to pursue them.
Ritter set a different focus for the downtown area, noting that he believes part of the reason Dunkirk fell short in the Stellar competition is that the city has done enough on its own. He said he feels more activity will be sparked if his effort to bring new industries to the city is successful.
“I believe that once it starts coming to reality, I think there’s a lot of things that are just going to kind of snowball and kind of happen on their own,” he said. “They won’t completely happen on their own, but I think the opportunity for something like that to happen is overwhelming. I think it’s huge.”
Ritter also criticized Watson for what he characterized as a lack of action toward making Dunkirk safer. Specifically, he noted the elimination of the police department’s drug-sniffing dog.
Watson agreed that safety is a key issue and said he’s open to the possibility of having a canine officer in Dunkirk. But he noted that the previous police dog was a liability issue because it was not owned by the city and was not being used properly, emphasizing the need for training.
In discussing why he is the better candidate for mayor, Ritter characterized himself as a fighter who wants to bring the city back to what it was decades ago.
The focus for Watson was experience, as he said he believes he and the city council have created a strong base on which to continue building.
“We’ve made so much progress,” he said. “Four years ago, when you mentioned Dunkirk to any state agency, nobody knew where Dunkirk was. Now, everybody knows where Dunkirk is. We’ve put Dunkirk back on the map at the state level.
“I think we need someone with experience to keep the positive image and keep the positive things that we’re doing moving forward.”