One Aker or another

Jay County will have a new commissioner.

His last name will be Aker.

The voters’ choice is which cousin they want helping to lead the county — Chad or Brian — as they square off in the race for Jay County Commissioner for the middle district.

Chad, a Republican, defeated incumbent Barry Hudson, who was selected to fill out the term after Doug Inman resigned in 2017, in the May primary. He has worked in government jobs in a variety of capacities, including as chief of Portland’s fire department.

Brian, a Democrat, was unopposed in the primary. (He finished second to Hudson in the caucus voting to fill Inman’s seat last year.) He is the owner of Aker-Taylor Plumbing and Heating in Portland.

Both candidates said they chose to run for office because they feel they can make a positive impact on Jay County. Brian emphasized his desire to support local businesses, and Chad noted concerns about the direction the county is going.



Priorities

In discussing what he feels are the most important issues, Brian focused on health insurance costs for county employees. He said the county needs to do what it can to keep costs down so employees don’t have so much of their paychecks going toward insurance. He floated the possibility of the county, school corporation and municipalities partnering together for insurance in an effort to control costs.

Brian also mentioned roads and wind farms as key issues, noting the need for commissioners to focus on what’s best for the future of the county.

For Chad, flooding topped the list of priorities. He said it’s time to put a plan in motion.

“I think actions speak louder than words,” he said. “There’s been enough planning. … It just seems like nothing is physically getting done.

“I think, what we’ve heard from the Army Corps of Engineers, I think they have a solution. I think it’s time to actually start doing something.”

Like Brian, he also mentioned wind farms and health insurance as top issues, in addition to confined feeding operations.



Confined feeding

The Akers came down on opposite sides of the confined feeding issue, with Brian saying he believes the county needs to take another look at revising its ordinance while Chad said he thinks recent changes need to be given time before additional revisions are considered.

The county went through a nearly two-year process of reviewing and revising its confined feeding ordinance from 2014 to 2016. That resulted in extending setbacks for CFOs, revising the number of animals that constitute a CFO and increasing the radius for mail notification for new operations.

Chad advocated for farmers, saying such operations are their way of life, that they pay a lot of tax dollars, mostly without abatements and that the money they make stays in the community.

Brian said the ordinance needs to be reviewed again to ensure that all residents are being considered and not just large farming operations.

“I think we need to bring that back to the plate and look at the ordinance, the setbacks,” he said. “And look what’s best for Jay County, not what’s best for these big corporations that are coming in …”



Roads

Roads have been a topic of discussion for the county for several years, with more funding now coming in after the gas tax increase and additional money available via grants.

Both Chad and Brian said they’d like to see the county start making progress and converting stone roads to hard surfaces.

Brian mentioned the road study completed by a commissioners’ committee in early 2016 that targeted county road 200 West, county road 275 South and county road 350 South for paving. He advocated with following through on those plans.

Chad also said he’d like to see a plan put in place. He suggested that some roads don’t need to go through the chip-and-seal process as often as they do, and said that could potentially save money for other road projects.

“Ideally, I would like to see no more stone roads in the county,” said Chad. “I think that’s something we should work at, because who wants to live on a stone road? Nobody does.”



Economic development

Whoever is commissioner over the next four years will have a hand in deciding what is done with economic development payments from Bluff Point Wind Energy Center, and potentially Bitter Ridge Wind Farm as well.

Bluff Point developer NextEra Energy Resources is providing the county with about $1 million, paid out in four installments. If Bitter Ridge is built, Scout Clean Energy would pay the county about $1.5 million in economic development funds over a four-year period.

Both candidates said commissioners will need to look at all possible projects in an effort to make sure that those funds are being spent on worthwhile initiatives that benefit all of Jay County.

“It shouldn’t be dedicated to one organization, it should be whatever is best for the public … so that everybody gets a benefit from the money,” said Brian, noting that roads would be a good place to start. “The money needs to be invested for what’s best for everybody in the county.”

Chad said he thinks the funds that have been distributed to towns in order to help them seek grant money for road paving has been a good start.

••••••••••

When asked what makes him the better candidate for the job, Brian and Chad settled on the same word — experience.

For Brian, that means his 26 years in business and working on the kind of projects, such as flooding and drainage, that regularly come before commissioners.

“I’ve sat through meetings all over the state — council meetings, commissioners meetings, board of works meetings with different projects,” he said. “The experience that I’ve got that I could bring to the plate with flooding, the drainage issues, the budget issues, all that stuff, without a doubt I’m ready to tackle head on.”

For Chad, it means 24 years in public service in a variety of capacities including the highway department, EMS and fire department, and understanding how various departments operate.

“My big thing is, I know what goes on in the departments,” he said. “I see the shortcomings of them. I see the good things about them. I know what needs to be changed … I know what direction they should go to provide better service to the community.”