Two vying for GOP nod

Republicans lost the Dunkirk mayor’s office in 2019.

Two candidates are hoping for the opportunity to reclaim it for their party.

Jay Miller and Alden Glessner are competing against each other for the GOP nomination for mayor of Dunkirk.

The winner will advance to meet incumbent Democrat Jack Robbins, who is uncontested in the primary.

Miller served for 20 years in the U.S. Air Force after growing up in Dunkirk and then lived in St. Louis for 10 years. He returned to Dunkirk about 20 years ago and worked as a call center manager.

He is making another run for elected office after finishing third in a three-way race for Dunkirk clerk-treasurer in 2019.

Glessner owns about a dozen rental properties after a career in commercial heating and cooling. He grew up in Plymouth before moving and graduating from Jay County High School in 1981.

This is Glessner’s first bid for elected office.

Early voting continues from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. today. It will also be available from 8:30 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 29 and 8:30 a.m. to noon May 1. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for election day May 2.

Glessner and Miller were asked a series of questions. Their answers, edited for length, are as follows:

What do you see as the most important issue facing Dunkirk and how would you address it?

Glessner: Dunkirk has a lot of problems — nothing major — but a lot of little things. My main goal is to start getting input from the people of Dunkirk. I think the people of Dunkirk ought to decide what they think is important, whether it be city streets or something with the water or sewage or the way the buildings look in town, whatever the case may be. Obviously there are some things that have to be done, but I think the residents in town really ought to have more of a say about what happens in the town they live in.

Miller: I think the most important issue facing Dunkirk right now is our young people have no reason to stay. There’s no work. So we’re losing. We’re becoming a retirement community by default and going into obsolescence. I think we need to work with the governor about getting jobs into this area … Dunkirk could use jobs. So could Redkey. We need to get some businesses in here that hire more than three to five people, actually some industry.



What would you do to improve Dunkirk’s downtown area?

Glessner: I wanted to open a small hardware store. And I called the city to see if they knew of any buildings available. … Two years later, I still haven’t heard from them. … You can’t tell people to shop in town and then not have anything in town for them to shop for or have places that everybody closes at 5 o’clock. … I’d like to see Dunkirk get another small restaurant of some sort. … Get a couple of small stores … any kind of store or restaurant to get people to get more interested in being in town.

Miller: A lot of work has already been put into it to get it started. But again, we’re back to jobs. If people around here have money to spend, businesses will come to the downtown area for them to be able to spend it.

But if we don’t have anybody here with money spend, we’re not going to get businesses to settle into the town. They’re going to go where people will spend money.



How else would you make Dunkirk a better place in which to live?

Glessner: Dunkirk has old, run-down houses everywhere. Something needs to be done with them. … Ninety percent of these houses sitting empty can be fixed. … Somebody could buy them and fix them up and sell them and get new people in town and at the same time make the town look 100% better. … People just let stuff fall to pieces. They either need to be held accountable for it and fix it themselves or sell it to somebody else who will fix it. … Mainly just clean up the town, fix the town up.

Miller: I’d like to see our roads get finished and some kind of protecting put into our city charter. The gas company’s been going through. Roads that we just recently paved, they’re cutting across and putting new gas lines and then they’re patching. Well, if you’re going to make that many cuts across the road, it should be repaved to what we just made it. We just need some kind of guidelines in our ordinance that would enforce that kind of thing so they don’t get torn up faster than we can fix them.



Why should the residents of Dunkirk vote for you?

Glessner: Because I want to give them their voice back. I want them to be able to call me any time day or night if they’ve got a problem. And, if possible, we’ll solve it, together. That’s what government was supposed to be, I believe. … We’re supposed to work for them. They should have a say in what we do. They definitely don’t in Dunkirk right now. Every rule and law they put in right now is based on the mayor and the city council’s opinions and the people have no say whatsoever. And I just don’t think that’s right.

Miller: I grew up here. I’m from here. I’ve been the Scout master here for the last 12 years. This is my home. My heart is in this town. I want to see Dunkirk become a better place to live. I’m not doing it so that I can make more money in my housing business or make more money in what other business I might have, because I don’t have those. I’m doing it for Dunkirk, and that’s what I want the people to put their trust in, that I’m here for Dunkirk, not for me.