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EAST LIVERPOOL -- A Democratic candidate has announced plans to run for mayor.
Darlene Kinsey, who was introduced by Democratic Chairman Charles Kidder as the guest speaker during the FDR Annual Spring Democratic Dinner held at the Slovak Club in Salem on April 20, made her official announcement that she had successfully certified her petition with the Columbiana County Board of Elections to run for the office of Mayor of East Liverpool in the 2023 General Election to be held Nov. 7.
According to information on Columbiana County Board of Elections website, Kinsey is currently running unopposed.
Kinsey ran for mayor 20 years ago as an independent, but said she feels now that it was really not the proper time to do so, even though she was a member of the Democratic Party at that time.
After 20 years and a lot of involvement in the community, where she currently works for the East Liverpool City Health District, and spending time in city hall, she got the itch to try to get into the position, she explained.
"When I discovered just investigating through different sources that some of the folks that ran in the previous elections were not running, I decided to make that attempt one more time," Kinsey said.
Kinsey said that the current mayor, Gregory Bricker, has done a good job as far as blighted housing, which was one of the main projects for his administration. She also said she wasn't very happy with the fact that the city court is no longer in existence with jurisdiction given to the county, and now it needs to be taken to the next level with a serious clean up detail within the city.
"We need to create the interest in our city for both business and for living as our population has steadily declined," Kinsey said. "It was approximately 24,000 individuals in 1974 when I graduated high school and we are closing in at a number near 10,000 at this point. So we really need to start making a concerned effort to have people want to repopulate the city and the locality, but we have to figure out a way to start construction on some new homes and housing."
Kinsey said she feels the clean up of the city is critical and noted that from all entrances into town, there is nothing but overgrown trees and piles of branches, debris and litter which she said combined with poor road conditions and lack of revenue invested in the neighborhoods are critical things that plans are needed to be made to move forward on.
When asked if she was aware that Bricker has been working on trying to get new residential constructions built in town, she replied that in four years it's very difficult to make a big impact because applying for grants and trying to get revenue into a city already in decline is difficult.
"I just feel that we need to come up with additional sources, not just federal and state funding, but we may also need to start looking into the private sector and see where reinvestment can be made and the reconstruction of our neighborhoods is going to be critical if we want to see our population increase, as well as needing people to visit the businesses," Kinsey said.
Kinsey, who is vice president and past president of The River Valley Chamber of Commerce, said she feels that business is extremely important and that it's great to encourage the businesses.
"I would just like to reiterate whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, that denomination doesn't have any bearing on why I want to be mayor," Kinsey said. "I'm not mayor of the Democratic people or the Republican people. I want everyone to join together for the general cause and I would like the party lines be what they are, but I want to represent all of the people of East Liverpool.