John Davies has worn many hats in and for the city of Martins Ferry: graduate, business and property owner, councilman, street supervisor and, most recently, service director.
He will soon add another to that list – mayor.
The citizens of Martins Ferry selected Davies to serve as mayor via a 548-502 vote during a November general election race against incumbent Robert Krajnyak, and soon, the 1976 MFHS graduate will step into the lead role for the Purple City.
A few interesting and potentially difficult challenges await.
The most glaring is the closure of East Ohio Regional Hospital, not only for the loss of jobs and tax income, but also access to immediate health care needs. Auditor Rita Randall recently revealed the hospital accounted for an influx of $160,000 in revenue to the city’s general fund each year. That’s no small chunk.
“The water department will be okay as we have some carryover right now,” Davies said in regard to the closing of EORH. “On the income tax end, we lose a substantial amount of money.
“It will be painful for the city’s general fund, but we’re still hopeful someone here in the near future will take over.”
Davies noted that talks are still ongoing. He’s not looking for anything concrete to happen during the next few months, but that someone will come to use the facility once again.
And hopefully soon.
“My main concern about the hospital closing is for the citizens of Martins Ferry,” Davies said. “When they have an emergency and need life-saving transport, they now have to go to Wheeling and potentially get tied up in traffic.
“It’s the perfect storm for Martins Ferry as you have traffic problems on I-470 and I-70, and the hospital located on the other side of the problem areas.”
With no emergency care in Martins Ferry or in Bellaire any longer, the options are either fighting the traffic to get to Wheeling Hospital or heading north to Trinity in Steubenville.
In regard to the tax issues, the city will do what it always does … perseveres.
“This is a pretty tough city and we kind of take things in stride when it comes to basically super shutdowns,” Davies said, referring to the hospital and to the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel closure a decade ago.
Like most community leaders, Davies is hopeful for the eventual construction of the cracker plant in Belmont County, as well as the continued expansion of gas and oil to help bolster the city’s coffers. The soon-to-be mayor, though, is not sitting around and waiting for a windfall to save the day.
“Our main priority is to keep our businesses and do what we can to help them grow,” Davies said. “We will be in close contact with all of our businesses.”
Davies has long and short-term goals he plans to accomplish, and the first one involves the beautification of the municipality.
“First thing is we’re going to start at Fifth and Hanover streets and starting cleaning up the city, street by street,” Davies explained. “We’ll clean the streets, get the lines painted, the meter lines painted, cross walks.
“We’ll patch the potholes and get the entire ward patched and painted and then move to the next,” he continued. “Every citizen and every part of this town is important to me. I don’t care what your name is. I’m everybody’s mayor.”
Davies plans to hold weekly meetings with his supervisors, going over their agendas for the week and adding items from his own list to be accomplished, including an operational trash compactor. He explained such a fix would cut down on the number of trips the packers must make to the landfill, which currently stands at two packers each making two daily trips.
His varied work experience both in the private sector and for the city will certainly help. Davies knows the budget and how to get the streets repaired and serviced, and he plans to implement an extensive maintenance program for the city’s fleet, helping to cut down on major repair costs moving forward.
Davies also wants to re-institute the free spring trash pick-up days to help collect larger items. It was a program that ran when he was service director and had to be curtailed when the city’s finances weren’t in as great of shape.
And Davies plans to be a full-time mayor, holding office hours Monday through Thursday up to 5 p.m.
“If you want to come and talk to me, my door will always open,” he said. “You don’t need an appointment. If I’m here until 5 p.m. and you’re not done until 6 p.m., call me and we can set something up or I can give you my cell so we can talk.
“I want (us) to get back to a kinder, gentler city like it used to be.”
