It was more than two years ago when Wheeling Island resident Ben Seidler made the decision that he was going to be a candidate for Ward 2, and now he is eager to begin working with the other six Council members.
Seidler, a lifelong resident of the city of Wheeling, collected 274 votes from residents in Fulton, North Wheeling, and Wheeling Island.
“I’ve been fighting for improvement in Ward 2 for a long time, and I think that people need a voice from our neighborhoods. I believe you have be active and you have to engage with the people in your ward,” Seidler said. “You have to hear them, and then you have to respond. Those are very important things.
“Overall, I was really humbled by the number of people who placed their trust in me. I did not expect to win by that many votes,” he continued. “I’m not going to take that responsibility lightly.”
Team Effort
Seidler is aware that a Council vote cannot be successful without four of seven Council members agreeing on the issue, and that is why he is determined to become a member of a team instead of acting as an individual.
“Since the voting results were announced, I have spoken with the mayor, the city manager, and with most of the members of City
Council, and I told them that I am really looking forward to working with them,” Seidler said. “We have to be on the same page and work together so we can get some things going forward. That’s the message I think the voters sent to each of us.
Property maintenance, dilapidated and vacant structures, and crime were a few of the points Seidler made during his campaign, and now he remains determined to communicate with residents in all areas of Ward 2.
“We have to look forward and not backward, and we have to move forward and get some things done,” he said. “I’m excited about it, and I am very positive about it. My role as a council member is two-fold because I now need to be the evangelist for our community, and on the council side of this position, I also have to help execute what the voters want us to do.”
Politics? No Thanks
The four other candidates who ran in Ward 2 collected a total of 473 votes with North Wheeling resident Joe Key earning 158. Seidler believes a message was sent to him and to each of the city’s elected officials.
“That’s what happens when the vote gets chopped up by five people,” he explained. “We all had supporters, and I was hoping to win by more than 10 votes, and I did, and I was pretty happy about that.
“But if you look across the board at the voting, I think you can tell that those in Wheeling who did vote didn’t appear to be happy with how everything has been going,” Seidler said. “There were a lot of close races, and I think everyone learned a lesson that we all need to hear our constituents and focus what we said during our campaigns.”
To Seidler, it wasn’t about making campaign promises, though, because he cited only the needs from around second ward.
“I hate politics, and I’m not a fan of politicians,” Seidler insisted. “We all live here, and that means we have to work together. At this point, it doesn’t matter how we got here.
“I believe everyone on City Council and in the administration realizes that there are issues, and the only way we can address them is if we all address them together,” he explained. “People want to see progress instead of hearing about how it could happen, and I am looking forward to being a part of making it happen.”
