Trending
STEUBENVILLE -- Ballots had to be hand-counted, but early Wednesday morning Joel Walker was declared the winner in Steubenville's council at large race.
Unofficial tallies show Walker, 62, a former city police officer, pulling 1,708 write-in votes and Scott Dressel, businessman and lead volunteer of the Grand Theater Restoration Project, with 621 write-in votes. Another 231 ballots were declared invalid.
Walker figures "people are ready for change."
"I'm not a politician," he said. "I want to see the city I was born and raised in start to build and grow."
He credits friends and family with working hard to get his message out to voters.
"We worked the polling locations really hard," he said. "We had my friends and family out, along with people from the Republican Party."
He said his first priority as councilman at large will be to "get in and figure out what the major issues are for businesses wanting to come to the city or why they don't want to come here.
"I believe we have a great foundation with the newly elected people who want the same goals for the city and that we will work well together," he said. "I want to thank all the people who voted for me, and my family and friends for their help."
Dressel offered Walker his congratulations, saying, "I'm sure he will do a great job."
Walker is one of three new faces who will be joining council in January: Dave Albaugh, currently park board chairman, unseated incumbent Asantewa Anyabwile in the First Ward, and Ted Gorman, Steubenville High School principal and founder and president of the Steubenville Baseball Association, who defeated Larry Gerber in the Fifth Ward.
Walker will replace Kimberly Hahn in the council at large position, while Gorman will replace Willie Paul. Hahn and Paul were prohibited from seeking re-election by term limits.
Heather Hoover, who was appointed as Third Ward councilwoman in January after Eric Timmons was elected as a Jefferson County commissioner, was unopposed on Tuesday's ballot. She had 534 votes.
Overall, the Jefferson County Board of Elections reported that 43.25 percent (19,886) of the county's 43,983 registered voters cast ballots in the election.