By Sandy Rose Schwieterman

For the Sidney Daily News

MINSTER — The winning candidates for two Minster council seats and the mayor’s position say they think the voters are open to new and fresh ideas to keep the village competitive by creating more housing, encouraging community involvement and increasing ability to attract good employees to their community.

Once sworn in January, new mayor Craig Oldiges, new council member Josh Osterloh and reelected council member Nicole Clune say they have ideas to move Minster forward.

Oldiges said that he will be focused on keeping community communications a top priority. Coming from serving as a council member for 18 years, he says he sees how important it is to continue community communications.

For example, he wants to focus on one of his new duties, managing the Mayor’s Court, which hands out citations for violations of municipal ordinances ranging from speeding to above ground pools, the latter of which are not permitted in the village.

“I think the residents would be less intimidated talking to me at the police station over having to appear before the county judge they don’t know.” He said at the local level he can explain why there was a violation and if and how they can file for a permit.

He said he was gratified by the support by local voters at the last general election Nov. 7 but also feels the Minster voters were looking for some fresh ideas from their council and mayor. “People can get complacent when serving for a long time,” he surmised. The two candidates that were not elected had served a total of 52 years.

Osterloh said one of his main goals will be attracting and retaining good employees for local businesses by offering adequate housing. With the village surrounded by rich farmland that farmers do not want to part with, he said one of the obstacles to attracting people to live and work here is the shortage of quality housing in the village. He added thetwo new subdivisions built in recent years helped a lot, but because of a shortage of land in the village, perhaps they should be looking at the possibility of building multi-unit, multi-story apartment buildings. “I am talking high-quality, three bedroom apartments, not cheap trashy units,” he explained. My wife works in marketing for Nidec and she has said many of their people have to commute from Sidney where they can rent apartments.” He noted that investors had begun building multi-unit apartments buildings in Sidney.

Finally, Oldiges said the wants to keep updating the residents on the way Minster is serving the public. He said an example were the function of the solar fields the village operates, saying they needed to educate residents on how it all works. “Now, when the lights go out, some residents get on Facebook, asking to turn on power from the solar field, but that is not how they system works,” he explained.

Clune, who was reelected Nov. 7, said not only will she keep supporting the continued improvement of the fire and emergency services but also would like to look at promoting those other “little things” that keep attracting people to Minster.

One of the “little things” she mentioned were a more green through a tree replacement program in the community. “I have people that are coming back to our community after a number of years to raise their kids and they ask “Where did all the trees go,” she said, recalling that years ago the main streets often had a canopy of large trees along their length.

She also said she supports improvement of the infrastructure of the town, especially the parks and other green spaces.

She said constructing a new bike path to the YMCA and another following the canal all the way to nearby Fort Loramie would not only improve quality of life but also enhance safety for residents.

“We need a place for the kids to play,” she said.

She says that as a former ODOT environmental coordinator she has the background to understand regulations and requirements to do such projects, while spending dollars wisely.

Clune, who was first appointed to council in 2008 to complete an unfinished term and then continued to be re-elected to a seat on council, has led the effort to promote safety in the community.

As the safety committee chair, says she is proud of the improvements they have made to support the village volunteer emergency services. “We passed a levy that allowed the village to offer an attractive compensation package that helped make it easier for squad members to keep their commitment to the village, while explaining to family why they sometimes have to be away working weekends.”

Clune is also interested in making downtown Minster businesses a hub for entertainment.

“For one, I would like council to create a strategic plan on re-invigorating the downtown area,” she said. “There used to be so much down along Fourth Street, with a grocery and downtown shops.”

“Starting at the Dutch Mill and working down the street would attract more people,” saying she was open to approving a DORA in that area.