The mayor of Magnetic Springs is stepping down after almost two decades in the role.
At the village’s regular council meeting last week, Kathy Cantrell submitted her resignation to the board, ending a 16-year run as mayor.
She said it’s something she has thought about for a while but wanted to make sure the village was in better shape than when she arrived.
“I just thought it was time to move on, for myself and for the village,” she said. “My wish is that I want the village to excel. I always have. I love this village.”
Cantrell first came to the Magnetic Springs in 1992 and joined council shortly after in 1996. She said she immediately wanted to get involved and do what she could to make the village better.
“I was the new kid in town when I first got involved but I’ve been here long enough now that I don’t feel that way,” she said.
Cantrell said from the beginning she has always wanted to improve the village and to clean it up.
“That was my goal and I think we’ve done a good on that,” she said. “We’ve tried to clean up tires and trash and when old cars are parked around, get those taken care of.”
She said those kinds of initiatives in small towns can be difficult to implement, but once in place, she said she thinks it can instill pride in the community.
“We do the annual Clean-up Day, I call it Dump Day, but I think it helps to give people an opportunity to clear stuff out,” she said. “I think doing that makes the village more appealing and I’m proud of that.”
Additionally, she said one of the things she is most proud of accomplishing involved work on bringing and improving utilities in the village. She said getting half a million dollars in grant money to work on the storm drains as well as getting funding to create the central sewer system will hopefully push the village forward.
“Yes, it will cost us a little more money but these are upgrades this village is going to have for years to come,” Cantrell said.
The $500,000 was part of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Neighborhood Revitalization Grant that was received for park facilities, street repair, eliminating the drainage concerns and sidewalk replacement.
The $4 million sewer project, which is a partnership between the village and Richwood, will install a portion of the system in the village and then a force main connector that will go along Route 37 between Magnetic Springs and Richwood.
Cantrell said one of the reasons she knew it was time to leave was that the village would be in good hands with its new mayor Chad Wilson. The former council president was sworn in during the meeting last week.
“For now, I will be an acting council member but it’s not a longer term thing,” she said. “But (Wilson) has a lot of knowledge and lot of passion for the village and I think he’s a good person for the job.”
Wilson, who previously lived in Marysville, moved to the village two years ago but has had land in the village and plans to make the transition for the last seven years.
He said once in the village, he pretty quickly decided to get involved.
“I immediately loved it and think it’s a great place to live,” Wilson said.
In his day job, he works in IT and has already tried to bring that experience to the village by putting together a new website: magneticspringsoh.gov.
He said one of his major goals is similar to Cantrell’s, which is to get residents to participate in village activities.
One way to do that, he said, is to bring back something from the past.
“In 1983, the village had its 100th anniversary with the Water Festival and in less than 10 years from now, it’ll have its sesquicentennial (150 years) anniversary so why not plan a festival in 10 years,” Wilson said.
With that, the village will have a 10-Year Development Plan and he put information on that on the new website.
The plan outlines 10 pillars he wants the village to focus on: community engagement, zoning, public spaces, economic development, growth, community partnerships, education, transportation, health and connectivity.
He said he wants to be able to obtain more funding and other help for the village, but knows it can be difficult with a smaller community. Though, he added, Cantrell’s work put the village in a good position.
“I want to thank Kathy for all the hard work over all these years. It can be a thankless job but she did it,” Wilson said. “The community would not be where it is without her.”