Zimmerman wins tight race in Sandusy County commissioner Republican primary
FREMONT — Sandusky County Commissioner Russ Zimmerman passed an important first hurdle on his reelection campaign Tuesday, as the incumbent commissioner carved out a narrow victory in a closely contested Republican primary.
Unofficial results from the Sandusky County Board of Elections showed Zimmerman with 3,199 votes, or 41.69%, compared to local business owner Jeremy Lohr's 2,772, or 36.1%.
Tracy Overmyer, former Sandusky County clerk of courts, had 1,501 votes, or 19.56%.
Tim Newman, a fourth Republican candidate, had withdrawn from the commissioner's race but remained on the ballot.
Newman received 201 votes, or 2.6%.
Zimmerman won Sandusky County commissioner seat 2018
Zimmerman overwhelmingly won the seat for Sandusky County Commissioner in 2018, defeating Democratic challenger Devin Black with almost 69% of the vote.
He said he thought the county had done a lot, in terms of improvements, since he took office with building, lighting and HVAC upgrades that resulted in cost savings.
Zimmerman said he's been directly involved with those upgrades, a $6.5 million project, by attending construction meetings every week.
His business background, serving 40 years at Romanoff Electric in Toledo, helped him assist the county with those upgrades, Zimmerman said.
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Since he started as a commissioner, Zimmerman said he's learned a lot about the county, in part due to his work on several community committees.
Zimmerman said county commissioners work a full-time schedule in their efforts to hear and understand the needs of constituents.
Overmyer and Lohr both expressed their strong opposition against any countywide residential building code, something Zimmerman said he also opposed.
The county's building code office was set up for commercial and industrial purposes. Zimmerman said the idea behind that was residents and contractors could more easily deal with a county office in Fremont as opposed to trying to navigate through state agencies in Columbus.
Zimmerman said he thought there were people that interpreted the establishment of a county commercial and industrial code office as meaning there would be a county residential building code.
No plans for residential building code
He reiterated that the county had not established a residential building code and had no plans to do so.
Even with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zimmerman said he thought the county had done well to maintain its finances.
Lohr said he thought serving as a county commissioner was a good way to give back to the community.
He'd like to help with communication issues between the commissioner's office and other county departments, based on conversations he's had with some county officials.
Lohr said he'd like to evaluate staffing issues in county departments and see if the commissioner's office can address staffing shortages.
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This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Sandusky County Commissioner Russ Zimmerman beats Lohr in GOP primary
