ST. PARIS – Two current council members and a former village employee are vying for two St. Paris village council seats.
Council members Terry W. Ervin II and Niven Jester are seeking re-election while former village street commissioner Tyler Adkins is seeking a council seat.
A resident of the village for 23 years, Ervin is a husband, father and member of St. Paris United Methodist Church. He is an English instructor at Upper Valley Career Center where he serves as chairman of the Financial Planning Committee.
He earned a bachelor of science degree from Bowling Green State University, where he majored in biology and minored in English. Ervin also received a master’sdegree in education from Urbana University.
Ervin said he is running for council because continued fiscal responsibility is the most pressing issue for St. Paris.
“In difficult economic times, my objective will be to continue reviewing and prioritizing the needs of St. Paris and invest available tax dollars where they’re most needed,” Ervin stated. “I’m always open to community member suggestions as they’re often closer to a concerning issue with insight to share.”
Ervin added residents can depend on him to continue preparing for every meeting, having researched ahead of time, and to continue to ask questions critical to the issues and make decisions based on facts, reasoning, his experience and community input.
Jester was appointed to council to replace former council member Tristan Bogan. A village resident for 25 years, Jester and his wife, Peggy, have three daughters and six grandchildren with one on the way.
A 1986 graduate of Graham High School, Jester graduated from the Clark State Police Academy, the Sinclair Community College Corrections Academy and the firefighter academy. He is employed by the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office as a road patrol deputy and previously worked as a sergeant for the St. Paris Police Department and as a corrections officer at the Tri-County Regional Jail in Mechanicsburg.
He was deputized as a U.S. Marshall for Operation Falcon III.
Jester is a Master Mason and fellow brother of the Mt. Olivet Lodge No. 226 in Christiansburg.
“My purpose and interest in running for village council is to make St. Paris a great place to live,” Jester said. “I have a large number of friends and family that live in the village and feel a need to serve not only them but the rest of the village citizenry.”
Born in Troy, Adkins graduated from Troy High School and Upper Valley JVS in 1988 and from MTA truck driving school in 1989. He married his wife, Cathlyn, in 1995 and moved to St. Paris in the same year. Their son, Skyler, was born in 1996.
Adkins was employed as a job-site supervisor and paver operator with Mid-America Surfaces from 1990 to 2003, building all-weather running surfaces and tennis courts. During the winter months of those years, he worked as a framer for new home construction.
Adkins worked as the village’s street commissioner from 2003 until he was terminated in June.
Adkins said he wants village residents’ voices to be heard and taken into consideration stating that council needs to work for village residents.
“I’m running for council to stop the wasteful spending and unlawful actions of the administrator and council that we’ve had for the last several years,” Adkins said. “As an employee of the village for 13 years, I watched this village council lose touch with reality and keep the truth from its citizens. I intend to stop the wasteful spending, purchasing of unneeded equipment, hiring of contractors for work which the village can do itself.”
