Wayne Brosius (Republican)

Incumbent candidate Wayne Brosius says he believes that Clarion County is currently in very good shape.

“The county government, which the commissioners actually can do something about, is in good condition. Since I’ve been a commissioner, the general fund balance has never been in better shape than it is now. The county’s retirement portfolio is about 24 million, that’s up about 8 million from 8 years ago.

“I and my fellow commissioners have been good stewards of your money. The county, in general, is also doing well. Unemployment has dropped from about 12% when I took office to about 4% now,” Brosius noted at a recent candidates forum.

“Clarion County is a great place to live, work, learn, and play, and I will do my best to keep it that way.”

Brosius noted that his priorities include continuing to update county buildings, keeping up with burgeoning Human Services needs, and working on getting a new roof for the jail, which has had some issues with leaks in recent months.

Ed Heasley (Democratic)

Incumbent candidate Ed Heasley noted that he has an awareness of the importance of local government, having served as a township supervisor for 12 years, a township auditor for six years, and a county commissioner for four years.

“These positions helped me gain a thorough understanding of how local, county, and state governments interact and must support each other. To me, being fiscally responsible is the top of the commissioners to do list. Managing the county’s taxpayer’s dollars wisely and avoiding unnecessary and wasteful spending while maintaining county-owned properties is what you the taxpayers are expected and are entitled to,” said Heasley.

“Since taking office in 2016, the county’s general fund balance has increased in part as a result of administrative teamwork and numerous cost-cutting measures undertaken in last three years.”

Heasley stated that his priorities include building maintenance, communications towers for the 9-1-1 center, bringing broadband service to rural residents, and a “major overhaul” of Human Services in the county.

“The caseloads down there are skyrocketing. If you ask any of the attorneys here present, I’m sure they’ll agree with me. We’ve been working on it the last three years — we’ll continue working on it. We need state legislators, state senators to help us. It’s not just a county issue, it’s statewide, and we need to get support from others including the residents of Clarion County.”

Ted Tharan (Republican)

Incumbent candidate Ted Tharan said that “small business is alive and well in Clarion County,” and added that his 40 years experience in small business, coupled with his commonsense, are “invaluable” in local government.

“Facts tell the truth. Four years ago our fund balance was 1.5 million dollars. Today it’s four and a half million dollars.

“Commonsense and business decisions make that happen. We’ve also renovated a lot of the county properties. We’ve spent over a million and a half dollars. All this was done without a tax increase and without borrowing a dime. So, you can see that business experience and commonsense is how government should be run, not tax and spend wasteful government like we’ve had in the past.”

Tharan noted that two of his main priorities for the county would include bringing broadband services to rural residents and securing the 9-1-1 system.

“It’s one of the most critical things we provide to our citizens. We’re currently in the process of trying to secure our own towers so we are guaranteed that we will always have sites.”

Tharan stated that another priority would be working to help the struggling ambulance services in the county.

“They’re struggling, they’re having trouble even getting crews together, so we need to try to attract new people to that, and we need to find other ways to fund that because they’re running out of money and the fire companies are going to be right behind the ambulance companies because we don’t have volunteers.”

Kirke Wise (Republican)