Former Downtown Business Owner Surratt Looks to Serve His City

In walking the streets of Rochester, knocking on doors and talking to people about his campaign, Stan Surratt thinks often of his grandmother.

She was the first woman elected to the Ohio state Legislature from Lucas County, where Surratt and his family are from. That was 1944.

"I always had in the back of my mind that there was a little political blood in me, and that's maybe what drives me," said Surratt, who is seeking his first public office in running for Rochester City Council.

"I think about her a lot, although I really have no political ambitions other than this one here in Rochester. If I were happy with where things were going, I wouldn't be running."

The fabric of downtown

in Rochester.

Voters will elect City Council candidates and members of the Rochester Board of Education.

Surratt is one of six candidates for four positions on the Rochester City Council. The three candidates who receive the most votes will serve four-year terms; the candidate who finishes in fourth place will serve a two-year term.

Besides Surratt, candidates are , , , and .

Surratt, 64, is a retired Chrysler engineer, a grandfather and a former longtime business owner in downtown Rochester. He and his wife, Chris, .

He has lived in Rochester for 23 years.

"The fabric of Rochester is woven all through us," he said of his family. "I've spent pretty much every day for the past 10 years downtown. I think this town is a great place and I want to help it out."

What he would fix

Specifically, Surratt said he wants to look at the city's water and sewer infrastructure. He said he has talked to experts about the system and understands it to be in need of major improvements.

"Right now, the city operates on a failure mode, where they repair things when they break," Surratt said. "We need to instead look at a preventative mode."

Because of his history in the city, Surratt also wants to ensure downtown remains vibrant.

He was a member of the Downtown Development Authority board for eight years, and claims there recently have been appointments to the board of people without a vested interest in downtown; he calls these appointments "cronyism" and said it will eventually deter people from seeking seats on city commissions and boards.

If elected, Surratt said he would work to change that aspect of city leadership.

Council criticisms

Surratt said that if he had been on City Council this fall, he would have questioned the , specifically because of the engineering costs involved.

He also said he would not have supported sending the budget for the back to that organization's board.

"They are set up as an independent board, and the city needs to respect that," he said.

For more about the election, see the Election Page on Rochester Patch.