By: Rebecca Miller
Brand new Archbold Mayor Brad Grime was pleasantly surprised when he won the mayoral position over incumbent Jeff Fryman. “Jeff did a good job and it is hard to beat an incumbent,” Grime said.
“Jeff and I were on council together for twelve years. I am really please with the council that I get to work with. I know these people…have served with three of them, and they are all good people. I couldn’t ask for a better council. We have differences, or course, but that is good because it keeps us discovering what is best. They are the decision makers and I respect that.”
One of the reasons that Grime chose to run for mayor is that he would like to bring back some things that previous mayors did, such as a State of the Village Address once a year and doing an end of the year review with the Chamber of Commerce.
“I believe the citizens and groups like the Chamber and Rotary are interested in village affairs and so I look forward to keeping them up to date on what is happening,” Grime explained.
Born to the late Wayne and Nancy Grime, in the Wauseon hospital as most Archbold babies are, Grime has spent his whole life in his hometown. In December of 1972 he married his high school sweetheart, Marsha Merillat, who was born to the late Olen and Lois Jean Merillat, and raised in Fayette, but graduated in 1973 from Archbold.
Soon after their wedding, Grime was deployed as a Corporal in the Marines to Okinawa. “I spent time on ship, but got to see a lot of the country, too,” Grime shared of his military experience. “I was there from late December 72 through late December of 73.” Brad and Marsha have four grown up children, and 10 grandkids. He is an owner partner of Auto Images with his brother Chris since 1986.
As a local businessman, co-owner of Auto Images with his brother Chris, Grime said that he has been a Chamber member, although not as involved as he wishes. He is also part of American Legion Post #311, and attends church at St. Peter’s Catholic Church.
He feels that he has been actively involved in the village in whatever ways he could over the years, especially by serving on the Village Council and being on boards that are involved with that.
Grime is very excited about what he called “Archbold’s biggest new right now.” The village is doing a Comprehensive Study plan on the entire village with a company called Reville. “They are going over all the different departments, ordinances, procedures, etc. and it started in January.”
“I have appointed a committee to work with them. It will give us a lot of direction as to where we are headed. It is comprehensive and involves everyone in the community. There will be mailed surveys or a website survey and literally everyone is going to be contacted.”
“We also have the great news that ConAgra, due to the forward thinking actions of the former mayor and council, are doing a large plant expansion that will create between 100 and 130 jobs!” Grime said.
“That will probably be by May of 2021. Because of that, the village will have to upgrade the Wastewater Treatment Plant and are partnering with ConAgra for that. It will be about a 1.4 million dollar project.”
When asked about the issue that caused a great deal of uproar in Archbold recently, Grime said, “County Road 24 has been a divisive issue and I like to say that I was more disappointed in the process than the project itself. We are all on board together with moving the community forward even though we disagree on some things.”
“The village has invested in some studies because of the consideration of making changes on CR 24, and those studies have informed us already on other things, that are helpful to know. Also, we keep that information and we will be able to go back to it when needed, as that topic may never go away.”
Grime said that he believes Archbold has a great infrastructure and it is so good that it is almost on cruise control as the council does a great job of staying on top of it. There is a big infrastructure project out for bids right now for one of the subdivisions that needs a re-do, and all the streets in town have been done.
“I have my heart into this community.” Grime said, “and want to make sure that we stay on course and are always looking for new opportunities and act on them when they come. I hope to attend and get involved with the chamber as often as possible and am proud that we already have an Economic Development Committee that is busy with all that is going on.”
Rebecca can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com