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Council ready to hit the ground running

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By Ryan Gauthier, Staff Writer 11:31 PM Tuesday, November 3, 2009

It may not have been the most compelling race, but four new City Council members surfaced following Tuesday’s election.

All four candidates - Ken Bogard, Bob Blackburn, John Harman and Kevin McKeehan - ran unopposed for four open seats on council. Bogard was the sole incumbent, having served on council and as Oxford’s vice mayor for the past two years. He led the pack with 1,380 votes out of 4,449 total. Blackburn finished with 1,097 total votes, while McKeehan received 991 and Harman nabbed 981.

Bogard said he is looking forward to working with both the new and old members of council to continue tackling complex issues facing Oxford.

“We’ve got many challenges and projects ahead of us and we’ve got to make some concrete moves to get them finished,” Bogard said.

McKeehan said his Election Day was rather lackluster, as he had hoped for a more competitive race.

“It wasn’t hard-fought by any means, but I’m looking forward to serving Oxford,” McKeehan said. “Fire and EMS service is probably the biggest issue we’re looking at right now. We’ll have to figure out a way to fund that permanently.”

For Blackburn, not having to worry about campaigning for their council seats really allowed the four candidates to bond prior to landing on council.

“It’s given us a chance to get to know each other,” he said. “So probably when we start out we’re going to hit the bricks running. It’s going to be fun.”

Harman described the election as exciting, saying he is anxious to face the many challenges ahead of the new council.

“I look at our job being finding money so that we don’t have to increase taxes,” Harman said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us, but I’m excited. Some way or another we’ll do it.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 523-4139, ext. 86102, or at rgauthier@coxohio.com.

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