Hillsboro candidates file petitions for May 6 primary election

Candidates for all eight Hillsboro City Council seats, as well as a countywide levy, are among the pending May 6 primary election filings awaiting certification by the Highland County Board of Elections.

The filing deadline was Wednesday, Feb. 5. According to Highland County Board of Elections Director Michelle Swallen, the Board will certify petitions Thursday, Feb. 13 at 8:30 a.m. Until then, the below-mentioned names are unofficial, pending verification of valid signatures and certification.

According to the unofficial list of candidates, there are no opposed races for city council on the primary election ballot, and of the current eight members, four are seeking reelection and four did not file petitions.

Those seeking reelection are Hillsboro council president Tom Eichinger, a Republican; Ward 1 representative Adam Wilkin, a Republican; Ward 3 representative Daniel Baucher, a nonpartisan candidate; and Ward 4 representative Mary Stanforth, a Democrat. Filing as new candidates include all three at large positions — Tracy Aranyos, Heith Brown and Logan Kelly — as well as Ward 2 representative Gary Lewis.

Eichinger was appointed council president in April 2019 and elected in November 2019 to fill the unexpired term, then reelected in November 2021 for his first full four-year term. Wilkin and Stanforth are each serving their second term in office, while Baucher is in his first term as councilman.

Lewis is no stranger to Hillsboro’s city government, having previously served as city auditor for just over 13 years. Since leaving that position in 2019, Lewis has been employed as the finance director of the Village of Greenfield.

Aranyos also is a previous city representative and current Republican Central Committee member. She previously served on Hillsboro City Council, having initially been appointed by the Democratic Central Committee to fulfill an unexpired term for the Third Ward before switching parties. She was elected as a write-in for the Third Ward in 2013 but received the fewest votes of four candidates vying for the three at-large positions in 2017.     

The two newcomers on the ballot are Heith Brown, who was recently named Highland County Director of Workforce Development, and Logan Kelly, a firefighter with the Paint Creek Joint EMS/Fire District. Both are Republicans, according to their petitions.

Current council members not filing petitions include the three at-large members: Greg Maurer, who is serving his first full term after being appointed to complete a previous member’s term; Jason Brown, who is in his first term in office; and Kathryn Hapner, who assumed the role in November as the third individual to fill this particular at-large position. Ward 2 representative Don Storer, who is in his first term in office, also did not file petitions. All four of those current council members are Republicans.

Following a vote by Hillsboro City Council members in 2024, this year’s election will also mark a change in their terms. Representatives for the four wards will be elected to two-year terms for one time only — in order to “stagger” the different terms — while at-large positions will be elected for four years as usual.

The only other race on the primary ballot is the Hillsboro city treasurer position, and filing unopposed is Republican Cristal G. Kier. She was appointed in February 2024 as the third individual to fill that seat.

If certified by the Board of Elections, there will also be on countrywide levy, one local levy renewal and two local options.

As previously reported, Highland County commissioners voted 3-0, via resolution, to approve a “proposed tax levy replacement with combination and reduction for the Highland County Department of Health for the primary election to be held May 6, 2025.”

A proposed replacement and decrease levy for the Health Department failed in the November 2024 general election. That was proposed as a 0.7-mill, five-year levy, replacing two existing levies and decreasing by 0.3 mill.

The new proposal for voters to consider in May is for one half-mill levy, as the Health Department formerly received revenue through two half-mill levies. According to Health Commissioner Jared Warner and Auditor Alex Butler, the levy would amount to $18 per $100,000 of the county auditor’s appraised value.

A renewal levy for the Lynchburg Police Department and two local options in Marshall Township — one for the sale of intoxicating liquor and one for Sunday sales — are also listed by the Board of Elections as filings.

Check back to highlandcountypress.com for more local primary election information as it becomes available.

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