Council member Rod Daniels running for mayor UPDATED

A third Republican has taken out petitions to run for the office of the mayor of Hillsboro. 
 

Hillsboro City Council member Rod Daniels, a Republican, took out petitions with the Highland County Board of Elections on Wednesday, and told The Highland County Press that he is seeking the office. 
 

Daniels was appointed to council in the fall of 2008 after Charlie Walker resigned as Ward 2 councilman, and he was elected in 2009.
 

Incumbent Democrat Dick Zink announced this week that he will not seek re-election. 
 

Terry Mikkelsen, a Republican, filed his petitions to run for mayor on Wednesday, according to the board of elections. 
 

Drew Hastings, also a Republican, has also taken out petitions. 

The last day to file as a Democrat or a Republican is Feb. 2. Independent candidates have a later date to file for the May 3 primary election.
 

Zink told The Highland County Press on Wednesday that he has spent 30 years participating in city government, as a council member, president of council, and as mayor. He was first elected as a ward council member in 1974.
 

"I was appointed as mayor in 1995 when Betty Bishop resigned," Zink said. "I took office as president of council in 1999, and in 2004 I was elected as mayor."
 

Zink said that he felt that he has done a lot of good work in his time in public service, but he feels that now it's time to take some time to himself. 
 

"After 27 years (off and on) it has kind of taken its toll," Zink said. "There's a lot of nighttime meetings you've got to go to. I'll be 74 in September, and it's time I do what I want to do with the rest of my life. I'm going to sit back and let these guys fight it out. We've got a lot of good things accomplished, and regardless of what some people think, we've saved the city a lot of money."

Daniels told The Highland County Press that in the two years he has been on council, he has met some major personal goals, and that he wants to set his sights on developing job opportunities within the city.

"I have enjoyed my time on council so far, and I had a couple of goals when I first came on," Daniels said. "One of the major goals was to get the firehouse temporary office out of uptown, and two was getting the new firehouse built. We've got those things accomplished."
 

Daniels is the chairperson of council's zoning and annexation committee, and is a member of the street and safety and community enhancement committees.
 

"It's good the city is coming into a balanced budget," he said. "There were a lot of cuts we have to deal with, but everyone in the city is trying to make the cuts work."
 

Daniels, 44, has two children, and said that he has always had a passion for working with and helping people. 
 

"City council has let me get out and meet people, and I've always had a real passion for helping people out," Daniels said.
 

Last year, Daniels spent several months out of town training with the Army Reserves. He is part of the Second Psychology Operations Unit out of Cincinnati, which is a team "that handles problems before and after, as far as war. It's an airborne support unit." 
 

The unit has traveled to Haiti and Afghanistan. Daniels said that he was "not selected for the last go-round" when the unit went overseas, so he does not anticipate being shipped out any time soon. 
 

Before Daniels left for the reserves training, he was an adjunct professor at Southern State Community College, where he taught business economics, finance management and human resources. He is not teaching during the winter quarter.
 

  He holds a master's degree in business administration from Franklin University in Columbus and is a graduate of Wilmington College. He is originally from Peebles and moved to Hillsboro after college when his family relocated and opened Daniels Construction and Restoration in 1991.
 

"Professionally, I've been involved with the family business, the construction company," Daniels said. "Hopefully I'm going to go on teaching, but that depends on how things work out with the election. I'm looking for challenging things."
 

Daniels said that his education background in business management, as well as his experience in running a small business gives him the experience to lead the city of Hillsboro. 
 

"The city - and not just our city - definitely needs jobs," he said. "We have got to try and recruit more companies, be more competitive and get more companies here to reduce unemployment. The city has not done a really good job of reaching out to businesses, and we maybe need to maximize that. The biggest thing is, we've got to get our tax base built back up to increase the revenue for the city to continue to grow."