McGinnis Looks Forward To Serving On Winona Lake Council
McGinnis Looks Forward To Serving On Winona Lake Council
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
McGinnis Looks Forward To Serving On Winona Lake CouncilWINONA LAKE - As the sole candidate for the Winona Lake Town Council Ward 2 seat, Ashley McGinnis only had to get one of the four precinct committeemen to vote for her.
That wasn’t a problem for the 34-year-old as she was chosen by the caucus to fill out the remainder of Denny Duncan’s term on the Council, which expires Dec. 31, 2023. Duncan was elected to the Warsaw School Board in the general election Nov. 8 and can not hold two elected positions simultaneously.
Kosciusko County Republican Party Central Committee Secretary Austin Rovenstine gave McGinnis the oath of office and had her fill out some paperwork so she can take a seat at the Council table at their next meeting Tuesday, Dec. 20.
The four precinct committeemen were Mark Nuñez, Dr. Steve Hollar, Lynn Howie and Bruce Shaffner.
McGinnis was given up to 3 minutes to speak to the caucus.
She said she was born and raised in Kosciusko County, graduating from Tippecanoe Valley High School. She earned a college degree from Indiana-Purdue University in Fort Wayne. She’s served on the Winona Lake Limitless Park Board for the past year.
“I’m really looking forward to being part of this Council and making some more great decisions for this community to keep it growing and to keep it a great place,” McGinnis said.
Warsaw Council President Jack Wilhite and member Cindy Dobbins counted the votes and presented the tally to Rovenstine who announced McGinnis was the winner.
“Thank you, everybody,” she said. “I greatly appreciate everyone’s support. You guys have all been so amazing and I’m very lucky to have all of you in my circle.”
In a brief question-and-answer session with local media, McGinnis said she does currently plan to seek re-election in 2023 to the Council seat.
“I’m going to be taking the webinar courses through the program called Aim. They have a webinar course on council and a webinar course on budget, so I’m going to be taking both of those for 2022, just to kind of familiarize myself with some of the things that will be coming and we’ll be talking about,” McGinnis said.
She’s involved with her family’s business, Warsaw Engineering & Fabricating. McGinnis said she’s been there since she was a little child and grew up there. She works with her mom and uncle, the co-owners of the business now.
“I work very closely with them. I work in the office. I work in accounting, paying everybody and the leadership and some of the marketing stuff, so it’s all kind of all levels,” she said in explaining her job there.
McGinnis said she believes her job has prepped her well for serving on the Council, as well as she was recently elected president of the Kosciusko County Republican Women’s Club and her time on the Park Board.
Going forward, she said she wants to focus on what the Council can do for the community and where it can do good, grow and improve.
“It’s very exciting. I’m very excited,” she said.
The Council will be her first elected position, but McGinnis said she was kind of surprised no one else ran.
She and her husband, Brandon McGinnis, have a 4-year-old son.
