Love
OTTAWA — Long time Putnam County Commissioner John Love has decided not to run for another term.
The three-term Democrat decided recently to step back from politics.
“I’m going to be 69 this year. I just have personal feeling about how long people should serve in government and I just feel as though I’ve been blessed enough to have the people select me for three terms and I appreciate that,” Love said.
“I also operate six funeral homes and that takes up a lot of my time and I’ve got to devote a little bit more time to that. My wife is already retired and that weighed heavily into it,” he said.
Love is proud of what the commissioners have accomplished since he started.
“I think the fact that we were able to pay the jail off and then actually get to a point where we had absolutely no debt in the county, I feel that is a very, very positive thing for us. We’ve been able to maintain a real good balance with our funds and at the same time allowed us to do things like put together a maintenance department or buildings and grounds department, expand our I.T. department. Those are just some things off the top of my head that I feel really good about,” Love said.
As a Democrat in Putnam County, a staunchly conservative area, Love feels his viewpoints were respected.
“I look past the party thing. That wasn’t a big thing to me. We’ve got a lot of real good elected officials regardless of what party they’re in and that’s one thing that I really appreciated is how we’ve been able to work together all these years,” Love said.
Those interested in running for Love’s seat need to file petitions with the Putnam County Board of Elections by 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Reach Sam Shriver at 567-242-0409.
