WALBRIDGE – A contentious race for the mayor’s office peaked with a non-debate earlier this week and
concludes with Tuesday’s election.
On the ballot are incumbent Dan Wilczynski, a businessman who is seeking a third term; Ron Liwo, a former
clerk-treasurer and councilman, and Stewart "Al" Murphy, a long-time firefighter.
Wilczynski tried to have a debate on Tuesday at the VFW Hall, but Murphy and Liwo boycotted it, saying
they hadn’t been given proper notice or information about the format.
The incumbent mayor has been criticized for missing a fair amount of meetings while he traveled for
business. But Wilczynski said he’s accomplished dozens of goals over his two terms and streamlined
government, while working about 40 hours a month.
He’s since left his engineering business and gone to work as a safety and operations risk auditor for BP.

"I travel probably less than 20 weeks a year to various BP facilities to perform safety
audits," said Wilczynski, who’s lived in the village since 1986.
Some of his accomplishments include keeping the business PTI in town with its 100 employees and
attracting Hulcher Services with 50 employees to the township.
When the recession lifts, Wilczynski expects Walbridge to be in a prime position to attract business
because of low-priced property the village owns west of town.
He also cited diligent work on the storm water management issues that have plagued Walbridge for years,
and managing a balanced budget.
Communication is something he’d like to work on in the next term. Council and the mayor, he said, could
hold a quarterly question-and-answer session.
"There is just a lot of false information," Wilczynski said.
Liwo said that when he resigned abruptly from council two years ago that he wouldn’t rule out running for
office again.
"Some of the things that have been going on lately as it relates to Dan’s attendance – it’s a big
issue for me," Liwo said. "Twenty weeks is a significant amount of time to be away from the
village."
The mayor needs to have his eyes on projects, not be running them from afar, he said.
Liwo cited the lack of a village administrator for the last year and the recent hiring of a full-time
police chief after two years of start-stop searches.
"That’s a critical position to the village," Liwo said of the administrator, which is also
required by Ohio law. "It’s been unmanned for a year now."
If elected he would also push for park and pool funding to get equal priority in the budget.
"The pool is in deplorable condition right now," he said. "It’s a priority to have it up
and running for next year."
Liwo’s confident that funds would be available.
"Sometimes you need to tap into savings," he said, adding that the money could be used for
matching grants.
Liwo, who has lived in Walbridge for 42 years, served over 30 years with the 180th Fighter Wing in
Toledo.
Murphy would like to see the government step away from residents and their property. He’s irate over
enforcement of the village’s property maintenance ordinance and residents being cited for putting their
grass clippings on the curbs.
"We feel like we’re living in a gated condo community," said Murphy, who’s lived in Walbridge
for 29 years. "Instead of working with the residents, it seems like council and the mayor are
working against them."
A lieutenant in the Lake Township Fire Department, Murphy also works full time as a high pressure steam
plant operator for Chemtrade in Oregon and a couple of days a month as a critical care transport tech
for Life Flight.
He said he’s running his campaign based on the "people’s voice."
"This is going to be a learning experience for me, but I don’t think I can go wrong down
there," said Murphy, who’s never held an elected office. "I’m going off the pulse of the
community while steering the ship."