Perkins to retire as Wood County commissioner

Wood County Commissioner Alvie Perkins in this 2010 file photo.

BOWLING GREEN — Wood County’s longest-serving commissioner, Alvie Perkins, plans to retire next month on his 79th birthday.

Mr. Perkins informed Mike Zickar, chairman of the county’s Democratic party, Tuesday night that he will retire at the end of the business day Jan. 11 after nearly 20 years as a county commissioner.

The Democratic party’s executive committee is scheduled to meet Jan. 5 to name a replacement to finish out the final year of Mr. Perkins’s term.

“It has been my great honor and pleasure to serve the people of Wood County,” Mr. Perkins said in a letter to Mr. Zickar. “I wish to thank the Wood County Democratic Party and committee for recruiting me to serve, as well as the continued encouragement, friendship, and support afforded me over these many years of service. As I reflect, I sincerely and humbly believe that we worked hard and built a record of accomplishment for all Wood Countians of which we all can be proud.”

Mr. Perkins added that he hoped the executive committee would select “an able and hard-working” replacement.

Joel Kuhlman, an attorney, is the only Democrat who filed to run for Mr. Perkins’s seat on the board in November.

Five Republicans filed petitions to run for the seat. David Beaverson, Doris Herringshaw, Terry Ray Krukemyer, Richard Ruffner, and Adam Seibert will vie for the Republican nomination in the March primary.

Mr. Perkins was first elected county commissioner in 1983, stepped down in 1989, and has held his current seat since 1993. Earlier this month, friends and supporters hosted a reception for Mr. Perkins at the courthouse atrium in honor of his “four decades of public service to the people of Wood County.”