The General Election in Scioto County is Nov. 6, and the village of New Boston has seven seats among four village positions placed before voters to decide. Among them, Mayor James Warren seeks re-election for his fourth term since succeeding Mayor Charles Ottney in 1993. Warren is defending his seat against New Boston resident Joe Keeney.

“I think people should consider me when they're voting, for the record that I've had so far as we look at the growth that's come to New Boston, and the changes,” Warren said. “As I look back in the past, under Mayor Ottney, he had some of the similar situations that I had. He had the steel plant closing, and I had the coke plant closing. I understand the frustrations he went through, financially. He developed the old Wal-Mart mall and Kmart mall, and during my span with the coke plant closing we were able to get OSCO in and M&J Welding and A&M Refractory. And we got the Super Wal-Mart site and other development that we're looking forward to.”

Warren also said Applebee's is under construction now near the new Super Wal-Mart and should be open around the end of the year, and work will begin soon on a building for Staples and Petland.

He acknowledged the hard times that befell the village during his time as mayor, but said he believes they're now starting to regain more than they lost.

“We are looking to the future of rebuilding. Right now we're still not as stable as we should be, but we are growing and we are coming back financially. And we hope to replace those positions that we lost,” he said.

Challenger Joe Keeney also is running on a platform of village growth, saying that he would like to see more industry coming to New Boston.

“We need more industry to come in, and I know the village administrator has worked diligently in the past to bring it in, (and we need) to bring council and the mayor together, to work cohesively to bring industry in and try to clean up our village,” Keeney said. “We have existing land over there. We have the railway, the waterway, the highway ... if we could get a manufacturing plant - which I understand they're working on a steel mill coming into the village now - just to progress forward with the village and try to maintain what we've got and build on that.”

Keeney is a former New Boston village councilman, serving 2003-05, and said he played a part also in bringing Super Wal-Mart into the village, but also credited the work of Village Administrator Mick Sturgill. Keeney called Sturgill “the life-blood of the village.”

He also said he has spoken with faculty members at Shawnee State University who have agreed to help him develop a portfolio to attract new industries to the village.

“If we could try to put New Boston out there, and say ‘This is the land we have to offer, here is the land we have, this is the means of transportation we can move a product. We have a lot of retail stores in New Boston, but we need some manufacturing or some type of industry that's going to bring in better paying jobs.”