Three Rivers College had only one contested district seat this election, that of sub-district 4, which encompasses portions of Wayne, Butler, Madison and Reynolds counties. The seat has been held for two terms by Board of Trustees treasurer Darren Garrison. His opponent was Joyce Rehkop.
When the votes were tallied, Garrison was the winner. The tally was:
Wayne County — Garrison 605, Rehkop 164
Butler County — Garrison 7, Rehkop 6
Madison County — Garrison 2, Rehkop 0
Reynolds County vote totals were unavailable as of press time but are not expected to change the outcome of the election.
Garrison is a graduate of Lyon College and TRC, and currently serves as the circuit clerk of Wayne County. He feels “good about the direction the college is heading,” he said, and is proud to have the support of his sub-district.
“You’re always pleased, when you’re the incumbent, when you win and win with the margin I did... and that people think you’re doing a good job,” he said.
Garrison’s pre-election focus was on continuing and expanding TRC’s role as a stepping stone for students of all ages seeking successful careers. He described budgeting as the district’s biggest concern and claimed while he and his fellow board members already spent money conservatively, there was still room for improvement in their operations.
He explained in a previous interview, “(In) my experience on the board, the funding and budgetary issues are always the biggest challenges each year when we sit down trying to work on the budget. I think we have to continue to try and improve our processes, get better and more efficient at our processes, which hopefully will cut costs.
“I think our current administration and board has an extremely conservative budgeting mindset. I think that’s how we budget. So hopefully between budgeting conservatively and trying to improve our processes to get more efficient, I think that will help with the funding and the budgetary issues.”
His own outlook on budgeting also involves continuing to seek grants and build relationships with local industries to create workforce training programs.
On his motivation for running to retain his seat, he said, “I think we’ve got a good administration, and extremely well-working board, and I just wanted to continue to be a part of that.”
Rehkop ran on a platform of improving TRC’s accessibility to students in Wayne County and said she believed TRC’s biggest challenge was declining enrollment.
“We must do a better job of selling TRC to the school districts, the parents and the students,” she explained in an interview during her campaign.
Election results are considered uncertified until the Friday following the election.