Plybon set to succeed Handwerk as Orrville mayor

Once upon a time, Matt Plybon was an athlete at Orrville High School, running track for the Red Riders. His coach back then was Dave Handwerk.

Handwerk taught Plybon how to pass a baton and keep running. Now the two will execute a similar exchange, only at a much more significant level. Next week Plybon will take over as mayor of Orrville, replacing Handwerk, who served four terms.

“He’s working straight up until the last day,” Plybon said of his predecessor, first elected in 2007. “The future will bring different challenges. I want to make the best decisions with the information we have.

“There are some fundamental concerns, like being fiscally responsible and meeting the needs of the city, and really prioritize them between wants and what we really need. There’s some issues that have come up with housing. That may be more of a future need. We have money, but we want to make the most out of it.”

Plybon essentially became mayor-elect last may when he narrowly defeated primary challenger Darrell Mosley II in the Republican primary. The final margin was 22 votes. Since then Plybon has had time to start outlining an agenda, which he can begin implementing in 10 days or so after being sworn in on Dec. 29 and effectively taking charge on Jan. 2.

Plybon spent a great deal of his life in the education field. He was a building principal and sees a lot of transferable skills between the two roles.

Likewise, getting ready to begin a year and a term as mayor takes similar organization and planning. By the time Plybon takes the seat, he’ll be ready to go, thanks to no shortage of preparation.

“I kind of look at this whole process like how I did every year when I was the building principal,” Plybon said. “I look at Jan. 2 as like the first day of school. I’ve been organizing my files for city council and my files for everything else I’ll need.

“I’ll be there when the office opens and get a fresh start on everything. The first day we’ll be swearing in our new members of city council, really meeting with department heads and starting to plan the year out. By the end of the first week, we’ll be in position to swear in our new police chief. There’s a lot of things that have been going on that will continue to go on.”

And there’s the baton exchange. Every new official wants to put his or her stamp on things. But Handwerk didn’t get to be mayor for four terms because he wasn’t any good at it. Orrville has been a growing and developing city throughout Handwerk’s tenure, and Plybon isn’t looking to reinvent anything.

“Actually, when I first decided to run for mayor in July of 2022, I had a conversation with the mayor,” Plybon said. “He was really pleased with his department heads. That’s the one group of people he can appoint. Really, I trust Mayor Handwerk and really look at him as a mentor. We have great people in place to make those day-to-day decisions. The biggest challenge is just to keep everything going.”

Handwerk will continue working until the gig is up. That may mean doing a mundane thing or two, like taking down the office Christmas decorations, but every task is important to the outgoing mayor. Then he gets to find something else to do, which for now might consist of spending time with his six grandchildren.

Handwerk, who has spent 33 years in Orrville government including 18 as a council member, is leaving the job as one well done. He’s happy with what he and his staff and the rest of the community have accomplished throughout his four terms.

“I’ve really enjoyed it,” he said. “I’ve worked for some great people in the city and some great people on the council over the years. And the people of Orrville, without their votes, you wouldn’t be here.

“It might be weird just not having something to come to every day, but I’m going to miss really a lot of the people I’ve come to work with. You get used to it. We’ve had some great folks to work with. I think people can be very proud of who we have working here.”

The work itself is something else Handwerk likely will look back on fondly. Folks around town have seen how the town has grown and changed under his leadership, and those just passing through from time to time always see a good-looking place and are typically greeted by friendly faces.

“Every time a big job gets done, you think, ‘Wow, that was a big one,’” Handwerk said. “I would say coming into my first year, we were struggling to keep up with the streets for some time. There are a lot of them, even for a small city. We had some streets that were very, very heavily used. I’m pretty proud with our safety service directors that we were able to knuckle down to the point where they’re in pretty good shape.”

That’s a term the mayor used a handful of times when discussing the state of things. Handwerk believes he will leave office with things around Orrville in better condition than he found them.

“We’ve had some concerns too, like about where our finances would go based on the whole COVID mess,” he said. “Up to this point, we’re still doing OK, basically because all our industries and businesses in town are so strong. It takes all of us.”