Ryan Zehr, who represented the Ridgeway District on the Henry County Board of Supervisors for eight years, recently completed his service.
Zehr opted to not seek reelection because he felt the board got a lot accomplished during the last eight years.
“Then with dad (Francis Zehr) passing away pretty recently, it just felt like it was time to take a break,” he said. “My youngest is getting involved in sports and whatnot, so he’s taking up a lot more of my time, especially with coaching basketball and football and other activities.”
Zehr said it also seemed like a good time to step away because nothing bad is looming over the county, and reversion talks with the City of Martinsville had ceased.
“It seemed like a good time to step aside and let someone else bring some fresh ideas in,” he said.
During his tenure on the board, Zehr said he met a lot of good county employees as well as those in the Henry County Sheriff’s Office, and volunteers.
“The county’s full of great people. I’ll definitely miss being directly involved with them, but I’m sure I’ll see them in passing and maintain the friendships that I’ve made,” he said.
His favorite memory of being on the board was being sworn in the first time with his father, who was sworn in at the same time on the Henry County School Board.
“Then obviously, all the wins over the years, there’s a lot of those,” he added.
Zehr said the past eight years have been the best in terms of economic development compared to any eight years.
The board made two big economic development announcements at the Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre and other areas. A pay study for the county, sheriff’s department, and school system also was completed.
“I feel like as I’m leaving, we’re heading in a good direction as far as everybody getting paid what they need to get paid, economic development’s going in the right direction, I mean, it’s a good position that the county’s in right now for sure,” he said.
While Zehr assisted in accomplishing several of the county’s projects, one thing he wished he could have done was the start of work on I-73.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever see it in our time, but that would have been one thing that would have been nice to get started. Other than that, there’s always things here or there but nothing really jumps off the page,” he said.
