By David Slone
Times-Union
MENTONE – Even though Ed Rock is retiring as the Kosciusko County Emergency Management Agency director at the end of March, he will still be serving his community beyond that.
Thursday evening, three precinct committeemen – including Rock himself – elected Rock out of the three candidates who filed to serve on the Harrison Township Board of Trustees. Rock, 67, replaces Gerald Weirick, who resigned effective Dec. 31, and will finish out the remainder of Weirick’s term. Weirick did not seek re-election in the 2022 election.
The other two Republicans who sought the board seat in the caucus were Ronald Buhr and Keith Franks.
Each candidate was given up to three minutes to speak.
Rock, who has lived in Harrison Township for 41 years, said he spent seven of those years on the Mentone Town Board.
“Currently, and for the past 40 years, I’ve been a member of the Mentone Volunteer Fire Department. I worked in county government as a department head for the last 20 years, and I will be retiring at the end of March,” he said. “All of this has given me some experiences: Experiences with budgets. I have also written and been awarded over $8 million in grants in my prior position.”
He noted he is the Harrison 2 precinct committeeman and has been for a number of years.
“But the underlying point I’m trying to make is that my willingness is to serve the people of Kosciusko County and of Harrison Township. And, I believe that I have the experience and skill sets and the desire to do just that,” Rock said.
After winning the caucus, he stated, “I am looking forward to this. I have been involved with a lot of different levels of government and this is one that I haven’t, so it’s going to be a little bit of a challenge, but I think what I said in my opening words were that I do think that I have the experience and the skill sets to make that happen.”
