Author: FFP Ai Bot

This is an opinion column. The views expressed are the writer’s own.

Many Fostorians believe that we have a photo opportunity mayor that only shows himself when there’s an opportunity to be given a photo or a video, but the community never sees him out visiting businesses or chatting with people.

The current mayor of Fostoria is Don Mennel, spelled M-E-N-N-E-L, who is roughly 80 years old. He was sworn in on Jan. 2, 2024, after two years on city council, according to the City of Fostoria and 13abc. The community’s view of him as a photo-opportunity mayor is the heart of the question below: is age the real issue, or is it presence and results?

Every election season, Fostoria seems to circle back to the same question: should the city lean on steady, experienced hands, or hand the wheel to younger energy? It usually gets framed as an either-or choice. It should not be.

Consider what the city is actually dealing with: careful budget choices, aging waterlines and reservoir upkeep, a downtown that needs real revitalization, and an economy that needs new employers and young families willing to settle here. None of those problems care how old the people solving them are. They care whether the solutions work. (The city’s own finance reports are posted with council materials at the City of Fostoria website, and audited results are available from the Ohio Auditor of State.)

The case for experience

There is no substitute for having done the job before. A leader who has sat through budget season after budget season knows the difference between a projection and a real number. They remember which projects ran over, which grants fell through and which developer promises evaporated. They have working relationships with township trustees, county officials and state agencies, and those relationships matter when Fostoria is pressing on annexation and revenue sharing. When money is tight, that memory is worth real dollars.

The case for youth

Experience has a downside, though. It can harden into “we already tried that.” Younger leaders bring a direct stake in the city’s next 30 years, not just its next budget. They know what makes a young family pick one small town over another: parks and splash pads that open on time, a downtown with life after 5 p.m., jobs that do not require a commute to Findlay or Tiffin, and a city government that communicates like it is not 1995. Energy is not a plan, but without it, plans sit on shelves.

The trap in the question

A council made up entirely of long-serving veterans risks becoming a closed room where new ideas die politely. A council made up entirely of newcomers risks reinventing the wheel, losing hard-won relationships and relearning expensive lessons the city already paid for once.

Fostoria does not need to choose between older and younger leaders. It needs to stop choosing by birth year at all.

A better test

Judge leaders on two things: results, and whether they are building the next generation. An experienced leader who mentors younger residents, gives them real responsibility on boards and committees, and plans for succession is doing some of the city’s most important work. A young leader who respects what already works, learns the budget before promising the moon and shows up to the unglamorous meetings is earning trust the right way.

The best council Fostoria can have is not the oldest or the youngest. It is the one where experience teaches, youth pushes, and both answer to the same standard: is the city in better shape than we found it, and is someone ready to take the baton next?

Age is not a qualification. It is not a disqualification, either. Fostoria’s future depends on leaders of every age who can read a budget and still imagine a downtown a 25-year-old wants to live in.

Sources:
City of Fostoria, Mayor and Safety-Service Director’s Office – https://www.fostoriaohio.gov/1202/Mayor-and-Safety-Service-Directors-Offic
13abc, Don Mennel sworn in as Fostoria mayor, Jan. 4, 2024 – https://www.13abc.com/2024/01/05/don-mennel-sworn-fostoria-mayor/
Muse AI opinion submission to The Fostoria Free Press, Oct. 27, 2026
City of Fostoria – https://www.fostoriaohio.gov/
Fostoria Finance Committee summary, Aug. 19, 2026 (MyTownView) – https://mytownview.com/ohio/seneca/fostoria/meetings/2514-fostoria-finance-commitee-2026-08-19
Fostoria City Council meeting, Jan. 20, 2026 (video) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqk0vC1DHlo
Ohio Auditor of State, City of Fostoria 2025 financial audit (released Oct. 8, 2026) – https://www.ohioauditor.gov/AuditSearch/detail.aspx?ReportID=ff6e9b77-daf8-4adf-ae55-024414df95ab