At the age of 26, Don Mason was first elected Mayor of Zanesville in 1983 and then re-elected in 1987. Nearly 30 years later, he is ready to lead the city he’s called home his entire life once more.

This time, he’s bringing his experience as a community leader, father and attorney with him as he focuses on restoring Zanesville, beginning right at home.

Growing up on West Monroe Street and Linden Avenue when it was very much a neighborhood full of small businesses and families with children, Mason remembers the feeling of a close-knit community where kids always had something fun and safe to do. 

Nearby was Lincoln School, like many other areas of Zanesville with neighborhood elementary schools. 

“Those became the focal point and hub of recreational activities for the kids in school season and out of school season. And so, in a sense, you had this joiner of the neighborhoods by the local elementary school and the recreation,” said Mason. “You knew where your kids were because they were on the playground, either on the basketball courts, on the kickball fields, or just hanging out.”

That feeling of security and peace of mind for families is one that Mason wants to bring back to the City of Zanesville as mayor. 

“Now that you have fewer elementary schools, and many of the older ones have been abandoned or torn down, kids don’t have anywhere to go for recreational opportunities and activities,” said Mason. “I think we need to bring back the Zanesville recreation programs where we would operate for roughly 10 weeks a summer and have male and female supervisors, as well as the federal food program for lunch.”

By reintroducing such programming to the area, Mason hopes to make families a priority in Zanesville. 

If the City offers more recreational opportunities, Mason said young couples will start their families where they grew up instead of moving away to where they’ve found work. 

“So we’ve got to make sure Zanesville continues to be an attractive place for people to live, even if one spouse or the other are driving an hour each way to work,” said Mason. “It is really typical for me to run into people here who work in the energy industry east of Zanesville or in Columbus, it is absolutely common. So therefore, I think what we need to do is continue to make our neighborhoods cleaner, safer and better maintained.”

Going door-to-door while campaigning throughout the City, Mason has learned from his neighbors their desire to retire in their own homes.

“As I have knocked on doors, I have learned that people consider their home to be their retirement investment,” said Mason. “So, it’s not just a shame when we don’t keep the neighborhoods up, it actually erodes the number one personal investment of most families in Zanesville.”

That dream for many, Mason said, is being damaged by crime, particularly drug trafficking. 

“And I’ve run into that in every neighborhood, when I’ve been knocking on doors in the north end, west end, east end, in the south end,” said Mason. “It’s just a matter of extremity.”

In his childhood neighborhood now lies the ruins of the abandoned Lear Corporation, once knowns as United Technology. 

“I’m very sympathetic with other families who still live on Linden Avenue, yet they have seen a disrespectful attitude from the City administration and from the owners of the United Technology/Lear Property,” said Mason. 

As Mayor of Zanesville, Mason said he will take a proactive approach to prevent chronic problems from arising. 

“Doing nothing on a problem doesn’t make the problem go away. Doing nothing on old Dug Road erosion didn’t make it go away. Doing nothing on the river bank erosion on Wayne Avenue didn’t make it go away. Doing nothing when the transient population went from 10 to 50 to 100 didn’t make it go away. We need to learn that you have to address the issues before they arise and make it so they never happen,” said Mason. 

As mayor in the 1980s, Mason’s team initiated the creation of Zane’s Landing Park and its bike trail, the Northpointe Industrial Park which brought jobs through companies like Kellogg’s, FedEx and Spectrum, as well as the expansion of Riverside Park. However, the first major project designed, financed and installed was the connection of several hundred homes in the east end to the sewer system with a federal grant of $3.5 million in addition to a new water tower on Hamline Hill. 

During his tenure, Mason also focused on professionalizing the City Building and Code Division to speed up construction time for new facilities and protect families from shoddy and deceitful contractors. His team included a licensed, professional architect with over 30 years of experience leading the division.

Mason is often asked what has changed in 30 years. For him, it was having three children and raising his family in Zanesville where all his children attended school and participated in sports and extracurriculars. 

Mason believes that some things have changed, but the fundamentals remain the same.

“The goal is the same as literally every parent — I want children to get education or find  employment that makes them happy and so they can start their family here in town,” said Mason. “There is something wonderful when parents of young children can call up a grandparent and say can you babysit so that we can go to a movie, so that we can go to dinner or can you babysit, I can’t take my child to the nursery today because they are sick. I mean, that creates more unity within that family and it’s really a rich tradition. That’s the way families use to operate.”

In today’s world, that kind of relationship isn’t as common as it once was, Mason has observed. 

“Unfortunately, what so often happens, is that our children become well educated or get a great job then move away and so now you have a disconnect between parents and child, and an even greater disconnection between grandchildren and grandparents,” said Mason. “I was blessed that my wife and I never once paid for a babysitter because we either had my dad or my mom watching the kids. It created a strong bond between the generations, and I am afraid that doesn’t exist now as it should because so many parents my age have seen their children go off  to college and become well employed and leave the area. So it becomes a day trip to go see your grandchildren or your grandparents and it’s really hard to build those relationships.”

By emphasizing strong neighborhoods, recreation and family values, Mason feels he can make Zanesville a growing, vibrant community again.

This is a sponsored story paid for by Mason for Zanesville, Derrick Moorehead Treasurer. The nature of a sponsored story allows for subjective content.