Another Crabtree is throwing their hat in the ring for the Scioto County Commissioner as an Independent. However, this candidate is not related to the brothers of late Scioto County Commissioner Mike Crabtree, who are also running for office. As an Independent, he will pass through the primary and challenge either Scottie Powell or Kieth Crabtree in the General Election.
He says he’s running to bring transparency to the office. “I want to make sure we’re not mixing community development with economic development. We’ve seen some beautiful things pop up like the skate park and park up near the Greenup Dam. We’ve seen some economic development as far as banks and those sort of things. We have to make sure we communicate with Columbus and Washington to get those funds here. As commissioner, you have to make sure those funds are spread around.”
Deep Roots
His Scioto County roots go deep. His paternal grandfather worked at Waller Brother Stone company in McDermott, while his grandmother was a foster mother who cared for over 70 different kids over the years. “She adopted three of those children.”
His maternal grandfather was one of the first employees at the prison in Lucasville. His father has worked at OSCO for 30 years and served as the union chairman for a decade. His mother is a beautician in Otway.
“I was the first generation in our family to go to college.” He attended Shawnee State University to study physical therapy and received his master’s degree in healthcare administration. He’s worked as a project manager and strategy manager and has started a consulting group. “We help with operational staffing and project management.”
His wife Jennifer works as a medical assistant at SOMC, and the couple has five daughters and three grandchildren.
Bring People Together
If elected, Crabtree says his priority will be to bring people together. “I’m looking to create an advisory board.” He says he wants to bring together professionals, union members, doctors, attorneys, people from Shawnee State, the Counseling Center, and CPS. We want to be advised. We can’t be everywhere at once.”
He says he will lobby to bring back twice-weekly meetings. “Not only that, our doors should be open all of the time. As a public servant, people should be able to walk in and talk to us.”
Crabtree plans to tackle the CPS crisis. “How did it get to this point, and why did it get to this point.” He’s opposed to privatizing foster care. “We can’t jump into things without doing research.”
He wants to look at the source of the opioid crisis. “I think that we have to make sure that we have legitimate rehab centers. We have people coming in who are trying to profit off our problems. Coming from skilled nursing myself, we look at outcomes. We can’t keep circulating people in and out without results. We’re not helping them. We’re causing them more problems.”
Broadband a Priority
Crabtree says he plans to fight for the area and says broadband expansion is a top priority. “It’s a huge thing for me because of where I live. We heard from one of the commissioners that we are two or three years away. That’s not good enough. That puts us two or three years behind.” He said no big company would want to come to Scioto County if their employees don’t have good home Internet. “Scioto County should be first on the list to expand broadband Internet.”
He says he loves talking to people and plans to knock on doors during his campaign. “I want to talk to you. If you have questions, send them to me.”
Crabtree says he plans to meet and greet people at the March 19 St. Patrick’s Day Parade. You can also contact him at his website https://tommy4scioto.org/ or on his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tommy.crabtree.925