Marc Huber
GREENFIELD — County Commissioner Marc Huber plans to run for a third term in 2022, he confirmed, meaning the primary for his District 2 seat on the board of commissioners will be contested.
Gary McDaniel, a current member of the Greenfield City Council, also plans to run for the seat.
Huber said he decided to run for another four-term term because the county has many projects in progress right now, including developing a new economic development process, that he’s passionate about.
“I’d like to stick around to see some of those things through,” he said.
Huber said another priority of his is the ongoing process of awarding American Rescue Plan funds the county has received from the federal government, which it will likely do gradually over the next several years.
Mental health, Huber said, has long been a priority of his and is one the county plans to emphasize as it allocates its ARP money.
He said he is working with several stakeholders in the community, including Hancock Regional Hospital as well as the sheriff’s department, probation department, and prosecutor’s office to help develop a plan for spending money to improve community mental health.
Huber said he’s also focused on helping the county add more workforce development assets and hopes it will be able to secure a grant from the state’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative to do so.
“I would like to see a trade center built, something along the lines of the Hub and Spoke in Fishers,” Huber said. The Fishers center is a mixed-use space that hosts STEM-focused educational programs as well as a coworking space, a community workshop, and retail stores.
Huber said he hopes to continue working on improvements to the county’s infrastructure as well, especially road improvements.
During his current term on the council, Huber has been a vocal advocate for creating a more stringent tax abatement process for new development that would help ensure businesses are contributing to revenue for schools and public safety agencies. That’s something the county is likely now on the verge of doing. Huber has also been a critic of state and federal COVID-19 policies and recently voted for a resolution discouraging private employers from mandating vaccines for their workers.
Running against the incumbent in the 2022 race will be McDaniel, currently serving his third term on the Greenfield City Council. McDaniel also said development in the county would be a priority for him if he were elected, along with affordable housing and preserving Hancock County’s identity.
McDaniel said in October that he and Huber get along and that he would not run a negative campaign.
Hancock County commissioners are elected by the county as a whole, but representatives of each district must be drawn from specific townships. District 2 includes Buck Creek, Center and Jackson townships. Both Huber and McDaniel live in Greenfield.
The primary will take place in May 2022.