Let's keep moving Wilmore forward—together!
David R. Riel
Wilmore City Council
David R. Riel
Wilmore City Council
I publish my cell phone number and respond to every question, concern, and idea shared with me. I’m committed to ensuring our community remains a great place to call home. That means exploring opportunities to expand our parks, securing grants to fund improvements, and making Wilmore even more attractive to visitors and residents alike. I propose creating an active Parks and Recreation Committee to gather more resident input and a City Finance Committee to prioritize funding for major projects.
I’ll continue working with the mayor and council members to support our police, fire, and city departments. In 2019, I proposed creating committees that welcome public participation and suggested rotating meeting locations for greater accessibility. This collaborative approach will continue.
I aim to build stronger relationships with residents, businesses, the university, and the seminary. I’m dedicated to building stronger connections that help our community thrive.
I genuinely love Wilmore, and I’m not just saying that—this town has a special place in my heart. It’s already a fantastic place to live, work, and shop, and I’m dedicated to making it even better for all of us.
Residents Come First: I publish my cell phone number and respond to every question, concern, and idea shared with me. I’m committed to ensuring our community remains a great place to call home. That means exploring opportunities to expand our parks, securing grants to fund improvements, and making Wilmore even more attractive to visitors and residents alike. I support forming an active Parks and Recreation Committee to gather more input from you, our residents, and collaborating on funding initiatives that will benefit everyone. Additionally, I advocate for establishing a City Finance Committee, which will allow us to set aside funds for major projects that enhance our town. I’m dedicated to spending the $250,000 already allocated for downtown improvements in the most effective and meaningful way possible.
Collaboration: Working together is key to our success. I’ll continue to collaborate closely with the mayor and my fellow council members to provide the resources and support needed for our police, fire department, and other essential city services. In 2019, I proposed a structure for committees that would include members from all walks of life and be open to public participation. This allows us to hear diverse voices and ensures that every resident has a chance to be heard. I also proposed rotating council meetings throughout our community, making it easier for people to attend, participate, and learn more about how their city operates. This collaborative spirit will be at the heart of everything I do.
Strengthening Connections: Our relationships with residents, local businesses, the university, and the seminary are crucial to Wilmore’s future. I’m dedicated to building stronger connections that help our community thrive. By fostering open communication and collaboration, we can ensure that Wilmore continues to grow and succeed.
Over the past six years on the Wilmore City Council, I’ve worked tirelessly to revitalize our downtown, maximize every dollar, and listen to the needs and ideas of our residents. I’ve proudly served on the Community Development Board, actively participated in town events, and supported our local businesses by shopping right here in our town. As editor of the Wilmore Newsletter, I believe that communication is at the heart of good leadership. Supporting our fire, police department employees and other valued employees has always been a priority, and I will continue to stand by them.
With my background as a teacher and an elementary principal, school superintendent, and president of a mental health and recovery board, I bring a wealth of experience in communication, collaboration, and problem-solving. These skills have proven invaluable in serving Wilmore, and I’m eager to continue applying them to our city's growth.
My Goal: I want to promote Wilmore as a true destination, not just a pass-through town. It’s time to crystallize our identity and collectively decide who we are and who we want to be. Only by working together can we bridge the gap between where we are now and where we aspire to be. Our town will only reach its full potential when we all share in that vision. I don’t intend to make Wilmore into what I want it to be—I pledge to continue working with every resident to shape the future we all want. I will actively engage with the community to ensure that your voices are heard and that your ideas help guide our path forward.
As a proud Wilmore City Council member, I will continue to be an active participant in the Community Development Board and maintain open lines of communication with our business owners and residents.
Together, let’s continue building a stronger, more vibrant Wilmore!
I love Wilmore – not just a cute little trite statement – I believe it from the bottom of my heart. I met my wife here. Both of my children graduated from Asbury. It’s where my wife, Debby, and I have decided that we want to live even thought our two children and six grandchildren live two hours north in Cincinnati.
While I am always looking to make our city even better, IT IS ALREADY A FANTASTIC PLACE to LIVE, WORK, and SHOP.
My top three aims are:
Residents Come First - Explore options and possibilities to expand our parks (splash pad or skate park), apply for grants, and make our city even more attractive to both visitors and residents
Collaborating With Others is Second - Work with the mayor and the five other council members to collaboratively provide the necessary resources and support for our police department, fire department and other city departments and employees. We need to maintain and expand our essential services (i.e. Library, hardware store, restaurants, dentist, doctor, grocery store)
Finally - Work to strengthen the City’s relationship with residents, businesses, the university, and the seminary.
I have devoted the past 6 years of serving on city council listening to what our residents would like for Wilmore, revitalizing our downtown area, and working to maximize every available dollar. I have served on the Community Development Board and participate in every town event possible. I shop in our town. I am the founder and editor of the Wilmore Newsletter because I believe that communication is at the heart of good leadership. I publish my cell number and respond to every question/concern/idea that is shared with me. I have supported our fire/police departments and are other valued employees.
I have used my experience as a teacher and an elementary principal, school superintendent, president of the mental health and recovery board to better our town. I know how to effectively communicate, collaborate and creatively problem solve.
I love Wilmore.
Residents Come First – I will continue to explore options and possibilities to expand our parks (i.e. splash pad or skate park), apply for grants, and make our city even more attractive to both visitors and residents – I would love to form an active Parks and Recreations Committee to get more input and collaborate on funding. I would also like to see a City Finance Committee where we can set aside money for major projects. I will want to be sure that we spend wisely the $250,000 we have already set aside for downtown improvements.
Collaborating With Others is Second – I will continue to work with the mayor and the five other council members to collaboratively provide the necessary resources and support for our police department, fire department, and other city departments and employees. In 2019, I formally proposed a committee structure to help accomplish this. That proposal is also on this website. I would love to have public meetings where we rotate our focus so we can get more detailed information about each idea from the residents.
Finally – I will work to strengthen the City’s relationship with our residents, our businesses, and the university and seminary. Again, the committee structure I propose would partially accomplish this. I have had formal meetings with leaders from the university and the city to talk about ways to work more closely together. Asbury’s current president, Dr. Kevin Brown, recently announced a formal committee to do just this and I have been named to serve on that committee. I would love to see the city collaborate more on events we have with our organizational and business partners. I often feature city events in the Wilmore newsletter that I put out each month. If university/seminary students felt more connected to city they would likely shop here more and attend more city events.
First and foremost I will continue to spend every dollar I can in our town.
I think that we can significantly strengthen our partnership with the Jessamine County Tourism Commission.
I will continue to use Wilmore Newsletter to promote our town, its events, and its people.
Our nonprofits contribute more to our budget than you might think. Here are some figures from a couple of years ago:
Strong nonprofits equal more employees equals more payroll tax and more employees to buy/build homes and shop in our community.
I will continue to be an ACTIVE member of our community development board.
I commit that I will continue to engage in conversation the owners of our businesses.
I believe we need to promote our town as a destination town – We are not a pass-through town. We need to crystalize our identity. We need to collaboratively decide who we are and who we want to be. Only then can we begin to close the gap of where we are compared to where we want to be.
For example, we are a college town. We might want to be more intentional to organize events that are of interest to college students. Maybe host some of our biggest events on the campuses of the university (ie. the craft fair/Halloween Event up on the athletic fields – parking better), seminary, Thomas Hood Veteran’s Center or Wesley Village.
Our town will only be as good as we COLLECTIVELY want it to be.
I don’t intend to shape it at all. I will work with our residents to shape it.
I intend to ACTIVELY engage people in dialogue about what they envision for our town. I do that all the time.
I have a SPECIFIC plan to engage people in those conversations. In June 2019, I proposed a structure for committees in Wilmore that would include at large committee members and be open to the public. Communications, Finance, City Services, etc. I also proposed that we rotate meetings to include places like Wesley Village, Veterans Center, Adventure Serve, and Wilmore Elementary School so that people from those places can attend, participate in the discussions and learn more about how the city operates and makes decisions, etc. COVID likely took that off the table as a priority. We need to get it back on for consideration.
I have gotten to know our services in a calculated detail way so that I can understand EVERY facet of our town operations. I spent hours and hours with Director of City Services, spent a full 8 hour day riding the garbage truck, spent a day with Jeff Moberly having him me show me every aspect of his job relating to streets and water, had James Zweifel take me on detailed tours of our water and sewer system so he could share with me his perspectives and recommendations. I have even attended fire department trainings and meetings and have been up in the platform on the ladder truck which was recently replaced. I communicate regularly with Amy Fitch about parks and recreation. I attend community development board meetings that are chaired by Judy Woolums.
That’s a bit of a challenge as I feel like we have made good decisions.
Since I must name something that I disagree with – The one I detailed above where I proposed a more open community driven decision-making model that facilitated decisions that had ample opportunity for community development that was not adopted maybe because COVID made it impractical. I believe it is time to reconsider how/where/when/and with whom we conduct our business.
Agree With – The purchase of the City Municipal Building. That decision opened up the possibility of a school, a gymnasium, a museum, offices for all employees, room for events, a training room for the fire department, a public library branch (Still want it staffed). Also opened up three buildings (old city hall, the Rice House (Drinklings) and the concrete building (Brian Denger) for economic development that I talked about earlier. We met with each of those three to discuss their business plan prior to selling them the property that they now own.
I spent countless evenings serving on the city’s sidewalk committee. We had fabulous discussions and talked about many possibilities to improve sidewalks. Those conversations likely need to be reenergized.
I have walked the Butler/Woodspointe subdivision with a resident to talk about the streets and sidewalks there.
When I have campaigned, I have worked extremely hard to knock on doors in all of our city’s subdivisions.
I think we should talk about the definition of home: I believe it’s the intangible feeling you get in a location, a sense of peace, joy from loved ones or an environment where everyone knows they're welcome. “Home” isn't easy to define, but you know when you're there.
Do we have residents who are homeless or houseless: Houseless is something that the city can and is working on. We partnered with the Community
Homeless is something that we all need to work on. Many people live in beautiful houses that, given my definition above, aren’t homes.
We need to collaborate with others who can help us deal with some of the root challenges that lead to houseless/homeless. We have met with ministers and other interested people in our communities. We have had many conversations with Koby Miller (she and I attended Asbury together) from the Community Center as she is currently chairing that effort and she and I have met to talk about the situation and potential solutions. What about collaborating with the the social work departments of the university, Wesley Village, the veteran’s center, or the seminary? We need to be focused and strategic. We also need to hold all members of our community accountable for their actions. If someone violates a law or a city ordinance they we need to address that.
My thoughts are iIdentical to the thoughts I have about any other business who wants to open up in our town. COME ON DOWN! I’m here to support you in any way that I can. We are a destination, not a pass through town. Most sit down restaurants that succeed serve alcohol. I support many of them (Copper River, Outback, Ramsey’s). It doesn’t mean that all customers order alcohol. I am ecstatic that we have Los Altos and have told the owner several times to let me know what I can do to support his restaurant. I would also say that you don’t need alcohol to succeed. Some examples would be Solomon’s Porch, Ivanhoes in Upland/Taylor, Hinkles Sandwich Shop in Madison, IN or the Cottage Café in Nicholasville). I would love us to have additional eating options in our town but I also regularly support the other restaurants we currently have.
Community service has always been a major part of my life. I have been extremely active my community. Specifically, I have been president of a credit union, board chairperson for the mental health and recovery board, administrative council chairperson for my church, elected to several terms as township trustee in Ohio, and am finishing my third term on the Wilmore City Council.
My wife and I met in 1974 when we were both students at Asbury. We have two children, who are both public school administrators in southern Ohio. Our six grandchildren are incredibly special to us. Before returning to Wilmore in 2009 to work in the Asbury School of Education, I was a teacher, elementary principal, and school superintendent in Ohio.
The foundation of my community service has always been communication. I believe that better communication will likely contribute to a better community, which is why I have published the Wilmore Newsletter for the past four years and is exactly why I have put together this website. I am hoping that it assists you in deciding who you want to represent you on the Wilmore City Council. I invite you to reach out to me should you have any city related concerns, questions, or suggestions.
