Village of Ashville, Ohio

 

Feature

Ashville Mayor Dies

By STEVEN COLLINS Circleville Herald Senior Reporter Jan 30, 2023 

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Charles K. Wise Facebook Twitter Email

CIRCLEVILLE — Ashville Mayor Charles “Chuck” K. Wise died Saturday.

Wise, 63, was elected in 2000 to be mayor and began serving in the role on Jan. 1, 2001. He previously served as the Village’s Police Chief and he currently worked for the Ohio Department of Public Safety as an Electronics Technician.

Wise, who often spoke highly and fondly of Ashville and even used village landmarks as profile pictures on social media, offered a piece of wisdom on his about me page on the village’s website.

“A leader is as good as the people he works with, and we have good people working here in Ashville,” he wrote. “We must work diligently to maintain this peaceful oasis and it will take a lot of hard work and commitment to address the important issues looming before us.”

In his 2022 state of the village address, Wise shared his thoughts on the future of the village and how he felt the village should handle the growth.

“While there has been much talk about growth, you can’t stop it, you can only control it, slow it down and make it what you want,” he said.

“Growth has positive and negative effects on the community. I try to remind my staff regularly; [companies and future residents] want to be part of the community, so it should be a co-equal benefit.”

Wise said many communities would give “their right arm” to have what Ashville does and what’s happening in the village.

“On a personal note, we would like to have the nicest parks, highest-paid staff, most community activities, biggest homes and so forth, but the fact is we want the residents who live here to be able to afford to continue to live here because they are what makes this such a great community and great place to live.”

Following Wise’s death, Nelson Embrey will now become the village’s mayor as he is formerly the president pro-tempore of Ashville Village Council.

Wise is survived by his wife, Sherri and his two children.