A Frankfort High School graduate swore in for his second term as the Mayor of Muncie on Saturday with dreams to continue improvements around the Muncie area.
– Photos courtesy of Dan Ridenour.
Dan Ridenour was born in Indianapolis before moving to Frankfort in sixth grade where he attended Frankfort Junior High School and graduated from Frankfort High School in 1978. Ridenour expressed that his experiences with the Frankfort community and the students and faculty at Frankfort High School helped shape his character and aspirations as he left the community following college.
“I was part of the community, and then work took me out of the community after school, and ultimately, I ended up becoming Mayor of Muncie for two terms,” Ridenour said. “It’s bigger than Frankfort, but it’s similar in that you can get across town in a short period of time.”
Ridenour was drawn to Muncie to continue his work at Mutual Bank where he served as the Regional Vice President and oversaw the lending for the Central Region, which consisted of a five-county territory. Through his work within Muncie, he developed a passion for the community and sought to better the conditions for residents, which led him to run for Muncie City Council. After securing his seat on the council Ridenour served for three years before seeking the Mayoral position to help the city turn around from the challenges that it faced during the years he served as a councilman as well as the years before he served.
“During that time period, Muncie had some challenges,” Ridenour said. “It ended up having several people indicted, and I talked to my wife and talked to the bank and said, ‘I’d like to run for Mayor.’ I wanted my wife’s permission first because it’s a very public position and it involves family. I wanted to make sure she was good with it, and she was. The bank, I said, ‘if I win, I will resign and become Mayor, if I lose, I’d like to keep my position with the bank,’ and they agreed to that.”
Ridenour was elected to his first term in 2020, only mere months before the pandemic caused a nationwide lockdown, which stalled some projects, but the relaxed pressure of new projects allowed for his administration to focus on the finances and reimagine the processes and operations utilized to get the city’s finances in order. Following the successes with the finances, Ridenour’s team began developing projects involving additional housing that has either been completed or is currently under construction. The housing plan budgeted for 390 housing units in the “affordable” category, “workforce” category and “market-price” category to increase the options and opportunities available to Muncie residents as well as those seeking to live in Muncie.
“We just felt like housing was a big key, and we’ve been working on infrastructure,” Ridenour said. “We’re trying to improve the quality of place here in Muncie and trying to provide plenty of opportunities for people to move here who want to work here and live here.”
Ridenour also commented that the city has developed an outstanding relationship with Ball State University, which has become the city’s largest employer alongside other newer businesses that have increased the number of jobs available for Muncie residents. Ridenour expressed that industry lows for manufacturing and automobiles during the pandemic and beyond affected the Muncie community, but the city administration has striven to help the workforce prosper.
“Muncie was always a manufacturing town in years past, and that was always one of the great things about Muncie, but when the automobile industry went down, it really hurt this community,” Ridenour said. “We’ve been fighting our way back. We’ve added a couple software companies, one headquarters and one regional office, to our employment mix. Our largest employer is now Ball State University, so that’s pretty stable.”
During his first term, Ridenour’s administration developed four splash pads that were introduced to the neighborhood parks, and the administration invested in 14 of the 32 parks present in Muncie. Ridenour stated that another four or five parks will be assessed and reimagined in 2024 to better provide the amenities needed for the community.
However, one of Ridenour’s greatest accomplishments and focuses in his first term was introducing new businesses to Muncie to increase economic development, workforce options and job availability for the community. With help from county officials, Ridenour’s team aided in the introduction of the Polish company, Canpack, and the Italian company, Trebi, to Muncie, which added hundreds of jobs to the Muncie market together. Ridenour stated that while Muncie has begun to part from its manufacturing roots in terms of job availability, the city hosts the largest IU Health medical school outside of Indianapolis within Indiana, and 50 to 60 doctors are currently being trained as physicians in Muncie.
“We still have a huge manufacturing base, and our output is actually much more than it was back in the day, but there’s fewer positions as more is done through automation,” Ridenour said. “Most of our actual jobs are meds and eds, so medical jobs or education jobs.”
Ridenour expressed that his goals for his second term begin with the east side of Muncie, which lacks a grocery store and shopping center. Ridenour commented that he hopes to have a grocery store built on the east side to increase the ease of access for Muncie residents in the area to fresh and affordable food options. The administration’s focus will also be placed on repairing the roads around Muncie. The city purchased paving equipment to repair the roads and has dedicated different departments to address the needs rather than hiring contractors for smaller projects, allowing an increased budget for larger projects.
“There’s a lot more things I’d like to do, but if I can get a grocery store and another shopping center on the east side of town, and if I can get the roads up to the standard that I think they should be, then I will be very happy at the end of these four years,” Ridenour said.
Ridenour encouraged students in Frankfort with aspirations to become a political figure to dream big and chase their dreams with an open heart and mind. He stressed that potential politicians must have thick skin, must take other people’s advice and must be able to make a decision and take the responsibility for that decision regardless of the outcome. Ridenour expressed that if future politicians always strive to make the community they serve better than when they entered the position, then they will be successful.
“Run for a small council office, that’s what I did,” Ridenour said. “I actually lost the first time and won the second time for council. Losing is not a bad thing. Losing is a great thing if you learn from it. You can grow and become a better candidate.”
Ridenour concluded by reiterating how Frankfort helped to shape his worldview and his goals in his political career, thanking several teachers that influenced him during his time at Frankfort High School, including Jim Moyer, the Clinton County Republican Party Chairman.
“I greatly appreciate my time at Frankfort, especially in the high school,” Ridenour said. “We get together regularly. My class, the class of ‘78, we just had our reunion this past summer. What I like about it is that a group of us got together and got involved in politics through the Teenage Republicans that we created, and I appreciated Mr. Shepherd, Mr. Moyer–I just remember so many teachers that I greatly appreciated–Mr. Schilling, and I just had a great time. I have very fond memories, and I love going back to where my mom lives and seeing old friends.”
Ridenour was officially sworn in for his second term on Saturday, Dec. 16.