WINONA LAKE — With a sense of urgency regarding projects she feels she needs to see through to fruition, incumbent town board member Theila “Tecy” Banta filed for re-election to Winona Lake’s five-person board on Jan. 11.

“There are some projects coming up that we can’t talk about yet that are pretty impactful,” said Banta following Tuesday night’s, Feb. 19 meeting of the town board.

Banta was named to the board two years ago by special caucus when Peter Christos, in light of his conviction on two misdemeanors, stepped down from the District 1 post.

Banta said she is interested in possibly working with railroad companies regarding the railroad trestle at the town’s entrance, as well as seeing the town’s drastic alteration of the entrance intersection realize completion. She added that seeing alterations in railroad traffic overall has her interest piqued.

“The railroad, going high-speed rail through here — I mean if that overpass, that trestle, is really from 1900 — and the roundabout, I’d really like to see that through,” she said. Banta has been a vocal proponent of trying to coordinate with the owners of that deteriorating trestle to investigate the possibility of it being reconstructed since such a project would allow for a widening of the road underneath — a huge plus in terms of the roundabout construction.

Banta said her experience on the board thus far has been a positive one and added that she thinks being a good board member means avoiding any temptation of just rubber-stamping everything that comes before the board.

“I have enjoyed that a lot,” she said. “I’m accustomed to fact-finding and questioning and teaching people to question. I think those things are important.”

Banta said when it comes to community leadership and stewardship, the responsibility falls on everyone. From her perspective, a smoothly-run community comes down to one word — concern.

“People have to choose to be concerned and I’m concerned that a lot of people are not as concerned as they should be,” she said. “The more information the public has, the more involved they can be. I think it’s important to be involved. This is supposed to be a democratic republic. You elect representatives but you still have a voice, so come share your voice.”

Banta is a former educator who taught in northern California before finishing her career at Lakeland Christian Academy.