Banta Seeks Re-Election To Winona Lake Town Council
Banta Seeks Re-Election To Winona Lake Town Council
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Banta Seeks Re-Election To Winona Lake Town CouncilAsk Theila “Tecy” Banta why she should be re-elected to the Winona Lake Town Council, she’ll say it’s because of her independent spirit.
“I’m willing to ask tough questions. I’m willing to stand apart. I want to work for the good of the people. I don’t want to see taxes raised. ... Too often people who come to an elected position want to kind of go with the flow, and that’s not necessarily the wise thing to do,” she said.
In an August 2017 caucus, Banta was elected to represent Winona Lake’s Ward I, replacing Peter Christos who resigned a month earlier. She beat out two other challengers, including Jim Zachary, who has filed to run against her again in the Republican primary in May.
Banta, 75, was born in eastern Oregon and grew up in a military family. Her stepfather was recalled over the Korean War, so from 1952 through high school, “we did military, spent two years in Japan, then Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Colorado, Oklahoma. Then for my senior year, I went back to Chico (California), is where we had lived before he was recalled.”
After graduating from Chico High School, she went to what’s today Cal State University – Chico, earning her degree in three years. Then she had a fellowship to go to Stanford University, returned home and got her teaching credential after her work at Stanford.
“And the Lord has kept me teaching in the classroom all my life, regardless of other things that have gone on,” she said.
After 43 years of teaching in California, she retired, but found herself teaching another seven years at Lakeland Christian Academy in Winona Lake. She’s about in her seventh year now of working at Baker Youth Club, working with students on their homework and reading skills.
Being a longtime teacher provides Banta with a background that’s helped her to serve as a councilwoman.
When she taught at LCA, she had her students keep up with the news. “I just consider that a part of everyday life. I’m very disappointed with people who don’t bother to keep up, and I understand why, life gets busy. But I think as citizens and a republic, you owe it to yourselves and everybody else to be an informed citizen, and if you’re not, you’re doing us all a great injustice. So teaching translates to knowing and that translates to the town council,” she said.
“I think, too, bothering to ask good questions, I never shy away from questions. They need to be asked sometimes even if they’re uncomfortable sometimes.”
She decided to seek re-election, she said, because having grown up military she “really believes in a life of service.” She also has more time than most people to dedicate to that service.
“And Winona Lake is certainly a wonderful place to live and a wonderful place to be able to serve,” she said.
One issue that Banta wants to continue to work on as a councilwoman is the high-speed rail that’s coming “down the line” and that she’s very interested in.
“And that it’s done right, because there’s an awful lot of work that has to be done to the road bed of the railroad in order to make it safe high-speed rail. I’ve talked with the people already who are in charge of that, and I know that they’re beginning inspections of things like our trestle, which I think was in place by 1905 for sure, maybe the 1880s, which means it’s really old. And I have some concerns about that with high-speed rail,” she explained.
She believes the high-speed rail could be a boon for this area.
Besides the high-speed rail and the roundabout at the intersection of Winona Avenue, Argonne Road, Kings Highway and Park Avenue, the council will be dealing with some issues during the next few years she wants to be a part of, too.
“I think there’s some other things going on in the background that I’m not at liberty to talk about at this point that I’m particularly concerned about, but I have to let those go for now,” she said.
When Banta was first chosen for the council in 2017, she made it her first order of business to visit each of the town departments and find out what they were doing and what they needed help with.
“I’m very impressed with the volunteer fire department that we have and the work that they do. They’re an incredible unit. And their response time is amazing,” Banta said.
Since the fire department is all volunteer, even Chief Mitch Titus, firefighters have to leave their jobs to go battle a blaze.
“And they do do that. Mitch’s employer absolutely lets him put that first when he gets a call. As do a great number of the others. Certainly, they are able to respond as fast as any stationary unit in Warsaw-Wayne (Fire Territory). In all, I’m really impressed with that. They train every Thursday night,” she said.
Before serving on the Winona Lake Town Council, Banta was involved with the Republican Party in California at the local and state levels for about 20 years, including serving as a state delegate.
She’s happy to bring all her experiences and knowledge to the area.
“Winona Lake has done a great job of putting things together. It’s aesthetically pleasing. The Village (at Winona) is wonderful. It’s quite a unique community that has no gas stations or grocery stores, so it’s based primarly on Grace College and Seminary and it’s a residential area. It’s done a great job of developing recreational facilities at its disposal. There’s a great spirit of volunteerism, I think. All of those things are important in making a community work,” she said.
