February 15, 2002 — Betty Blair, who is currently serving her 12th year as a Lorain County Commissioner, has announced her filing of petition seeking a fourth term. Since 1996, she has served as chair of the Lorain County Community Alliance, A Council of Governments formed to assist the 35 political subdivisions in Lorain County to better serve its 284,664 residents.

Betty is also a current member of the board of directors of the Lorain County Chamber of Commerce, the Black River Remedial Action Plan Committee, Lorain County Visitors Bureau Board of Directors, First Vice-President of Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), a five-county metropolitan planning organization which oversees the allocation of federal and state tax dollars; chair of the Lorain County Investment Advisory Committee, and Vice-chair of the Urban Counties Committee of the County Commissioners; Association of Ohio (CCAO). She is past president of NOACA, former member of their 208 Water Quality Development Task Force and past chair of the Planning Advisory and the Environmental Advisory Committees of NOACA.

In her 35 years of elected public service, Betty has achieved many firsts. She was the first woman elected to office in Carlisle Township, Lorain County and served there as clerk for 23 years. Betty was the first woman to serve as President of the Lorain County Association of Township Trustees & Clerks, the first woman elected by her peers to serve on the Board of Directors of the Ohio Township Association in its then 56-year history, and also the first woman to serve as a line officer of the Ohio Township Association. She is the first and to date the only woman from Lorain County to have been elected to serve on the Ohio Township Association Board of Directors, which is the lobby agent for Ohio's approximately 1,320 townships across the state.

An honors student and outstanding female graduate of Elyria Catholic High School (ECHS) Class of 1956, Betty is a founding trustee and secretary/treasurer of the Dr. James L. Kolopus Memorial Scholarship Fund, Inc. Established in 1972, the fund has awarded over 40 college scholarships to Elyria Catholic High School graduating seniors.

In 1955, Betty was a delegate to Buckeye Girls State. Through the American Legion Auxiliary Post 12, she has sponsored three young women to Buckeye Girls State.

Betty is a 1989 Graduate of the Leadership Lorain County Program and a 1994 participant of Project Excel sponsored by Ohio State University Extension. In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment, which conferred upon women the right to vote, Betty initiated a non-partisan organization entitled W.E.L.C.O.M.E. (We Elected Ladies and Company Organized Mentoring Experience), for elected women and office holders.

Betty has also served as a presenter at Lorain County Community College, Leadership Lorain County and Cleveland State University Forums pertaining to urban sprawl, health and family issues. Since January of 1996, Betty has written a monthly column for the senior citizens newspaper entitled "Betty Blair's Bulletin Board". It is also carried by a number of area newspapers.

A lifelong Lorain Countian, she is a past treasurer of the Lorain County Federation of Democrat Women, a former trustee and secretary of the Elyria Democrat Women's Club and a member of the Lorain, Amherst, and Wellington Eleanor Roosevelt Democrat Women's Clubs. IN 1986, she was named Democrat Woman of the year by C.O.D.E. (Committee Organized for Democrat Elections). She and her husband of 43 years, Charles L. Blair are the first husband and wife team to have achieved this distinction. They are the parents of six and the grandparents of fourteen.

Betty is a member of St. Mary and Holy Cross Parishes in Elyria where she serves as an Eucharistic Minister and as chair of the finance committee. Betty Yunker Blair is dedicated to her God, family and country, as is evidenced by her untiring efforts to assist in enhancing the quality of life in Lorain County and Northeastern Ohio.