Mary Dunbar Announces She Will Run for Council

Mary Dunbar announced at Monday night's Cleveland Heights City Council meeting that she is running for a council seat in November. 

Dunbar was who made the final round of interviews for former council member Mark Tumeo's seat. before his four-year term ended, and take over for him until the end of the year. 

that he is running.

Dunbar, who has lived in Cleveland Heights since 1970, ran for City Council in 2009. She lost by a little more than 200 votes, according to her resume.

“I feel that I have a lot to offer to residents of our city as a council member, and I’m asking them to choose me to work for them," she said. "I’ve dedicated a lot of time to community service since the last election and learned even more about our community and how it gets things done."

She retired as senior vice president of Dix & Eaton, a communications consulting firm, at the end of 2007. She now is a member of United Way's marketing committee, Smith College's President's Council, and an officer on the Smith College Club of Cleveland, among other activities and organizations she's involved in.

She is co-founder of the Cleveland Heights Bicycle Coalition and working in tandem with Cleveland Heights residents and historic preservation planner Kara Hamley O'Donnell to have Shaker Farm Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

She spoke about her desire to make Cleveland Heights a leader among bike-friendly communities and to continue improving the city she's called home for more than four decades. 

"While we certainly have some challenges ahead, we also have real strengths and successes to build on," she said. 

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article indicated that Mary Dunbar was the second to officially announce she is running for Cleveland Heights City Council. She is of recent, but Jeff Coryell, who also applied to fill Mark Tumeo's seat, announced at the end of March that he will run. Look for an article about him soon.