Ivers is a photographer of eight years who recently was hired by a Cincinnati-based online auction company to shoot images of items for sale.
He is one of five seeking three seats on the council, one of which opened after Robert Brown retired. Incumbent council members Tim Naab and Michael Ryan also are running along with challengers Joel Lauer and Kristina Latta-Landefeld.
Ivers’ other top focuses are city infrastructure, economic development and police and fire service.
Two years ago he filed to run for council, but his run was unsuccessful. In 2020, members of council appointed him among others to serve on the city’s Charter Review Commission, which made several recommendations about changes to the city’s charter, which serves as Hamilton’s constitution.
Since running two years ago he began serving last year in the Ohio Army National Guard. His unit is in McConnelsville, east of Lancaster, and he works with air-missile defense with stinger missiles and Avenger weapon systems.
“Between photography and that, I just stick to doing whatever I can around the community,” said the 2017 Hamilton High School graduate.
This year, he decided to run “simply just to serve,” he said. “I have a genuine passion for Hamilton, and my service to our state and country, so I just want to pursue serving in this aspect, too, directly to our community.”
Asked what he would do differently than the current council, he said he, like Council Member Michael Ryan, supports spending some of the $33 million-plus Hamilton will receive in American Rescue Plan Act funding on street repairs and resurfacing.
“I think that’s a main priority right now for the citizens, as it always is,” he said. “Every year, every election cycle, streets is always a big thing that citizens want to bring up, and I agree, it is. You can drive around, you can see the issues.”
Someone his age on council would add diversity to the conversation, he said.
“If you want young people to come here and stay, you’ve got to have some form of diverse representation, and in this case being age.”
Ivers said he supported council’s 5-2 decision to move the historic train station located along the CSX lines near Martin Luther King Boulevard.
A former member of the high school’s show choir, Ivers was named to the show choir’s board in 2019, two years after he graduated, the only former student on it.
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