Eastlake mayoral candidates emphasize recreation, Vine Street revitalization and senior services

At a candidate forum in Eastlake, four candidates for mayor described their public‑service backgrounds and offered plans for recreation programming, economic development along the Vine Street Corridor and services for seniors.

The forum showed broad agreement on the goals of improving parks and waterfront access while revealing different management styles and priorities for how to achieve them.

Kevin Castellner, a recent city employee retiree and former service director, said his 31 years with city operations prepared him to run the mayor’s office. Castellner said he “like[s] a little cliche, seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly,” and that he favors hands‑on management and fiscal discipline. He told the forum he oversaw roughly “150 line items” in the service department budget and said the department had carried over roughly $1 million at the end of a year during his tenure, which he cited as evidence of conservative stewardship. He proposed re‑creating a city recreation department that he said…