GREENVILLE — Darke County Auditor Carol Ginn, who was recently recognized by The Ohio Federation of Republican Women (OFRW) at its Biennial Tribute to Women, said she felt honored to have done so.

“I thought it was quite an honor. I was shocked,” Ginn said. “It was a very nice day and we had a lot of fun at the country club….a beautiful place. The OFRW put on a wonderful program.”

The Tribute to Women event honors unit club members who have given their time and talent to promote Republican candidates and values.

Ginn was nominated by the Darke County Republican Women’s Club (DCRWC), of which she has been a member for 12 years, for the recognition. She is currently assistant treasurer of the club, and she audits the OFRW accounts annually.

She also handles the treasurer’s responsibilities for Darke County Republican Party, plus works at Republican headquarters during election time, doing phone calls and mailings. She has walked in parades as well as gone door-to-door, helped in the Republican tent at the county fair, and participated in the Darke County Republican Pig Roast.

Ginn has been county auditor for eight years and started her term in March.

She was working for the Department of Tax Equalization in Columbus, where she met Norma Knick, a former auditor for the county.

“When I moved to Greenville a couple of years later, Norma had a person that left in a job dealing with tax rates and valuations and asked if I would come in,” Ginn recalled. “That was in the mid-1980s. Then, Virginia Brewer retired, and they put me in the payroll office, working close with Janice Anderson [who subsequently became auditor after Knick retired].

Ginn, the former Carol Eckstein, is originally from Celina and graduated from Immaculate Conception High School there in 1972.

The daughter of Clarence and Alberta “Berta” Eckstein, now living at Otterbein St. Mary’s, Ginn got married after high school and had a child. She had also worked at Crown in New Bremen before getting her job for the state.

Divorced when she moved to Greenville, she met Larry Ginn on a blind date in May and they married the following year on Sept. 9, 15 years ago. He just retired from PlyGem in Sidney, where he worked for 45 years, four months.

“He likes to redo furniture,” Ginn said.

Daughter Amber has two children, Travis Nelson, who lives with wife Lauren in Texas and works at Lockheed, and Kara Nelson, a high school senior in Rochester, Indiana. Ginn also has two stepdaughters, Missy (Jim) Koppen of Fort Loramie, the mother of two children; and Amy Bremeke of Anna, who has four children.

In her spare time, Ginn likes to work in her garden and with flowers. She also likes to crochet and helps make wheelchair shawls for residents at Otterbein in the wintertime.

Ginn said she also helps bake for funeral dinners through her church, St. Mary’s Catholic in Greenville.

“There are 10 of us in my family, and we spend a lot of time with our parents,” said Ginn, who is fourth oldest of her siblings. “Dad will be 91 in August.”

She said it was Norma Knick who took her to the different meetings and got her involved with the Republican Party and women’s club.

“I have fantastic employees,” said Ginn. “We all get along and there are no issues. I have been more fortunate here than anywhere else I’ve worked. I’m fortunate for the staff I have.”

She said she oversees 15 employees.

Her job as auditor has her in charge of the microfilming department and the man who does the mapping for them through the Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping program.

“Janice [Anderson] started GIS to help and reduce the cost of re-appraisals,” Ginn said. “We can do maps with technology now. It is done through pictometry, where we can overlay the previous three years with the recent three years at a cost savings to the taxpayer. And, we do it with the Darke County Sheriff’s Office. We do boundaries around schools for sex offenders. This program last year and this year does a lot of very interesting things.”

She said she is also in charge of payroll, budgetary and real estate as well as everybody else’s budgets for the all tax amenities in Darke County such as the board of elections. Her office is in charge of dog tags, cigarette license and all valuations. She holds budget commission meetings and the board of revision.”

Ginn said she and Treasurer Scott Zumbrink work well together.

“We shared employees when the budget cuts came,” she said. “At real estate collection time, we help in his office, and when dog tags re selling, we share employees. But, the budgetary side cannot work in the treasurer’s office.”

She concluded, “I do enjoy my job and that comes from working with good employees and elected officials.”