LISBON, Ohio – After being kidnapped while living in Venezuela, Peter Wilson had enough and returned 10 years ago to his hometown.
A few years later, he became its mayor.
Wilson, 71, was born in Lisbon, Ohio, and lived his first few years in the upstairs of a building on the town square. His family moved to Salem and then North Canton, where he graduated from high school.
“But we always had ties, strong ties, to Lisbon,” says Wilson, adding his grandparents, aunts and uncles lived there. “I always considered it home.”
For nearly 40 years, Wilson lived overseas as a journalist, working for several newspapers and Bloomberg. He retired and continued to live in Venezuela, his last post as a journalist, for another 10 years. He worked as a freelancer and owned a coffee farm in a cloud forest 4,000 feet above sea level.
However, when President Hugo Chavez died in 2013 things turned violent, Wilson says. He experienced it firsthand in 2015 while returning to his home. He rounded a hairpin curve and met an unwelcome surprise.
“… there were four guys in the road with guns pointed right at me, maybe 30 feet ahead of me,” Wilson recalls.
He had already been robbed at gunpoint twice before, but this time he was kidnapped and held for a couple of hours. He believes the gunmen had meant to kidnap a wealthier neighbor for ransom.
“The kidnapping was the last straw,” Wilson says. “The crime was just getting worse and worse… They had guns right against my temples on my head, and if one of those had accidentally discharged…”
It took 10 months to sell his house and farm. Wilson left in 2016 and decided to move back to the states.
“And I thought if I come back to the states it has to be Lisbon, because this is where I was born,” Wilson says, adding he had great childhood memories there. He loves hiking and the outdoors, and a good library. And after the kidnapping, sought the relative safety of small-town life.
“So I moved back and I had no intention of being involved in local politics,” he says.
Mayor’s Office
Most of his family had left the area and he didn’t know many people in the village, so Wilson started attending village council meetings to meet people and find out what was happening. He did not realize with so few people attending council meetings his attendance would draw attention.
“The former mayor, Joe Morenz, saw me out walking my dog and stopped me and asked, ‘What are you running for,’” Wilson says. Morenz said that only people who are seeking office attend council meetings.
When he told Morenz he just moved back and was looking to get involved, Morenz offered him a position on the board of zoning appeals. That led to Wilson deciding to run for council in 2017, only a year after he moved back, and he was surprised he won.
He had run a door-to-door campaign letting people know he felt he had “some fresh ideas to make Lisbon even better.” However, when Wilson proposed the ideas as a councilman, they were often voted down 5-1.
“I don’t think anything I’ve ever proposed is radical, but different. It was different for Lisbon,” Wilson says. “I would make proposals and no one would second them… I understand it was like I parachuted in.”
So when Morenz resigned in 2018 for health reasons, prompting a long-time village official, Roger Gallo, to step into that role, Wilson decided to run against him so he could set the agenda. In November 2019, Wilson was elected mayor and reelected in 2023 by more than double his previous margin of victory.
Wilson believes Lisbon has growth potential and says he set about to help the village more fully realize it. To do that the village has been aggressively pursuing grant opportunities since 2020, acquiring about $8 million for new bridges, a water tower, sewer line replacement, roads, police and the parks.
Additionally, Wilson cheers on the village, its events and businesses, using social media to get the word out about what is happening. Many people who might not want or have time to come to village hall reach out to him on Facebook, although he also holds regular office hours on mornings and afternoons in village hall.
“It’s not a job. This is a vocation,” says Wilson, who is paid $8,000 annually as mayor. “I feel like if I can devote my time to making Lisbon better, it’s well worth it. And being mayor is really rewarding. I’m learning a whole bunch of new skill sets, meeting many new people and many new opportunities.”
Unlike many of the politicians that made him angry when he worked as a journalist, Wilson says he believes being mayor is about public service, resolving people’s issues, attracting new investment, growing the community, investing in infrastructure and making people’s lives better.
Adam Pratt, owner of Youngstown Cycle and Speed, says Wilson helps promote his business and its expansion plans on social media. When Pratt moved his business from Boardman to Lisbon, Wilson introduced himself. When the business hosts car shows, for instance, Wilson helps by closing the street, decorating the square for events and pitching in to plant flowers with the village beautification committee, Pratt adds.
Judy Noel, executive director of the Lisbon Area Chamber of Commerce, says Wilson stops by her office regularly to talk about supporting the community. Besides promoting the businesses and events hosted in Lisbon, Noel says Wilson served on a committee with her and other leaders to bring back fireworks in Lisbon last July. The committee raised more than $20,000.
“He’s not in it for himself,” Noel says. “He’s truly in it for the community. I believe that 100%.”
Venezuela
Wilson says he believes the action taken by the U.S. this month to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was a mistake. He adds the U.S. should not be acting like Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.
“For me, America, we uphold democratic values and international law,” Wilson says. “Maduro is a dictator, undoubtedly a narco trafficante [drug trafficker], but there are many American allies who are the same.”
Additionally, Wilson says to get the oil from Venezuelan oil fields requires 150 miles of pipeline, which in neighboring Columbia are constantly being blown up and would require protection.
And Wilson says the new president, Delcy Rodriguez, and her family, are no different from Maduro and remain controlled by the party, which also controls the electoral agency. Thousands of armed guerrilla fighters who support the current regime, would fight against the U.S. should it put troops on the ground, Wilson says.
“I don’t know what Marco Rubio and the president were thinking,” Wilson says, adding they have done some good things as well. “They should have given me a call… I lived there for 25 years. They have made a mistake.”
Pictured at top: Lisbon Mayor Peter Wilson brings a fresh perspective from behind his desk in village hall.
