For Shane Smith, the commissioner race is about building up Blackford County

Around Blackford County, many people know Shane Smith as "Squatch." The costumed character has appeared at the Barnage of Carnage, ridden with Ride With Us and danced along the highway with other local businesses to support homecoming. Squatch has also played Santa Claus, visited the back-to-school carnival and spent time locked in a mock jail at a school fundraiser for a child with cancer.

Smith has also sat in a dunk booth for 4-H junior leaders and helped with hunter education classes.

He doesn't like to talk about it though. "I hate talking about myself," Smith told The Blackford Ledger in an interview on Oct. 14. "I always stayed out of pictures. Don't say, oh, Shane did it. No, I didn't. I just organized it."

Smith said he helped coach youth baseball and football, helped with a trapper education class and helped organize a benefit that raised money for families after a gas line exploded in their garage. He also organized the fundraising event for a boy who was injured in a golf cart accident. When groups ask his companies for donations, he said, he gives first to causes that involve children.

"I'm a sucker for kids," he said. "We do it for the kids."

Now Smith, the Republican nominee for Blackford County Commissioner, District 2, wants to bring his business experience to the same goal. He faces independent Dennis Layman in the Nov. 3 general election.

A business background

Smith became sole owner of his family’s companies a little over a year ago. He said his father owns no part of any of them.

Before the buyout, Smith started S.J. Smith Facility Maintenance from scratch. Since taking over the rest, he said, he has restructured each company to run more efficiently.

He’s now handing off daily operations, with a goal of finishing by January, so he can give his time to the county.

“Eventually I’m going to have a lot of time so that I can put it into the county,” he said.

Smith said he sees county government the way he sees his businesses. “I see the county as a business,” he said. “It’s not just me. It’s a team.”

Stabilize first

Smith said his first priority would be to steady county government.

"First thing I want to do is stabilize it because right now it's pure chaos," he said.

He said he won't promise specific changes before he's in office and can see how things work.

"I can't tell you exactly what I would change other than I got to go in there and see what's going on," he said.

One idea he has is support for commissioners themselves. Commissioners vote based on what department heads report, and Smith said that information is sometimes wrong. He wants department heads held accountable for the information they provide.

“There needs to be an in-between between the commissioners and the heads,” he said.

Smith supports hiring a county administrator, a position Indiana law already allows. Under state code, commissioners may appoint an administrator to supervise day-to-day county operations, attend their meetings, recommend measures, prepare reports and a budget, and keep them advised on the county’s finances. The administrator serves at the commissioners’ pleasure, and they decide which duties to assign. Lawrence County, Indiana, created the position under the same law.

Hearing residents

Smith said the most common request he hears from residents is simple.

"I really think that people just want to feel like they matter," he said. "Like you can hear them."

He described residents who take on community projects and get little help. "It's almost a fight to do something good," Smith said. "They want somebody to stop by and see what they're doing."

He also wants commissioners to post plain-language summaries of their meetings on social media.

"Let's be honest, not everybody can make an 8 o'clock, 8:30 morning Monday meeting," he said.

Smith said the county's wind and solar debate "sucks all the oxygen out of this whole county." He said he's focused on "the issues that's going to be here when it's not." He also described how he sees a commissioner's role.

"You're not there for your opinion," he said. "You're there to do what's best and to voice theirs."

Bringing business in

Smith wants to know why businesses pass over Blackford County. "Why are they not coming? Why are they not staying?" he said. He said new businesses mean "better paying jobs, which brings everything in."

Smith said he negotiates contracts regularly for his own companies with companies from China, Mexico and more, and he sees that as the job of a commissioner.

"I'm there to negotiate. I'm there to bring business in. I'm there to make sure that these deals are done correct from the beginning and transparent," he said. "I want to know what the county wants."

When a company wants to build in the county, he said, commissioners can write local work into the agreement, giving "all qualified local businesses" first right of refusal. He was vocal about bringing jobs for county residents.

Trying something different

Smith describes himself as someone who looks for a better way to do the job. "I think outside the box," he said. "I can see processes and the way things are supposed to go."

Smith pointed to county ditches as an example. One of his companies has done brush-clearing work for the county, and he has seen the cycle firsthand: the brush grows back, and crews return to clear it again.

“We’re so far behind in times,” he said.

Smith said he’s developing an approach that could save the county money over the long term and be better for the environment. 

Smith wants to bring that same thinking to county projects. He pointed to the Mohee Dam.

Smith said commissioners were given wrong information when the project first came to them, and were “led to believe they didn’t have a choice.” He said engineering money was budgeted before other options were weighed, and the work might go to a contractor from outside the county.

“My outside-of-the-box approach is what has made me successful in every business I’ve been a part of,” Smith said. “I want to bring that approach with me.”

The fairgrounds building

Smith's biggest public project is also his most criticized.

He led the effort to build the 4-H junior leaders building at the Blackford County Fairgrounds. Since he stepped away from the project, residents have questioned how it was handled. At a Blackford County commissioners meeting in June, a resident raised concerns about Smith continuing to do county work after the project left about $112,000 in unfinished costs.

Smith disputes that account. He said he was never a member of the fair board and served only as a volunteer overseeing construction, using his connections to help raise money and secure donated labor from local contractors.

He said the building went up in stages as money came in, and that he never handled the money himself. "From day one, I always said no money will ever go through my hands," Smith said.

He said he walked away after the project lost a clear owner, leaving no one with authority to sign for funding. He said he felt unsupported in an effort he couldn't own himself.

Smith gave The Ledger copies of emails and financial documents. He sent the county commissioners an email in July 2025 asking the county to take ownership of the building, as no one was taking ownership of it, Smith said, and he had no one to answer to and didn’t like the position that put him in.

Smith said the funding needed to finish the building was available, but he couldn't get the support needed to secure it. The county later covered the remaining cost, and eventually the building was finished.

The Ledger is reviewing documents Smith provided and will seek comment from others originally involved in the project, before writing a full report on the situation.

His companies and the county

Smith Holding is the parent of Smith Consulting, Smith Leasing, Froggy Bottom, S.J. Smith and Smith Logistics. AC Smith Properties and Froggy Bottom Properties are separate real estate companies. His largest companies are Smith Consulting and S.J. Smith Facility Maintenance, which he built from scratch. S.J. Smith does stormwater maintenance for large retailers across the Midwest. His company has also done ditch work for the county.

The Ledger asked whether that work would continue if he wins.

"Am I gonna say that I wouldn't do any work? No," Smith said. "I would step away from anything that looked or could be fishy. I'll be very transparent and show everything."

He wants county bids made public side by side, with his company's clearly labeled.

"Put them bids out here, here's what they are, and here's one from this company, which Shane owns," he said. He says he believes transparency is key in every action the commissioners take.

Smith said the county hasn't asked his company for work since he became a candidate. "If it's going to be a problem, I'll walk away from it," he said, regarding his company continuing work for the county.

The competition

Layman, an independent, entered the District 2 race this summer after gathering the signatures required to appear on the ballot, running against Smith. He previously ran for an at-large seat on the Blackford County Council in 2024.

Layman declined a new interview with the Ledger.

Click here to view the Ledger profiles for Dennis Layman and Shane Smith.