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Candidates for Towanda Third Ward council seat discuss their views
Published: November 2, 2009
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share thisTOWANDA - Republican Ellen Lacek is running a write-in campaign to keep her Third Ward seat on the Towanda Borough Council.
Lacek lost to Republican real estate agent Shannon Clark in the May primary. However, Lacek, who is a retired manager of a liquor store, said she decided to run a write-in campaign for the Nov. 3 election after receiving many telephone calls from her constituents urging her to run.
In the Nov. 3 election, Lacek will again face Clark, who won both the Democratic and Republican nominations for the council seat.
The Review asked the two candidates four questions. Here are some of the highlights of their answers.
1) What is the condition of the borough roads, and is the borough doing enough to keep up the roads?
Clark: "I see them (the work crews) out there" working on the roads. "I think they are doing a fine job."
Lacek: "Some of the roads need work, and they are going to be taken care of. They did North Main Street. It is a process that is being done."
2) What should the borough do with the gas lease money it has received?
Clark: "It should benefit the taxpayers. It should alleviate an increase in taxes."
Lacek: "I don't think I can answer that fairly now. We (the borough council) haven't gone over exactly what we'll do with the money."
3) Should the borough be doing more to attract businesses to the downtown? If so, how?
Clark: Yes, the borough needs to do more to attract business, Clark said. Compared to Towanda, property taxes are 70 percent lower down the road in Wysox Township, which will make businesses more inclined to locate in Wysox, Clark said.
Lacek: Business organizations are working on trying to fill storefronts downtown, and some of the owners of the buildings have been trying to fill them, too, Lacek said. "I think the council is working with all the merchants to help with their needs," Lacek said.
4) The borough raised its property taxes a total of 32 percent over the last two years. Is there anything the borough can do to bring the tax rate down?
Clark: "There's always something that can be done. You just have to look harder," Clark said. "We need for people to be more fiscally sound than the people who are on the council now."
Lacek: Before the tax increases came, the borough hadn't raised its property tax in many years, Lacek said. "That's why people felt we raised them too much. It (the tax increases) should have been done gradually. We can't cut back on the police department and a lot of things. My question to people is 'What would you look to cut?'"
"We did lower the water bills by 10 percent (this year)," Lacek said.
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