I believe the most challenging thing facing our borough is the lack of forward thinking elected officials.
I have come to realize more than ever over the past four years that your elected officials and Mayor can break or make a town. We must have council members that have visions for the future of Clearfield so we can provide for the taxpayers before they have to complain and ask.
To make a community not only survive and grow without tax increases, your elected officials HAVE to be thinking at the very least one year ahead and planning for at least two years ahead. We cannot afford to sit back and wait until something is needed then try to figure out where we are going to get the money to pay for it or ignore the problems until we are faced with mandates from the State. That is what happened with our sewer project. It is totally disheartening to know we had the opportunity to have our complete sewer project done with non-matching grants and we had elected officials on council at the time that refused to believe we had a problem. This is the kind of council that costs our taxpayers money.
The borough council controls what happens in this borough. Therefore, if you elect people who are business minded, forward thinking, and truly care about moving our community forward, it will not take long to see playgrounds brought up to safety codes, new development that will result in new and more jobs, revitalization of our neighborhoods, that will create a increase in population, that will bring people to fill our truly wonderful churches, and yes…enough people that will warrant a grocery store to want to open in our community again.
We need employees of the borough who have respect for the elected officials you the voters put into office to make this community the best it can be. The majority of our employees do have this respect, however, the few that do not and have the backing by their friends sitting on council convinced they do not have to follow the Pa. State Law and Borough Code are the people who cause the problems and the taxpayers Money.
I have proved to the borough of Clearfield over a few short years how quickly good things can happen for Clearfield by the personal efforts I have made with our State Representatives. Representative Camille Bud George believed in and committed to granting Clearfield with the Master Site Plan for our river walk and playground renovations including the Bucky Strunk Memorial field. A personal discussion on Clearfield’s behalf with Governor Ed Rendell brought Clearfield his commitment to Clearfield for Riverfront development. A personal discussion on Clearfield’s behalf with Jackie Parker, Executive Director of the Governor’s PA Community Action Team under Governor Ed Rendell has brought Clearfield the Main Street Program with the Elm Street Program following close behind. My personal meetings on behalf of Clearfield with Senator and Lt Governor Joe Scarnati have brought Clearfield $1,700,000.00 for the YMCA, $50,000 to the police department,
$15,000 to the fire department and $15,000 to the borough administration building. During those meetings he had asked what my main priority was for Clearfield and my reply was a new consolidated firehouse for the fire department. His reply was show me the ground and I can commit One million dollars towards your building. All we had to do was provide the land, and this was held up by council. People of Clearfield, I have worked very hard on Clearfield’s behalf to make these people believe in us and to want to help us. If you do not believe in your Mayor that has proven to you she has their support, then ask yourself why should they want to continue to support Clearfield under a new Mayor who has not been involved at all?
I have also proved my commitment to our borough and to you before I became Mayor by turning our 20 Christmas decorations into hundreds. This all happened with vision and thinking ahead. I put together the shade tree commission whenever I was told by our borough manager at the time “ALL of our trees were going to be cut down with the coming sewer project” I replied not if I can help it. Clearfield is blessed with the beautiful shade trees our forefathers planted with their vision for Clearfield. I worked extremely hard with Terry Malloy and Mark Coudriet to keep the Dimeling Hotel from being demolished.
Many of you I am sure are still questioning the police department and the law suit.
This is not MY lawsuit; this is a suit to defend the PA State Borough Code that I took an oath to do on behalf of you the voters that put me into office 4 years ago.
We have outstanding committed police officers in our department who want to be involved in their community – our community. They have asked for help to make them a better department, I am committed to doing that for our community.
I see what is failing in certain areas of our local government and I am not afraid to stand up for you the citizens for what is right for us ALL, not just a few.
I committed myself to try to make Clearfield better for all of us years ago and I remain committed.
I asked where was my opponent whenever we were advertising for someone to fill the vacancy seats on our various committees, where was he when we were holding public meetings for our revitalization projects? I asked where is his vision for our community as a whole and what has HE done to help promote that vision. Please do not let us lose our momentum.
I am passionate about keepin Clearfield moving forward. We finally have that opportunity. Please do not let us lose this funding to other towns and cities that are waiting for us to pass on it.
Keep the person in office who is working for ALL of us. I have found a Mayor IS more than just a “figurehead.” A Mayor is someone, with the right dedication, can make things happen. I care about You, I care about Clearfield.
Respectfully submitted,
Mayor Patty Gilliland
Clearfield