1. Provide a brief professional and personal background.
I am a graduate of the Dubois Area High School and the Pennsylvania State University and a life-long resident of Clearfield County.
I am married to Charlotte “Lottie” Bigar, a retired maternity nurse at Penn Highlands DuBois. We have been married for 35 years and have two daughters and four grandchildren.
My career spans 20 years of upper middle management experience in the transportation industry, as a licensed insurance representative and successful small business owner.
My public service includes 44 years as an active firefighter, including six years as a chief in the Dubois City Fire Department.
For the last seven-and-a-half years, I have held the position as director of public safety for Clearfield County running the 911 Center and emergency management.
2. Why did you choose to run for the office of Clearfield County Commissioner?
I have served my entire adult life as a first responder helping people when devastating events are happening to them, their property, their love ones and even their beloved pets.
This deep-rooted desire to help others is the reason I am making this commitment to be your next Clearfield County Commissioner.
As a resident and director of public safety, I see first-hand the difficulties we all face on a daily basis.
These include the tax increases handed to us as taxpayers over the last four years, the crisis situation at the county jail, the taxpayer money spent to house inmates in other county jails, the depletion of capital reserve money to balance the budget, the high turnover rate of employees and increased cost of training in county departments and cutting services to the great men and women who served our country, our VETERANS.
Having helped people my entire life, I recognize the residents of Clearfield County need help and I am here to help them.
3. What qualifies you to serve in the capacity of Clearfield County Commissioner?
Having managed 465 people as an operations manager for Preston Trucking Co., worked as a small business owner and an insurance agent and serving in my current position as public safety director gives me the experience to do the job for you – the taxpayer.
I have balanced budgets, managed people, negotiated contracts, dealt with union grievances, worked on contract negotiations, worked with municipalities and have made one-, five- and 10-year plans with reasonable, attainable goals to be achieved.
4. Do you feel that the county is transparent enough? If not, what needs to change?
I do believe the county is transparent and I am not aware of any violations of full disclosure. I, like yourselves, am not involved in all aspects of county government and can only give an opinion based on the optics and not any actual facts.
5. If elected, how would you reach out and form relationships with citizens of Clearfield County? How would you reach out to those citizens in the outlying areas of the county?
Clearfield County is the third largest land mass county in the entire commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which geographically inhibits good quality communications to our outlying areas. Many of these areas do not have quality cell phone or Internet services.
As chairman of the Homeland Security Region 3 Task Force, I have been working with FirstNet to bring broadband into the county in order to enhance communications for our rural areas.
Although this is a Public Safety Spectrum, it requires a high-degree of coverage for the county. The residual benefit of this for the citizens is the build out by AT&T of its tower system in the county, which is increasing communications for the residents.
With 51 municipal governments in Clearfield County, it is imperative for county government to be in lockstep with these entities to improve relationships.
6. If elected, what measures would you take to ensure the efficient operation of Clearfield County?
An overall assessment of all county departments would need to conducted. Upon completion and an analysis of the assessment, a plan would need to be implemented to resolve any deficits in efficiency that were discovered.
Efficiency is making sure that the people have adequate tools to do their job in a timely manner to the ultimate benefit of the citizens of the county.
From experience I have found, for the most part, that inefficiency is the byproduct of employees not having the tools to do their job.
7. If elected, what measures would you take to generate economic development opportunities for Clearfield County?
Economic growth for the county is driven by the local municipalities bringing and keeping business in the county.
The local governments are the primary drivers of growth and the county is the support mechanism to ensure growth can occur by being attentive to the municipal needs.
We need to be involved as a county and reach out to state government to continue to achieve economic growth.
8. How would you fight the drug epidemic currently facing the county? How would you reduce costs, specifically in relation to the operations of the county jail?
The drug problem is an extensive issue that everyone talks about, but it never gets better.
Since graduation from high school, it was “JUST SAY NO TO DRUGS,” countless advertising slogans and commercials, and the drug problem has only gotten worse.
I currently meet with the Clearfield/Jefferson Drug and Alcohol Drug Task Force to address these issues and develop plans to combat this epidemic on a local level.
The jail is a massive expense to the county taxpayers and sending prisoners to other counties for housing exacerbates the budget crisis we currently experience in our county. This issue needs to be addressed quickly, and the answer is not to quit putting criminals in jail.
The current jail is at the end of its life and the real question is how we got to this situation. We got in this situation because nobody has had or has a long-term plan for the future needs of the county; we need to be forward-looking and prepared.
We need to look into federal and state grant programs and supplemental low-interest loans to aid us with a successive jail expansion to meet our current and future needs.
9. If elected, what would be your top priority as Clearfield County Commissioner?
I would address the jail issue, eliminate the turnover rate with employees and address our fund balance and increase jobs and population.
10. What are the greatest challenges facing Clearfield County? If elected, what measures would you propose to resolve them?
I would work with local governments to bring good quality jobs to our county. With jobs comes people and we have had a population decline of 2.1 percent from the 2000 census to the 2010 census and this decline continues.