Sunday, November 04, 2007

Plymouth Council race

The Peoples Republic of Plymouth, Pennsylvania is ruled by a benevolent Big Brother, the unelected Boro Administrator Joe Mazur. We all remember Mazur for his eloquence when he was the Luzerne County Democratic Chairman and said Register of Wills Dotty Stankovic was "a cancer within the organization. " He was also "gleeful" when Petrilla defeated incumbent Controller Steve Flood in the 2005 primary. Steve rocked the boat and we know that's not allowed.

The town council and Mayor follow his lead and everyone is happy. Well maybe not after a protracted dispute over a new police contract and a lawsuit between the council and Mayor Dorothy Petrosky over scheduling of part-time officers. In the end Plymouth has more police protection and the the only winners in this pissing contest were the lawyers.

The primary election for council was close with 5 Democrats within 150 voted of each other. The results:

THOMAS MCTAGUE. . . . . . . 536
CARL CLEMM . . . . . . . . . . 454
CHARLIE LASINSKI . . . . . . . . 403
BILL DIXON . . . . . . . . . . 383
JACKI RYDZEFSKI LEVANDOSKI 361

The two challengers to the longtime incumbents fell short but gathered enough write-in votes on the Republican side to earn a ballot spot for the General Election.

They are:

Bill Dixon and Jacki Rydzefski Levandoski are seeking seats on Plymouth Boro Council for 4 year terms.

Bill has been a resident of Plymouth the last 26 years and is married to the former Janet Flynn. They have 2 children and 1 grandchild. He is an Army Veteran having served with the 101st Airborne in the VietNam war and has been employed by UGI Development the last 20 years. He holds the position of Lab Technician III at the Hunlock Power Division. He is a member of VFW Post 1425 Plymouth, Kiwanis, and was appointed to the Plymouth Recreation Board. He was active in youth organizations and is a volunteer for Rails and Trails and also serves as an annual fundraiser for United Way for UGI. One of his goals as a member of council is to promote family development and youth activity within the community.

Jacki was born in Plymouth and has lived there most of her life. She is the daughter of the late Verna Rydzefski and Chet Rydzefski . Chet was a longtime street commissioner in the Boro and also a part time police officer.

Jacki is employed as a psychiatric nurse . She is in her 22nd year of employment with Community Counseling Services. She has one son, Joshua. She is a member of Plymouth Alive, Wilkes Barre Dog Training Club, and Therapy Dogs International serving as a volunteer with her dog Blitz in kids reading programs. A goal of hers is to promote a safe, family oriented community. She advocates seeking grants and funds for revitalization and to provide services to the residents . She hopes that this would attract and encourage more families to find Plymouth as a desirable place live.


Jacki Levandoski tells us why the people of Plymouth should vote for her and Bill:


Our current political leaders tout that they are the government that we can afford...Of course we can when we offer the taxpayers very little.

We have little free services... We only at this point have a newspaper program that involves lugging papers to the borough building for a few limited hours weekly. Our current lawn pickup involves paying $1.00 for paper lawn bags then calling them to notify of a pickup. These are bags that can be purchased at Lowes or Home Depot at a much cheaper price then they are charging, but Mr Mazur stated that they won't do it for free !

Anything that involves giving to the taxpayers...it seems they claim to have no money...
We have no money according to them ..yet they found it OK to spend taxpayer hard earned dollars to sue our Mayor , rather then use it for something such as a service. In addition, his games that he played with the police contract were ridiculous. He told them he wasn't paying them for pay beyond his specified amt. of hours. Thankfully, those officers continued to provide services to keep the community safe , despite getting 1/2 of their pay. This nonsensical game went on for months..which ended up involving the borough solicitor getting yet again a nice chunk of the hard earned tax payer dollars. A new issue is that now Mr Mazur gets council to approve the appointing of a recycle chief...despite having no recycle program. He told the Times Leader that it was for the new chief to get recycle grants. Funny, I thought that's what a borough admin. is paid for...to seek and write grants.

I want to be an active part of the boro government. I am committed to finding and helping write grants that would benefit the community. I will , when elected...create an email acct. that citizens can contact me with their concerns. Right now , we have no web page that is updated, despite many times of asking. I want to see this town move ahead. To have prospective home buyers look to the town as a town that has youth activity ..is safe..is family oriented...We now have our police issue taken care of..which will be helpful in keeping the town safe.. Also...I want to see more accountability of property owners in keeping properties cleaned up .Right now, we have a zoning officer who has been doing a great job in contacting these property owners...but my big gripe is that we are wasting time and taxpayer dollars by having to continually go after those same property owners ever few months..We have to find a way to penalize them. I tend to think that some people too are left off the hook with this. There is an eyesore old school in my neighborhood that has seeming slipped thru. Council told me last year that there is nothing they can do. We have far too many absentee landlords from out of the area who will rent to anyone...which has brought some drug traffic and less then savory characters into the boro.
At a meeting last year, a resident suggested to council a renters tax/fee which I think would be a great idea in generating an ongoing revenue, rather then just looking at burdening only tax payers. Apparently this was never looked in to.

We will be the voice of the people , not the voice of the administrator.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

She's a babe with a good head on her shoulders. What a dangerous combination.

Anonymous said...

WHOAH I am moving to Plymouth so she can govern me....

Anonymous said...

Here we are..just about 30 min. til the polls open. I hope that people will back up their comments and disgust of the current situation and get out there and cast votes to make a positive change. Amazing how many people are fearful of the mighty machine that exists here. People don't want it publically known that they are supporting someone else. May an end come to this and people free to talk and choose without fear or repercussion from the mighty ruler . Thank you everyone for your support in getting our names and goals out there.

Jacki

Anonymous said...

the Peoples Republic still reigns.but its citizns spoke loudly. The vote count was incredible. Mr Mazur and his crew of puppets controlled only 1 ward.They are the epitome of the phrase "above the law" They don't respect the 10 ft. from the polls rules. They even pasted up an example of the ballot to the outside window next to the entrance door. Voters were escorted to it by Mr Mazur and advised how to vote. And silly me, I thought we lived in a democracy. Not in this valley.

Anonymous said...

A HUGE thank you to everyone who supported the Dixon/Levandoski team. Everyone worked hard to get the word out and this is proven in the final numbers. We are grateful for all the work that people put in, and especially to those who braved the cold to speak to the voters. We will continue to make our selves a thorn in their side. We encourage everyone to get out to the council meetings , This is the only way we can all make a positive change in our town.
Heartfelt and sincere thanks to all
Jacki