BCCT Voters Guide: Borough

From the BCCT.

Morrisville

Questions
1. How can Morrisville attract more businesses to the borough, which relies heavily on residents’ tax dollars to pay for essential services?
2. What can the borough do to ensure children’s safety on borough roads near schools?
3. What would you do to alleviate speeding and traffic in the borough?

Mayor
1 seat 4 years

Rita Ledger
Party: Democratic
Age: 48
Education: Morrisville High School
Job: Educational services; councilwoman
Answers
1. Morrisville can attract businesses by identifying types of business that would work here. Need to work with current business property owners to enhance properties to add to the curb appeal. Compare the benefits of businesses being in Morrisville. Marketing and promotion of Morrisville; we started this with the Landmark Towns.
2. To ensure children’s safety on borough roads near schools would be to install a road around the schools to get the traffic off the street and increase the signs around the schools. To have the police department along with teachers, children and parents follow public safety practices.
3. What I would do to alleviate speeding and traffic in the borough is to work with the police department to make the public aware of how fast they’re going and to follow up with issuing tickets. To encourage the use of state police programs with speeding on state highways.

Patricia A. Schell
Party: Democratic
Age: 59
Education: Morrisville High School
Job: Manager, Morrisville Senior Center
Answers
1. Attracting business to Morrisville is difficult when our tax rate is so high. We need to be friendly to businesses willing to come our way. With the present economy, there’s very little development. We should be ready with programs and look for grants to aid new businesses to benefit everyone.
2. The safety of school children should be the number one priority of the parents of the children. The parents must obey the law to keep the children safe. The borough must enforce the parking and keep traffic, as much as possible, away from the schools during drop-off and pickup times.
3. Police enforcement is the best way to handle speeding. Since we are a threshold to Trenton, rush hour traffic will always be problematic. Hopefully, current bridge improvements will only improve traffic flow. We must stay tuned in with surrounding townships’ planning, since this could have a negative effect on our residents.

Graeme Thomson
Party: Democratic
Age: 37
Education: Trenton State College
Job: Independent consultant, computer technician
Answers
1. Attracting businesses has always been underanalyzed. You will never attract or keep businesses by reducing taxes. After working many years in New York in advertising and PR, I know many ways to attract businesses. I know how to talk to business leaders, and show them Morrisville is a great opportunity.
2. We have a problem with traffic when all the parents are dropping off children at the same time. Getting the schools to stagger start and end times for different grades will help. This would require expanded after- and before-school programs, but it would be worth it.
3. Digital traffic cameras, like those used in Philly, could be erected in school zones and mobile ones could be set up in residential areas. Warning letters sent out to speeders reminding them to keep speed down, most people would slow down or use the main roads instead of chancing tickets.

Council
Ward One (North)
2 seats 4 years
Eileen Dreisbach (I)
Party: Democratic
Roxy Rookstool
Party: Democratic
John Baranauskas
Party: Republican
Todd R. Sanford
Party: Republican

Ward 2 (West)
1 seat 2 years
Rhonda Davis
Party: Democratic
Edward A. Bailey
Party: Republican

Ward 3 (West)
1 seat 4 years
Fred Kerner
Party: Democratic
Jane Burger (I)
Party: Republican

Ward 4 (South)
1 seat 4 years
Victor A. Cicero
Party: Democratic Age: 75 Education: BS, criminal justice; master’s degree, public administration, University of New York Job: Retired, former Morrisville police chief, former Morrisville borough manager Answers 1. Develop a business friendly strategy from advertising mediums; present a plan offering incentives to business and light industry for commercial areas. Make the hard decisions to benefit the entire borough and all residents. Sacrifices must be made; Morrisville has missed economic development opportunities and we are paying for it now.
2. Partner with school district to install cameras monitoring areas around schools, especially during arrival and dismissal. Police deployment is expensive and episodic. We must resort to technological methods to augment this labor intensive activity. Police cannot be there at all times. However, we should occasionally target school areas for safety.
3. Speed traps on main roads can be increased. But this is expensive and not always productive. Many residents complain about traffic on insular roadways where speed traps aren’t feasible. We should exhort our elected officials to pass legislation enabling police to use radar in areas where speed traps aren’t possible.

James Jack
Party: Democratic Age: 22 Education: BA, sociology, Pennsylvania State University
Job: Research assistant, nationwide Type 2 diabetes health study coordinated by George Washington University and facilitated locally through Temple University
Answers
1. Morrisville needs to provide a vision to developers and businesses through a master redevelopment plan and the adoption of a form-based zoning code. Enrolling Morrisville into the Main Street program to have a state resource to assist with development. Our appearance needs revitalization through a borough-wide beautification initiative.
2. Call on police, teachers and school employees to assist with directing the high volume of children and cars. Designated drop-off and pickup zones that prevent children from having to cross the street. Educating the students and parents on safety measures and calling on the parents to be accountable. 3. Extending the corner of our sidewalks, raising crosswalks, installing median barriers, and slight changes to traffic patterns can reduce vehicle speed and provide a more controlled flow of traffic. Also, an increased police presence patrolling our streets and using cameras on our various traffic lights will deter hazardous driving.

Stephen Worob (I)
Party: Republican
Uncontested candidates were not asked questions.

Auditor
1 seat 4 years
No one filed to run

Auditor
1 seat 6 years
No one filed to run

Constables
Ward 1 (North)
1 seat 6 years
John Cronon (I)
Party: Democratic
Ward 2 (East)
1 seat 6 years
No one filed to run
Ward 3 (West)
1 seat 6 years
Michael R. Cooper (I)
Party: Democratic
Ward 4 (South)
1 seat 6 years
David R. May (I)
Party: Democratic

Controller
1 seat 2 years No one filed to run
Controller
1 seat 4 years No one filed to run

Tax collector
1 seat 4 years
Marlene Burns
Party: Democratic