Glen Osborne officials appoint familiar face as their new mayor

Glen Osborne officials recently welcomed a familiar face as their new mayor.

Former council president Tom Huddleston was appointed last month to fill the unexpired term of Mayor Barbara Carrier, who resigned from office in May because she moved out of the borough.

Carrier, 76, a Democrat, has served as mayor since January 2014.

She also served on council from 2000 to 2013.

Carrier pondered her political career while sitting on a bench outside the Sewickley borough building along Thorn Street.

She had recently moved from her large secluded home off Sycamore Road to a smaller condominium in Sewickley.

Carrier said it was time to downsize and the condo has an elevator, making things easier for her husband, Richard, and their 3-year-old golden doodle, Wallace.

“I’ve got to know the people of Glen Osborne and helping people was always my favorite thing,” Carrier said.

“The nice thing about Glen Osborne is (the residents) know you.”

Carrier said her favorite accomplishments included fixing water and pavement issues along Sycamore Road, taking care of Mary Roberts Reinhart Park and developing a joint comprehensive plan with Aleppo and Sewickley in 2007.

The plan addressed various zoning, subdivision and land development issues for all parties, the former mayor said.

“I really believe that communities working together makes each community stronger,” Carrier said. “Glen Osborne uses the Sewickley police and the Sewickley fire department. We contract (those services) out.”

She said the toughest political adjustment from council to mayor was losing the ability to vote on issues unless there was a tie.

Carrier remains part of the Reinhart Park committee as well as a Fern Hollow Nature Center board member.

Stepping down as mayor also resulted in her stepping down as board president of Quaker Valley Council of Governments.

The COG’s bylaws state that an appointed delegate must either be an elected official or a staff member of the appointing community. Carrier has been QVCOG president since January 2022 (Sewickley council vice president Julie Barnes was recently appointed QVCOG president).

The decision to move from Glen Osborne was a long time coming.

Carrier, a retired Sewickley Academy kindergarten teacher, said her husband, a retired Avonworth School District art teacher, had suffered through a lot of medical issues and mobility was becoming a challenge.

The couple has been married for 54 years. They have two sons, a daughter and four grandchildren.

New mayor, same fiscal goals

Huddleston, 67, a Republican, was unanimously appointed to serve as mayor for the rest of the year.

He was on council from 2010 through the end of last year.

His current term was set to expire at the end of 2026.

Huddleston resigned in late December, citing work commitments. He said at the time that his expanding role in the financial services sector no longer allows him a lot of time to devote to the borough.

Council appointed political newcomer Anne Fruehauf, a registered Independent, to fill Huddleston’s shoes.

John Orndorff also ascended from council vice president to president as part of the reorganization.

“That business commitment, although it is ongoing, the heavy lifting has occurred in the first six months of the year,” Huddleston said on July 3. “I have some available time. … I’ll adjust my calendar and my priorities and we’ll make it work.”

He did not expand on his occupational efforts and instead shifted toward his appreciation for Carrier and returning to borough service.

“We’re not the biggest borough, but we are the most efficient borough in Quaker Valley by far,” said Huddleston, a 1976 Shaler Area High School graduate.

“We have a lineage of really very, very capable leadership. Barbara falls right into that lineage. Barbara was a great partner and a great mayor.”

Huddleston said everyone, including Carrier, worked hard at fiscal responsibility while he was on council.

Glen Osborne has not raised real estate taxes for three straight years and has an estimated $830,000 in reserves.

Huddleston said he is not concerned about losing the ability to vote sans council tie. He pledged to continue Carrier’s quarterly breakfast meetings with neighboring mayors and officials.

“I am honored to be asked to do this,” Huddleston said about becoming mayor. “I don’t take it lightly. I proudly accept this interim role on behalf of the community and will continue to do my best to keep the borough in such a positive position.”

The breakfasts were one of the initiatives Carrier had hoped Huddleston would keep.

“He really cares about Glen Osborne,” Carrier said. “He speaks up and says his peace. You may agree or not agree with him, but it shows a lot of thought.”

Huddleston is a member of the borough’s planning commission. He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and economics from Grove City College and a master’s in banking from the University of Wisconsin.

He and his wife Janet have been married for 24 years. They have two sons, Grant and Drew. Grant is in college and Drew graduated from Quaker Valley High School in June. Both are studying finance.

Mayor appointment process

Council had 30 days after accepting the resignation to appoint someone to fill Carrier’s seat, Borough Solicitor Anna Jewart said.

Council would form a vacancy board to help name a replacement if a decision had not been made in that time frame.

Orndorff said the mayoral vacancy was not posted because council felt Huddleston would do an excellent job as mayor and given the time crunch to appoint someone, residents could make their mayoral selection in the November election.

“We felt that Tom would be perfectly capable of taking over that role in the interim, not that we were expecting him to remain long-term,” Orndorff said. “This was, from the borough council’s point of view, a desirable interim solution to filling the mayor’s position.

“Tom was a great leader. He is in touch with many of the influential members of our borough and neighboring boroughs, and is a very outgoing, personable person. I think he has left our borough in good stead and he is aware of the issues that the borough has been facing and is facing.”

Orndorff thanked Carrier for her many years of service to the borough and continued volunteerism.

“She is an amazingly committed and effective representative and has been for our borough,” Orndorff said.

Mayoral race

The mayoral seat will be on the November ballot for a four-year term. However, no Republican or Democrat formally ran for it in the May primary or received enough write-in votes from either party to be on the general election ticket.

Allegheny County Elections Division Manager David Voye said anyone from those two parties will have to run a write-in campaign.

A person could win with as little as one write-in if there are no other votes. The winner would also have to accept the position, or it would become vacant.

Orndorff said he was “dismayed and a little bit concerned” at the lack of primary candidates and hopes more people will get involved in local politics.

Voye said it is not uncommon for small communities to have no one on the ballots and for mayoral races to be won via write-ins, or even for seats to become vacant should no one win in the general election.

Jewart said council would address the vacancy, if there is one, according to borough code, as it has in the past few months.

Should the mayor’s seat once again become vacant due to no election winner, council could appoint someone to serve for two years.

It would then be on the next municipal election as a two-year seat, according to Voye.

Huddletson said he has not yet decided to run a write-in campaign for mayor.

Trial attorney Matthew Doebler, a former Aleppo commissioner, announced he is running for Glen Osborne mayor.

The registered Independent said he plans to file paperwork by early August in order to be on the November ballot. There are no Independent primary elections in the state.

Doebler, 47, was a township commissioner from 2014-2019 before moving back to his hometown. The Glen Osborne native graduated from Sewickley Academy in 1996 and is a big proponent of government transparency.

During his time in Aleppo, he created its meeting digest system, which provides a recap of commissioners’ meetings, including links to meeting videos on YouTube.

The township received the Governor’s Award for Local Government Excellence in the Information Technology category in 2023 for its system (people can sign up to receive the free digest through Aleppo’s website, aleppotownship.com).

Doebler said he would like to create similar transparency opportunities in Glen Osborne.

“The opportunity to take a leadership position there is very interesting to me,” Doebler said on July 8.

“I want an opportunity to serve my town.”

Doebler’s wife of nearly 20 years, Kati, is on the Quaker Valley School Board.

The husband streams school board meetings and provides an online digest through Sewickley Stream, a free service via a substack.com subscription.