Leechburg's newest council members hope to bring fresh perspective to borough

Ruth Bender and Megan Goedicke love Leechburg.

The two women have no prior political experience, but wanted to make a difference in their borough. So they ran for council and were elected.

“I wanted to take a more active role in town,” Bender said.

Both women ran unopposed in November’s election.

They’re relatively young – Bender is 28 and Goedicke is 23 – and think they’ll be able to bring a fresh perspective to council.

“There’s a lot of young people moving into Leechburg. I’m able to connect with them. I know what our age group thinks,” Goedicke said. “I think it’s important to have a variety of ages. It’s been pretty much the same for a while. We haven’t really had any young people. It’s really exciting that we have two now.”

Goedicke has lived in Leechburg her whole life. She graduated from the high school in 2014 and works as a mobile dog groomer in Irwin.

She said she will take steps to modernize the borough, such as updating its computer programming system and website.

Goedicke also is interested in looking for grants to help fund borough projects and organizations and potentially start a neighborhood watch.

“Leechburg should be a safe place and I want it to be,” she said.

Bender grew up in Seattle and moved to the borough in 2013. She’s a nutrition educator for Adagio Health, but previously had jobs at the Twisted Thistle, Lingrow Farm and Rivertown Pub and Grill.

Working at the Rivertown is what sparked Bender’s interest in running for council because people would talk about things going on in the borough.

“I wanted to have a more productive voice,” she said.

Bender is passionate about providing greenspaces. Before she ran for council, she approached council members about starting a community garden. She said Mayor Wayne Dobos has since put a parcel of land into Leechburg’s repository for that purpose.

Bender is concerned about stagnation and blight in the borough. She will tackle that problem by being seen around town more and brainstorming ideas with other council members.

“At our last council meeting we talked quite a bit about ways to collect on unpaid fees that are not just sending out letters in the mail,” Bender said.

Goedicke said she likes Leechburg because it’s a little town and people know each other.

“Everyone’s looking out for each other all the time,” she said.

Bender said she’ll be able to offer an outsider view to council because she grew up somewhere else.

“A lot of people who live in Leechburg, they’ve been there for quite a while, multiple generations and they’ve just stayed in town,” Bender said. “It’s great to have strong roots like that, but … it’s also nice to bring a different perspective of how things are done other places.”