Three incumbents and two newcomers are vying for four four-year seats on Leechburg Council.
They are: incumbent Democrats Chuck Pascal and Alan Tarr, incumbent Republican Lorrie Bazella, and Republican newcomer candidate John Mrvan. Newcomer Dustin Waldenville made it on both the Democrat and Republican tickets.
Improving community and police department relations is a key issue for the incumbents.
Those relationships took a hit a few years ago after a criminal investigation involving former police Chief Michael Diebold, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to soliciting sex online from a state trooper posing as a 14-year-old girl. He was sentenced to serve nine to 23 months in jail and three years on probation. Diebold also faced more charges in January 2020.
“The last few years, we’ve had to work to rebuild the trust in the police department after the incident with the former chief,” Pascal said. “I think we’ve done that.”
Tarr believes he can come up with some ways to nurture that trust by drawing on his military experience as well as time as a former Armstrong County deputy sheriff and borough police chief.
“With my background in law enforcement for three different organizations, I want to work with the mayor, the other council people and our police department and try to enhance the safety of the borough residents,” he said.
Bazella suggested community relationships would grow if more residents attended council meetings and saw their government in action.
“I would like to see it improve,” she said. “I would like people to come to more meetings and learn about their community and some of the ordinances we have in place, and understand why we have these ordinances in place. There have been a few complaints about some of the things that we have ordinances on — grass clippings, for instance. If they’re on the road, they go down into our stormwater system and they can proceed to clog it.”
Bazella said she plans to focus on growth if reelected.
“I want to see our community grow,” she said. “I’m tired of looking around and seeing empty buildings and empty homes. We have a nice little community. I want to see it prosper and the people here with a smile on their face.”
Pascal, former mayor and Leechburg Area School Board member, said maintaining the police department while addressing infrastructure and keeping taxes low can be a challenge.
“We have a lot of vacant houses and some vacant businesses,” he said. “We need to have a strategy to make sure those houses are either fixed up and people are able to move into them (or), in rare cases, some of them need to be torn down.”
“We’re going to be paving a lot next year … We’ve been very successful in getting grants for infrastructure-type issues.”
Pascal served as mayor and on the Leechburg Area School Board before being on council.
Mrvan, a lifelong resident, said he is running to help out the town and does not have a major focus.
“My goal is to help the community in any way as I can and work as hard as I can to do that,” he said. “I think if I can get on council and help out any way that I could, that would be a big thing for the community. I’d like to bring a lot more businesses in town.”
Mrvan said he is friends with the mayor and others on council and believes they can get a lot done together.
He also pledged to support the police department and wants officers to interact more with the community.
“I’m willing to work with the police department in any way that I can,” he said. “I think a lot of people are afraid of the police and they shouldn’t be. They’re here to protect us. I think the Leechburg police do an excellent job in protecting the community. I’m a 100% supporter of the police department and will do whatever I can to help them out. When they show that they’re in with the community, that’s going to make it look a lot better.”
Waldenville said he wants to look beyond the police department and focus on other matters, such as finding a way to reduce commute times to and from Pittsburgh.
“I think that (former police chief situation) is past and we need to focus on the future, but the police do need funding,” he said. “I feel like the major issue in the town is the declining population. Since the population is declining, there are less taxes coming in, and the town has to keep increasing them. That’s not good for the current people that live here.”
Waldenville said cutting travel time might attract more people and businesses into the borough.
One of the ways he proposed doing that would be to build a bridge from the borough to the Parkway or other major thoroughfare.
“Building a bridge in town wouldn’t just benefit Leechburg, it would benefit the surrounding towns,” he said. “I want the town to be able to thrive for years to come rather than decline. I love the community and the people.”
Waldenville said he would seek state funding, donations and contributions from neighboring municipalities to fund the project without raising taxes. Where the bridge would be located is unclear.
“It’s a work in progress,” he said.
