Three incumbents and the mayor vie for 3 seats on Apollo Council

Three incumbents and the current mayor are vying for the Democratic nomination for three seats on Apollo Council.

The Democrats will have a contest in the May 18 primary for those seats, which are four-year terms.

Yet there are three other open seats for two-year terms — and there’s only one candidate on the ballot for them.

That’s Mayor Cindee Virostek, who is one of those also seeking the four-year term.

In addition to Virostek, the candidates competing for Democratic nominations for the four-year term are current council members Mark Tarle, Craig Williams and Patrick Zelonka.

Three Republican candidates are uncontested for those same four-year seats: John Steele, Jerrod Thompson and Michele Beck.

All of the Democratic candidates are concerned with reinvigorating Apollo.

Virostek, 66, was a councilwoman for 18 years before her current term as mayor. She is running for council because she believes she will have a “greater voice for the taxpayers and how they want their money spent.”

A high school graduate, Virostek was a prescription benefit manager for a drug company and worked for JCPenney.

She was a community activist who pushed for the cleanup decades ago of the former nuclear fuels production site owned by the Nuclear Material and Equipment Corp. (NUMEC) in downtown Apollo.

Virostek said she is running for the four-year and two-year seats to better her chances of winning one of them.

The biggest issues confronted by the town are fixing its streets and adding two part-time police officers, Virostek said.

“The streets are old. They need to be repaved, but it’s very costly,” she said.

Apollo can’t come up with the money to secure matching state grants, Virostek added. She believes the borough has to do more to find the money for the streets.

As mayor, Virostek oversees the police department that consists of one full-time and one part-time officer. She would like to see two more part-timers added.

“There’s a lot of drug activity,” Virostek said. “It’s a public safety issue, and having more police would ease the minds of residents.”

Council Vice President Mark Tarle, 69, is a high school graduate and a semi-retired auto body repairman and artist who works with metals. He was appointed by council to fill a vacant seat then won the election to his current two-year seat.

For Tarle, Apollo’s biggest problem is the lack of income due to the loss of businesses over the years.

Other than small businesses, there aren’t large businesses that would pay taxes to generate income to help pay for borough operations, he said.

Tarle said he spearheaded some business prospects for the vacant NUMEC and other properties along Warren Avenue, the largest commercial property in the borough. But the ideas were nixed by others in the community because of fears of potential residual radiological contamination, he said.

Apollo Borough has been trying to sell the 22-acre site that includes land owned by Metals Services, which was cleaned up by Armstrong County Department of Economic Development; former railroad property; and 4.5 acres that was originally a steel mill used by NUMEC starting in 1957.

The NUMEC plant was razed and the federal government released the site for unrestricted use in 1997.

While there are restrictions on portions of the NUMEC property, Tarle said, there still are areas for potential commercial or industrial development. Those possibilities need to be explored, he said.

Tarle said the borough is plagued by negativity on social media.

“I get really tired trying to do things in this town and seeing all the negativity on social media,” he said. “People who don’t live here want to make problems and not get things done.”

Councilman Craig Williams, 50, was appointed by council to fill an empty seat in May 2020. He is a case manager in education and holds a bachelor of science degree in elementary education.

The two most important issues in the borough are community involvement and developing the NUMEC site, Williams said.

Council needs to be more involved in the community and in the last year, involvement has been growing, he noted.

“We have been inviting noncouncil members in the borough to participate in committees,” he said.

Recent community-borough cooperation has resulted in some public events including the recent Apollo May Daze celebration.

Council needs to spend more time listening to residents’ concerns, he said.

On the NUMEC property, Williams said, “we’re trying to resolve the site issues for residents and use the space safely.” He wants the borough engineer to bring more information to council and the public about how the NUMEC site can be used safely.

“There’s already a recreational trail/paved road that goes through the property,” he said.

Residents visit a site near the former NUMEC plant for Wheel Good Wednesdays, a recurring food truck roundup held during the warmer months.

“We want to be open and there needs to be an understanding of what the property can be used for,” he said.

The other Democrat, Councilwoman Patrick Zelonka, didn’t return phone calls to comment.