There’s more to local government than meets the eye.

Trafford Borough Council president Kris Cardiff wants to expand the community’s understanding of daily borough operation, and he plans to start with youths.

Cardiff, of Trafford, began designing Trafford’s Junior Council in late 2019 after coming across similar programs developed within the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs. After a delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the program is set to launch this fall.

Through the Junior Council Person program, the borough will provide select Penn-Trafford High School juniors and seniors the opportunity to learn about various aspects of borough operations.

JCP members will attend regular council meetings, shadow the borough manager, tour the public works department and more.

Borough Manager Jaime Peticca said JCP members can hone in on whatever aspect of local government they are most interested in and try a “little bit of everything.”

“We’ve got the public works running pipes and digging ditches and putting in catch basins. Then you come up to the office and then there’s finance, and then there’s communication,” Peticca said.

“It really encompasses a whole lot of different skills that make it all work together, and I think that’s what’s really neat about the program.”

The primary goal of the program is to teach students more about local government and provide them with a service opportunity, but Cardiff hopes it also will educate the whole community.

“One of the things we have noticed — and that anyone would notice coming to a regular council meeting — is that there’s rarely anybody there that’s under 35 (years old),” Cardiff said.

“There also seems to be a lot of folks in our communities that are unaware of what the local government actually does. And it’s actually, in my opinion, one of the most important things people should know about.”

Cardiff added the borough will benefit from the youthful perspective.

Councilman Steve Perovich said he hopes students participating in the program will learn the steps the borough has to take to accomplish a given task.

“How many times do people say, ‘Well, why don’t they make that person do something with their property?’ ” said Perovich.

“There’s certain steps you have to take in order to do that. You can’t just go banging on doors and saying, ‘Get this cut by tomorrow.’ ”

Rising junior at Penn-Trafford High School Ally Moraca is the first member of the Trafford JCP.

Cardiff said it is the borough’s goal to have at least one junior and senior in the JCP, but he believes Moraca, of Harrison City, is the perfect fit for the program’s first year.

“Ally was the only one who submitted an application. When we reviewed it, however, she’s the only one who’s gotten experience with event planning and a few other things that she’s done in the past that I felt would fit perfectly with some of the things we wanted to do,” Cardiff said.

He added that the borough will fine tune the program for next year based on Moraca’s feedback.

Tentatively planning to pursue science or engineering in college, Moraca said she is excited to take the skills and knowledge she learns through the JCP program wherever the future takes her.

“It’s a really cool opportunity just to be a part of it. It’s not a volunteer thing where you just go one time and move on from it,” Moraca said.

“It’s something that you can keep adding to, and it actually affects what’s around you.”

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