The next time the citizens of Westover take part in a municipal election, it’ll be part of the county’s 2024 primary.
And one of the decisions before voters on that ballot will be whether they want to double the mayor’s term of office from two to four years.
Westover City Council voted Wednesday to move ahead with two changes to the city’s charter pertaining to municipal elections.
The first, which moves the city’s standalone election in line with the county primary, passed unanimously and without public opposition.
The second change, pertaining to term lengths for mayor, faced opposition from both a member of the public and from within council.
In this instance, the public opposition is more impactful on the process because a requirement of changing the city charter by ordinance is that there can be no public opposition to the change.
Westover resident Frank Huy voiced his opposition during a public hearing prior to the regular meeting.
“I’m opposed to having this group decide term limits. It sets a bad precedent,” Huy said. “It eliminates the voters from having a say.”
As for council, the body voted 5-2 to move forward, which means putting the change in term length before the voters. Councilors Alli Jackson and Duane Tatar voted in the minority.
“This city has a history of reelecting good mayors and not reelecting bad mayors … I don’t want to get locked into a bad mayor for four years,” Tatar said, explaining his comments were not aimed at Mayor Bob Lucci. “Construction takes a long time. It takes hard work, and it takes planning. Destruction is very quick.”
In other news from Wednesday’s meeting, council voted 5-2 to serve as a governmental pass-through for federal funds being sought by Vance River Terminal.
Councilors Jackson and Edie Viola voted in the minority.
Vance River Terminal CEO Aaron Johnson said he’s looking to secure federal assistance for a $2.85 million upgrade to his facility’s rail infrastructure in order to become fully multi-modal.
“One thing we do best is we transload from road to river better than anyone from here to Pittsburgh,” Johnson said, adding this upgrade would allow “any combination of rail, road and river.”
Jackson expressed concerns the grant could put additional administrative strain on the city. Councilors Viola and Steve Andryzcik said they feared the upgrades could result in additional noise and dust for those living near the facility.
Johnson said he’s always been sensitive to citizen concerns and invested in making his operation cleaner and more efficient.
He said vehicles, be they trains or trucks, will be loaded/offloaded during daytime business hours, from 7 a.m.-5 p.m. at the latest.
“Those are my concerns, the dust and the noise and I’ve already shared those with you,” Andryzcik said. “I know you’re a good man. I just wanted to make sure that you state that here because I’m going to hold you to it down there. So will everybody else who lives down there.”
