Twenty-year veteran of the Blair County Commissioner\u2019s Office John J. Ebersole is seeking the Republican nomination in the spring primary for re-election to the board of commissioners.
\nIn an announcement made this week, Ebersole said he will use his experience as a county leader and his \u201cstrict representation of taxpayers\u201d to persuade county residents that he is the person for the job.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been here for the last 20 years and feel that I\u2019ve done a pretty good job with helping to lead this county,\u201d said Ebersole. \u201cI\u2019ve really enjoyed the challenges of this office and have watched as these challenges have become harder and harder each and every year. I enjoy facing those challenges and look forward to facing more in the future.\u201d
\nEbersole, 54, of Altoona, a self-proclaimed \u201cconservative,\u201d is one of three candidates seeking two nominations that will be awarded by the Republican party in the spring primary. Commissioner John H. Eichelberger of Blair Township and current Altoona school board President Barry Wright, also of Altoona, are the other candidates for the position.
\n\u201cYou get a lot of candidates saying they are going to do this and they are going to do that, but that\u2019s all a bunch of rhetoric.
\n\u201cOnce you get in here, it\u2019s just a matter of survival,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve survived the last 20 years and watched as we experienced both good and bad times. You need to know the system and how things work. I know about those situations and helped the present and past boards work through them. That\u2019s why my nomination is important to the residents of Blair County.\u201d
\nEbersole said he institutes a two-pronged approach while working as a commissioner.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not afraid to make the hard decisions and I\u2019m not afraid to make enemies,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been in both boats.
\n\u201cBut what you do have to make sure of is an equal approach to both the business industry in the county and the tax payers who live here,\u201d he said. \u201cBoth are the most important aspects of any county, and with a re-election, I vow to put both feet forward into both of these, as I always have.\u201d
\nEbersole said there are a number of important issues that Blair County will face over the next few years and elaborated on one of those \u2013 job creation. He said although the overall economic state of the country is low, Blair County \u201chas been able to keep its head above the water.\u201d
\n\u201cObviously, every county in the United States is trying to create more jobs, which makes accomplishing that very competitive,\u201d he said. \u201cI know what it takes to bring business and industry into Blair County that will create the necessary jobs for our workforce and I will continue to do that.\u201d
\n Ebersole graduated from Penn State University and played professional football with the New York Jets. He is also business-partnered with his brother Charlie at Ebersole Auto Sales in Altoona.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Twenty-year veteran of the Blair County Commissioner\u2019s Office John J. Ebersole is seeking the Republican nomination in the spring primary for re-election to the board of commissioners. In an announcement made this week, Ebersole said he will use his experience as a county leader and his \u201cstrict representation of taxpayers\u201d to persuade county residents that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}