Nearing completion of his first term as a Tyrone Borough Council Member, Jeffrey Watson Jr. is seeking a second term on the community\u2019s governing body.
\n\u201cI believe that the current council is on a good track toward improving Tyrone,\u201d Watson told The Daily Herald. \u201cI feel that I couldn\u2019t abandon the borough without a borough manager in place.\u201d
\nThe search for a good borough manager is one of the things council faces in the coming months.
\n\u201cWe hope to start advertising for the position in April,\u201d said Watson. \u201cThe staff is working on what the council has asked for in the advertisement. We are looking for someone with experience as a borough manager, someone who can write grants and get that back into the manager\u2019s office, someone with a good financial background and someone with the ability to work with the unions.\u201d
\nWatson hopes with a fresh face comes fresh ideas.
\n\u201cWe are looking for somebody who can look at everything and bring some new ideas to the table to help get the borough to run more efficiently.\u201d
\nHelping increase the job market is something that council is concerned with, but Watson also is looking at the future.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re out of space in the borough to grow with industrial type jobs,\u201d said Watson. \u201cWe hope to get something in the Westvaco plant and hopefully fill the lots at the Dixon site, but other than that, if we are going to grow industry, we would have to demolish some of the residential areas, and that would be the call of the owners, not the council.
\n\u201cWith the I-99 corridor becoming closer to reality, Tyrone needs to look into becoming a bedroom community for places like Altoona and State College. We need to set up the town to provide the services that a good bedroom community offers. There is opportunity for small downtown businesses, but right now that is what there is.\u201d
\nWatson is hoping the new manager would be able to work with the surrounding townships.
\n\u201cWith the borough being out of room, there are plenty of opportunities in Snyder Township and Antis Township,\u201d said Watson. \u201cTyrone receives a benefit through industry in the townships through the infrastructure we have there with the water and sewer. It is crucial for the new borough manager to work well with Snyder and Antis townships.\u201d
\nWhen asked about the perception that the downtown is all council works on, Watson said that isn\u2019t the case.
\n\u201cThe downtown improvements is a unique case,\u201d said Watson. \u201cThe project was a PENNDOT project and was outlined by PENNDOT. I don\u2019t think the people want us to give the money back to PENNDOT. We are working to use the CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) money through housing rehabilitation for low income and elderly home owners. We have spent more in the past four years than we have in the history of the borough.\u201d
\nWatson would like to see more cooperation between the borough\u2019s departments.
\n\u201cWe need to look at having some of our departments working with each other,\u201d said Watson. \u201cWe are looking at a storm water runoff problem near St. Matthew\u2019s Church. We should look at the highway department doing the work instead of bidding the project out. They did the work on fixing Lincoln Avenue, and can certainly do the job.\u201d
\nWhen asked about the drug problem in Tyrone, Watson is proud of the work that is underway.
\n\u201cWith the chief (Joe Beachem) getting our force involved with the Blair County Drug Task Force, you are seeing more arrests in our area,\u201d said Watson. \u201cThere are a lot of activities that are going on that the public shouldn\u2019t know about. Their job is based on confidentiality. They are doing everything in their power to make an air tight case, and air tight arrest and get an air tight conviction. \u201c
\nAs a council member, Watson has voted on his principles.
\n\u201cI am basically a conservative person,\u201d said Watson. \u201cI vote on my principles. I listen to all sides of any issue, but when it comes time to vote, I vote on what I believe is the best interest of Tyrone. I take the public opinion seriously and listen to all sides.\u201d
\nWatson will appear on the Republican ballot in the May primary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nearing completion of his first term as a Tyrone Borough Council Member, Jeffrey Watson Jr. is seeking a second term on the community\u2019s governing body. \u201cI believe that the current council is on a good track toward improving Tyrone,\u201d Watson told The Daily Herald. \u201cI feel that I couldn\u2019t abandon the borough without a borough […]<\/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-47100","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\/47100","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=47100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}