Schuylkill County deserves better
Good Afternoon, Thank you for your time. I want to start by saying that I will be repeating some of what has already been said on this comment thread, but I find that these points are vital to keeping Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania on the verge of success and prosperity. I respectfully ask that Schuylkill County remains the same, or as similar to the current map as possible, primarily for furthered prosperity and more importantly our valued shared interests in our three house districts. Over the last year, we have seen some amazing things happening in Schuylkill County thanks to our Senate and House delegation. A perfect recent example is the security of $3,000,000 of RACP funding for the new up and coming Alvernia University campus in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, a project that is greatly needed for our region and its future growth. This project is coming to fruition thanks to the collaboration of our Senator, David Argall, and three Representatives, including Jerry Knowles, Joseph Kerwin, and Timothy Twardzik. There are also many other instances in this year alone where the delegation as a team has secured funding that has greatly benefitted the entire county including blight remediation funding, multiple recent park and recreation grants, revitalization grants across a number of local boroughs, and sewer and water infrastructure grants for our townships and municipalities. We have seen great progress with these Representatives and this map. The reason this map worked so well both in the past with Rep. Neal Goodman (D) and Rep. Tobash (R) and now with our new Representatives is because the communities in each of them have many shared interests. This worked better regardless of the political party of our representatives. This leads me to my next point regarding moving western Schuylkill out of the current 125th legislative district and into an entirely new district with a completely different agenda and set of interests. Moving western Schuylkill County and northern Dauphin County away from the rest of the existing district is bad for our shared interests, as nearly all elected officials, chamber of commerce officials, business leaders, business owners, and most importantly, ordinary citizens, have pointed out. Representative Kerwin has done an outstanding job in his first year serving the people of the 125th and has been on the ground working with all local municipalities on our shared interests as small townships and municipalities in an effort to spur growth and create positive change as you can see in other testimony. This work brought about by shared interests was evident when the district was also represented by Rep. Mike Tobash (R) and Rep. Tim Seip (D). (Once again, this is not a political statement.) This method works because the communities of our district have all been considered a region of similar communities with very similar interests. Representative Kerwin has also been on the ground talking to business owners and everyday citizens constantly. This move, no matter how you view it, places the needs of the people of western Schuylkill County and northern Dauphin county on the backburner. It does this by splitting communities with very similar interests, including Pine Grove, Washington Township, Tremont, Tower City, and Porter Township. It also places our very similar northern Dauphin County communities in with the suburbs of Harrisburg; these two segments of communities have completely different issues and interests from farming and small-town revitalization in much of the district and city-related issues in the other. The current district is visibly in a phase of recovery with municipalities coming back and businesses starting to inhabit them thanks to the layout of this map. Splitting any of these small boroughs and townships from the current map going to destroy many beneficial social and economic partnerships among these communities that have made and continued to be made thanks to the layout of this seat. In addition to this, there are unfortunately some problems with the 123rd. I find that the 123rd is a more acceptable district compared to the 125th for Schuylkill, as it consumed other the remaining parts of Pottsville, which is a sensible move. However, there are some very concerning flaws in taking Mahanoy City and Shenandoah Borough from the current 123rd. Once again, shared interests will be put to the wayside. As cited in other postings, one of the key interests (among others) is the efforts and visible progress by both being made by a partnership of northern and central communities of the 123rd district to eliminate and reduce blight. These communities include those like Minersville and Pottsville in the center, and Mahanoy City and Shenandoah in the north. This initiative are now going to be broken and halted in Shenandoah and Mahanoy City due to this split, and in turn left to another representative who already has a unique set of issues to deal with in the far different communities of the 116th legislative district, which is far different from the communities of the 123rd. The partnership and connection of northern Schuylkill communities and our central Schuylkill communities that has existed for decades will be broken with this map, causing many consequences to the continued revitalization of the region, including in the already mentioned area of blight, as well as in the areas of job growth, affordable housing, downtown revitalization, and recreational revitalization. The list goes on, and it is crucial that this map be adjusted to better fit the needs of our communities and their shared interests, shared interests that have caused a newfound growth that is much needed for this small county. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue, and nor should it be. This issue is about fairness to our county. It is a well-known fact in Schuylkill County Democrats and Republicans alike are not pleased with how this map was drawn, not because it is unfair to their party, but because it splits our county in ways that will cause damage to our areas recent growth and prosperity that all directly related to our collaboration of shared interests. I agree with the earlier commenter that this map of Schuylkill County requires more thoughtful action. I agree that Pottsville should be added to the 123rd legislative district instead of splitting the city, but the 123rd would be better suited if we kept our friends in north and central Schuylkill County together (from Shenandoah to Frackville, and Minersville to Pottsville). The 125th must stay in western Schuylkill and northern Dauphin County if we want to see continued growth and shared ideas and interests continue to prosper. Thank you for your consideration! Respectfully yours!