Donora fills council vacancy with former council member
DONORA – Donora council has filled its vacancy with the appointment of former council member Gilbert Szakal Jr.
Szakal was approved by a 3-2 vote Thursday to fill the vacancy created when Edward Sonny Lawson resigned due to health reasons. Szakal will serve the remaining year-and-a-half of Lawson’s term.
Voting in favor of Szakal were council President Michael McDowell, and fellow council members Fred Berestecky and P. Jane Ackerman. Voting against were Cynthia Brice and Thomas Thompson.
Ackerman cited Szakal’s experience on council as the reason for her vote, especially at a time when the borough has had a number of departures, including a bookkeeper and a clerk, along with street foreman Mike Petroske and borough administrator Terri Petroske.
“Right now with everything we’re going through, we thought he would be the best way to go,” Ackerman said. “We need to get some help in there. I just don’t know which way to turn. None of us do. We’re doing interviews. We’re trying to get some people in there to work.”
Szakal was one of three people to submit a letter of interest to fill the vacancy along with former council member Walter J. Sloan and borough resident Michelle Kitchens.
“He pretty much is a ‘yes’ vote for them,” Brice said of Szakal. “He was put in there so he can give them their ‘yes’ vote when they want something.”
Brice said she nominated Matt Vitalbo for the seat, but that motion was voted down by a 3-2 vote, with her and Thompson casting the only votes in Vitalbo’s favor.
This is the second council vacancy filled in Donora this year. The first came about because Don Pavelko won the election as mayor of the borough, a four-year term he began in January.
Ackerman was selected to fill that vacancy. Vitalbo applied for that vacancy after his write-in campaign for a spot on council in November’s general election came up just short.
Vitalbo finished fifth in the race for four spots on council with 360 votes, while Ackerman amassed 339. McDowell claimed the fourth spot with 393 votes.
Brice said since Ackerman lost in November and Szakal lost in his last bid for election in 2019 that somebody new like Vitalbo should be given a chance.
“You keep putting losers back on council,” she said. “People voted (Szakal) out of office so it should have been given to someone else who has a chance to maybe be different.”