With the Consolidated Election one week away, on the 1st of April, Westville Mayoral and Village Board candidates got together in front of a packed crowd at St. Mary’s Church on Monday night. Two of the mayoral candidates looking to replace Mike Weese, Troy Strebin and Darin Troglia, did not necessarily echo each other, but they did express concern about similar issues.
One thing they agreed on was the necessity to have the bars close down earlier than 3 AM to make the town safer. Troglia says, if elected, one of the first things he will do is have a mandatory meeting with all the tavern owners.
AUDIO: I know some residents talked about “we’ve always had bars, we’re always had certain things take place.” But as of lately, it’s gotten worse. And my number one thing is we need to come together as a community, and figure out how we can solve that problem, and lower the crime that we’re seeing that most people don’t know about.
Strebin agreed that changes need to be made, but also wanted to paint a positive picture.
AUDIO: I don’t think we’re as unsafe as maybe it was perceived tonight. However, I do believe that we have some issues that have to be addressed; and closing the bars down at a more reasonable hour is one of them. Three o’clock is just too late.
(Middle Picture) Mayoral candidates Darin Troglia (far left) and Troy Strebin (at podium).
And both candidates, we will hear Strebin followed by Troglia, want more than six full time police officers, immediately.
AUDIO: (Strebin) I believe that we can fit at least one more full time police officer in our current budget now. (Trogia) One for sure, no doubt, because if we looked at the budget, the amount of money that we spend on overtime to cover the shifts; we would be able to pay for an officer.
There is also an agreement that a part time code enforcement officer needs to be hired by the Village of Westville; as Troglia and Strebin, respectively, expressed their opinions on that.
AUDIO: (Troglia) Right now, the Chief of Police is the code enforcer. That is not going to take place if I become mayor. And we have too many ordinances. We need to take the top five ordinances that we know that are being violated, and focus on those top five. Tall grass, homes that have been abandoned, properties that have been abandoned. Neglect. (Strebin) A code enforcement officer would help our police chief and any of our day shift officers from having to spend time knocking on doors; it would free up a lot of time for our police officers to focus on their main goal, which is our public safety.
And finally, both talked about bringing in new business and how to do it. Strebin says, an expansion strategy is needed.
AUDIO: We are landlocked. The only way that we really could get big businesses in here would be maybe to annex south or north. North is going to be difficult because Tilton’s already pushing south on us. But maybe south to Midway would be an option.
Troglia stated that if elected he wants to have a meeting with Tilton officials, to sit down and talk shop.
AUDIO: Tilton’s exploding. What can we do to bring more businesses into Westville? How can they help us? Because they’re our neighbor. And they were very excited about helping me if I become elected as mayor, in ways that we can bring businesses into Westville. I was impressed by that.
There was also agreement, among all the candidates and just about everyone in attendance, that a major Westville priority has to be the updating of old water lines.
A third mayoral candidate, Nick Pierce, did not attend. The Village Board candidates on the ballot are Jeff Ellis, Gary Delhaye, Chris Gallion, Victor McFadden, Ryan Sparling, Joanna Gerrib, and Joshua D. Brown.
