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Chester County Press

Three new members elected to Oxford Borough Council

11/13/2013 01:40PM ● By Acl

By Steven Hoffman

Staff Writer

The race for four seats on Oxford Borough Council was incredibly close. Five of the seven candidates received between 204 and 223 votes. Incumbent borough council president Ron Hershey tallied 307 votes, helped by the fact that, during the Primary Election, he secured a spot as both a Republican and Democrat nominee and benefitted from straight-party votes on both sides.

The three other candidates who won the Republican nomination in the Spring Primary--Paul Matthews, Randy Grace, and Gary Tozzo—won council seats with 223, 213, and 210 votes, respectively. How narrow was the margin of victory? Incumbent Sherry Andrews finished with 205 votes and Jamie Cole tallied 204 votes. Walter Saranetz was an Independent candidate and his efforts for election were hampered by the fact that he could not receive straight-party votes in the same numbers as Republicans or Democrats.

There was no drama in the Kennett Square Borough Council race. With only as many candidates as there were seats up for election, incumbents Dan Maffei and Geoff Bosley easily won reelection and Lynn Sinclair and Patrick Taylor were both voted onto borough council for the first time. Sinclair has been finishing an unexpired term on council after she was selected to fill a vacancy.

In the West Grove Borough Council race, Christopher Freese (152 votes), Richard Turkington (144 votes), and David Prosser (144 votes) all won reelection.

Abigail Pyle (65 votes), William Shore (62 votes), and Wilson Lysle (60 votes) won seats on Avondale Borough Council.

In the mayor races in the area, West Grove mayor Stephen Black, Kennett Square mayor Matt Fetick, Oxford mayor Geoffrey Henry, and Avondale mayor Doris Howell were all unopposed and handily won reelection for four-year terms.

Most of the board of supervisor races in the area were uncontested. One exception was Lower Oxford Township, where Joel Brown out-polled Clyde Prigg, 216 to 154. In Elk Township, Republican Jim George tallied 208 votes to 102 for Democrat Thomas Shar.

Democrat Victor Mantegna won another term on the Penn Township Board of Supervisors. Republican Ken Bryson won an open seat on the board.

In Franklin Township, David Snyder and Steffen Torres, Republicans, were unopposed for two seats on the board. David Owens was unopposed and won a seat on London Britain Township’s board of supervisors. Incumbent Robert Barto was similarly reelected in New London Township.

Art Rieck won a seat on East Nottingham Township’s board of supervisors. In neighboring West Nottingham Township, voters returned Eric Todd to his position as township supervisor. Scott Rugen won another term in Upper Oxford Township.