ELECTION 2023: Republicans sweep Shenandoah council race
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Joe Boris, left, and Mike Zeckie Uholik on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023.
SHENANDOAH – There will be a new majority in the new year on Shenandoah Borough Council.
Republican Joe Boris, Mike Zeckie Uholik, and Joe Gawrylik swept the three open seats on council in Tuesday night’s election.
Boris is an appointed incumbent while Uholik and Gawrylik are newcomers to council, and Boris was the top vote-getter with 364 votes.
Uholik followed with 345 and Gawrylik had 308, only 10 votes ahead of appointed incumbent Democrat Michael Whitecavage, a former mayor. Incumbent Democrats William Selbi and John J.T. Thomas came 5th and 6th with 196 votes and 144 votes respectively.
As the final results came in and were read at the Black Diamond Bar and Restaurant in Frackville, Uholik cheered when he heard they had won all three seats.
“Like the old councilman Joe Valento said, ‘I love Shenandoah,'” Uholik told the Sentinel. “[This is] ‘I love Shenandoah Part 2′”
Valento spearheaded a fundraising effort, dubbed “I Love Shenandoah” in late 1980s to help a near-bankrupt Shenandoah pay its bills.
“There’s a lot of things that need change and there’s things that we’ve seen, we heard the voters’ concerns, and we hope to make the town better than it ever was,” Boris said.
Both Boris and Uholik expressed thanks to the voters of Shenandoah.
“A win for me is a win for the voters of Shenandoah,” Uholik said.
All three have been outspoken opponents to the recent sale of the Municipal Authority of the Borough of Shenandoah.
In a letter submitted to the Sentinel, Gawrylik outlined blight, streets, transparency, and the Shenandoah Pumping Station as priorities of the Republican team.
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