Pitcairn Council candidates focus on revitalization

Pitcairn voters will choose council member for three 4-year terms and one 2-year term in November’s general election, and the candidates’ focus was largely on revitalizing the Turtle Creek Valley borough.

Former councilman George Burkhardt, 66, will go up against a fellow Democrat in William Kornrumph, who earned a spot on the Republican side of the ballot through write-in votes. They will compete for a two-year term on council.

“When I was on council last time, we had kickball for kids on Saturdays; we had basketball courts down there with a tournament; we did movies once a month,” said Burkhardt, who is retired after working at Kenny Ross Automotive Group. “I’d really like to get some parents interested in doing some of that again.”

Kornrumph, 68, is a former restaurant owner and drives a bus for Student Transportation of America.

“I’d like to see the sports programs we had back in place,” he said. “We put a batting cage in. We put lights on the field, installed new bleachers, but the fields sit there vacant 90% of the time, and it’s at the expense of Pitcairn taxpayers. I want to make sure those fields benefit the kids in the borough.”

Kornrumph also said he’d like to explore a business-privilege tax.

“There are a lot of outsiders coming in, buying homes and turning them into three- and four-tenant apartments instead of single-family homes,” he said. “And they’re buying those homes as (limited-liability corporations), which means they’re a business.”

Full-term seats

Four candidates will vie for three 4-year terms on the borough council.

Incumbent Councilman Jim Rullo, 76, has served two terms and is seeking a third. He will appear on both sides of the ballot.

“I’ve been a resident all my life,” said Rullo. “I worked for the courts for 38 years and when I retired, I wanted to get involved with the community.”

Rullo said he’d like to bring more businesses into the borough.

“We’re working on that, but we also need more participation from the community. We lack organizations like we had in the past — there’s not much volunteerism when it comes to things like the Lions Club, the fire department, the things that keep a community going.”

Republican Ian Seibel, 28, is running for public office for the first time.

“My family grew up here,” he said. “My uncle Kurt Seibel was on council a number of years ago, and I wanted to throw my hat in the ring.”

Seibel said he’d like to see more of a sense of community in the borough.

“We’ve seen the Pitcairn Night Market spring up and it’s been done really well,” said Seibel, a sales rep with Maverick Dental Lab. “I also would like to limit spending on unnecessary programs. I want to make sure we’re not just spending money willy-nilly when it could be used to fix things like the bridges in town.”

Democratic incumbent and Councilwoman Lisa Petrosky is coming to the end of her first term.

“There’s a lot of projects I’d like to see through,” she said. “We’re working with Allegheny Together through the county to do a sort of facelift on our business district, and we’ve got another year or so to go on that. We also just finished up our fifth Pitcairn Night Market, which is another part of helping bring businesses back to town.”

Petrosky said the borough has looked to nearby Irwin as a model for revamping the business district.

“We have a great police chief who lives here and is dedicated to cleaning up the streets, which is another way to make sure we can get people coming in to open new businesses,” she said.

Incumbent Councilwoman Deborah Marto declined to comment for this story.