Latrobe city council members look toward future, goals for terms

Write-in votes have prevailed once again in Latrobe — this time on city council.

Dawn Vavick, program and aquatics director at Greater Latrobe Parks & Recreation, started a write-in campaign when she realized there were two names on the ballot for three seats.

“I was chatting with friends, and they said, ‘You should do that,’ ” said Vavick, 55.

She put out some messages on Facebook, asking Latrobe residents to write her in on Election Day for the third seat.

Vavick ended up receiving 179 write-in votes.

Incumbent council members William Yuhaniak and Ralph Jenko won the other two seats, with 1,028 and 1,012 votes, respectively. All three will serve four-year terms.

Two write-in candidates won seats in Greater Latrobe’s school board race. Write-in votes accounted for more than 24% of the 28,396 votes cast in the four-year school board race.

Vavick has been working with Greater Latrobe Parks & Recreation for 26 years and has taught swim lessons for more than 40 years through her work with the aquatics program.

“I’m from Latrobe — I love Latrobe,” she said. “I’m very involved in our community.”

She graduated from Greater Latrobe Senior High School and went to West Virginia University for college. Her two adult children also attended Latrobe.

Vavick still lives in her childhood home. She loved it so much that she decided to buy it back after her parents sold it.

When she saw the write-in totals indicating her win, she said, it was “very humbling.”

“I didn’t expect there to be such a positive reaction,” Vavick said. “I’ve only heard very kind words. … It made me feel very grateful for the people in our community.”

Her goal is to work with council members to address what she called “touchy subjects” on the horizon, such as garbage collection costs.

Latrobe recently announced a hike in trash fees for 2024 — 2% for residential customers and 5% for commercial customers — based on a rate increase from collector Republic Services, for a one-year contract extension.

Vavick said she was a single mother for a very long time, and she understands that it can be difficult for residents on fixed incomes to pay their bills.

Other priorities is finding incentives for young families to live and stay in Latrobe and tackling what she believes is a drug problem in the city.

“That is terrifying to me,” Vavick said of the drug problem. “I have lived here almost my whole life, and it scares me — especially with kids.”

Council members Jenko, 73, and Yuhaniak, 60, believe that blight is the biggest issue facing the city. Jenko will begin his second full term on council, and Yuhaniak will begin his first full term.

Jenko, who also serves as deputy mayor, said the goal is to try to minimize the number of blighted homes and properties in the city, and a lot of work has already been done in this area.

“Quite frankly, we’re in a lot better shape than a lot of surrounding communities,” he said.

Jenko explained that properties can deteriorate very quickly, especially in an older community such as Latrobe, so council needs to find ways to help properties that have the potential of going down that path.

“Blight has a direct impact on property values — it’s not just the blighted property,” he said. “One blighted property affects a neighborhood.”

He also referenced the rising costs and council’s role in keeping them under control where it can, while making sure Latrobe has a high quality of living for citizens.

Jenko said he’s happy to be reelected and, in his experience, city council is very apolitical.

“This is one of the more rewarding activities that I’ve had over the years,” he said.

After he retired from working at Kennametal for 43 years, Jenko decided to become involved in municipal government.

Similar to Jenko, Yuhaniak said the council is trying to improve properties around the city to combat blight. He would like to establish something like an activity center for kids to go to be “off the streets.”

“I’m just excited to work with the people on council,” Vavick said. “Even if we don’t agree on everything, we can figure things out, which is half the battle.”