Gager a write-in candidate

Roads remain critical issue

By TOM KANE

DAMASCUS, PA - After 16 years as a Damascus supervisor, Bill Gager, who lost the May primary election, is not just walking away. He’s a fighter, and it was no surprise when he announced that he was to be a write-in candidate in the November 2007 election.

“I am offering Chuck Grady the chance to have a debate at some time in the future,” he announced at the township meeting on Monday, August 13.

Grady, who beat Gager by several hundred votes, took up the challenge.

“I will be most happy to debate Bill sometime in the near future,” Grady said.

At a candidates’ night last spring, which was attended by all the candidates for Damascus positions, Grady did not answer any questions put to all the candidates by Ernie Matern, who was the emcee at the meeting.

Grady puzzled everyone at the meeting by his silence, while he fingered a small box that he held in front of him during the presentations by other candidates. He never revealed what was in the box.

“I campaigned privately by going to places to meet voters and talking about issues then,” Grady said. “People knew how I felt about the issues.”

There have been persistent and acrimonious complaints against Gager, the chief roadmaster, and the other Damascus supervisor over the poor quality of township roads. The complaints began three years ago when costly road repairs on Atco Road, conducted by the Suit Kote Company, proved to be inferior and the road began to deteriorate almost immediately. Residents felt that the supervisors-mainly Gager?did not supervise Suit Kote’s work closely enough.

Since then, there was hardly a township meeting when complaints about other roads didn’t surface.

In answer to the complaints, Gager claimed that the state doesn’t assist the township enough financially in its efforts with roads. He and the supervisors also have been pressured not to raise taxes to pay for roads.