WAYNE COUNTY, PA — From major statewide politics to downtown decision-making, 2022 was filled with changes that will reverberate for years ahead.

Honesdale’s new leadership

The year began with some new faces and fresh blood in Honesdale’s leadership. Derek Williams, who spent years diligently attending council meetings and using the public comment portion to voice his concerns, found himself on the opposite side of the table after winning the mayor’s race in November 2021. Former local television news reporter Jim Hamill also began his first term as a council member this year, and was voted by his colleagues to serve as council president. Rounding out the rookie lineup, Honesdale’s former zoning officer David Nilsen joined the council as well.

Derek Williams began his first term as Honesdale's mayor this year.

The fight for school funding

After years of trying, public education advocates in PA finally got their day in court in 2022. Because the state’s public schools are mostly funded through property taxes, wealthier neighborhoods collect more money, and poverty-stricken neighborhoods collect less. Many say this creates a lopsided situation in which those students who require the most receive the least.

In a landmark trial, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court listened to the arguments of six school districts and other petitioners as they argued against Republican legislators. The plaintiffs said that the state’s school funding formula is unconstitutionally set up to benefit wealthy districts and punish poorer ones.

Defending the current system, Republican lawmakers have maintained that while it may not be “ideal,” the state’s funding formula does not violate their constitutional duty to provide students with a “thorough and efficient” system of education.

The plaintiffs said that PA needs to inject $4.6 million into the education sector just to level the playing field for school districts across the economic spectrum.

The court listened to final arguments in March and post-trial arguments at the end of July, but has yet to issue a ruling.

New districts create power shift

As constitutionally required every 10 years following the census, Pennsylvania leaders in 2022 finished up the contentious process of redrawing the state’s legislative and congressional district maps. By dividing the state into voting districts of different sizes and shapes, these maps inform state election results for the next decade, and play an integral role in the balance of power between Democrats and Republicans.

The state’s House and Senate maps are drawn and decided by the Legislative Reapportionment Commission (LRC)—a five-person commission made up of two Republican lawmakers, two Democrats and a nonpartisan chairperson. Mark Nordenberg, a legal and public policy expert from the University of Pittsburgh served as that chairperson this year.

The LRC passed a new state Senate map without much contention; however, it created a stir among Republicans over the new state House map, which has been predicted to dramatically reduce Republicans’ dominance in future elections. House Majority Leader and commission member  Kerry Benninghoff vehemently opposed it, calling the commission’s map a “Democratic gerrymander.” Nordenberg defended the new districts, however, saying that they were not biased toward Democrats, but instead undid years of Republican-leaning gerrymandering.

In March, the PA Supreme Court approved both of the LRC’s maps in a 4-1 vote.

In the new Senate map, Wayne County is split between two districts: the 20th District, represented by Sen. Lisa Baker, and the 40th District, which will be represented by Senator-elect Rosemary Brown. The 40th District now encompasses the southern end of the county, including Honesdale.

Meanwhile, the governor’s office and the General Assembly were tasked with redrawing the state’s congressional map, which determines the districts of PA’s representatives in the U.S. House. Unsurprisingly, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled legislature failed to reach a consensus on how the congressional map ought to be drawn. Because of their inability to compromise, the task was then brought to the PA Supreme Court, which selected a neutrally drawn map in February.

Aside from downsizing the number of districts from 18 to 17 due to the state’s population decrease, the court deviated very little from the previous map.

A pride flag outside of Honesdale resident Amanda DeMasi's house was slashed in July.

Councilor makes controversial remark

During a Honesdale Borough Council over the summer and in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, Honesdale resident Amanda DeMasi addressed the all-male councilors and asked them to support people affected by the decision.

“I’m asking all these men on the council to start thinking about the future and how they’re going to protect people with uteruses,” she said.

In response, councilor David Nilsen said that DeMasi insulted him, because he does not identify as a man, but as an eggplant.

“There’s not all men up here, because I’m an eggplant,” he said. “Put that on the record, that councilman Nilsen is an eggplant.”

Later that same month, Nilsen also went on to propose reducing the amount of time a resident can speak during the public comment period from five minutes to two. The borough’s personnel committee advised against this.

Local LGBTQ+ advocates were quick and vocal in condemning Nilsen’s comments. They demanded some sort of formal action on the council’s part, either to censure Nilsen for his comment or for the council to issue an apology.

Borough council president Jim Hamill, councilor James Jennings and mayor Derek Williams all issued separate, personal apologies for being silent in the moment. Hamill, however, said that citizens exercising their power as voters would be more effective than the council instituting a formal disciplinary policy.

PA Dems win big

Pennsylvania had one of its most impactful elections in recent history in 2022. Vacancies and divisive issues, such as a woman’s right to choose, paved the way for some hotly contested races.

Trump-endorsed candidates in the state’s top two races both lost in November. In the governor’s race, PA’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro defeated Republican candidate and PA Sen. Doug Mastriano. In the race to replace retiring Sen. Pat Toomey in Washington, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democrat, beat out celebrity doctor and Republican Mehmet Oz.

Wayne County Dairy Princess Electra Kahagias and her Court pose with the Wayne County Commissioners; commissioner Joseph Adams, standing right, won …

More locally, Wayne County’s Rep. Matt Cartwright (PA-08) once again defended his seat against Republican challenger Jim Bognet, but by a slimmer margin this time. Commissioner Joe Adams defeated Democrat Meg Rosenfeld to represent Wayne and Pike counties in the state House. In the state Senate, Sen. Lisa Baker was reelected to serve the newly drawn 20th District, while Rep. Rosemary Brown, trading her seat in the House for one in the Senate, won the race for the 40th District, which now includes Honesdale.

Wayne County reassesses

During the past year, the Wayne County government conducted its first countywide property tax reassessment in nearly two decades. Since 2004, property values have changed, creating inequities in the value of real estate.

A reassessment, which commissioners first announced in January, does not increase or decrease tax revenues, per state law. It only “redistributes the total tax burden more fairly,” according to the commissioners. A resident’s county, municipal, and school taxes are all based on the assessed value of a property. The commissioners said that in 2023, roughly one-third of residents can expect to pay lower taxes, one-third will see virtually no change and one-third can expect to pay more.

With the countywide reassessment of property, the overall value of land for taxation increased from around $5 billion under the previous values established in 2004 to more than $9 billion for 2023.

Partial frack ban

Ever since the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) voted in 2021 to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, environmental advocates have been pressuring the commission to go a step further, and ban all fracking-adjacent activities in the Delaware River Basin as well.

Primarily, advocates demanded an outright ban on the importation of fracking wastewater into the basin, and the exportation of the river’s water, which could be used in fracking activities elsewhere. Leading up to the vote, roughly 10,000 concerned citizens submitted comments, the vast majority of which called for prohibiting fracking in all forms.

In a vote on December 7, the DRBC landed on a set of regulations that fell short of the all-out ban activists had hoped for.

The rules, instead, discourage, limit or place conditions on the export and import of fracking water, but provide for both under certain conditions.

While the DRBC voted to prohibit the discharge of fracking wastewater, the new rules do allow for it to be imported, transported, stored and treated in the basin. According to the commission’s documents, the DRBC anticipates that only low volumes of wastewater will be transported into the basin, with the amount and severity of potential spills being low enough that they will not affect the waters of the basin.

But for many river advocates, even a low level of safety risk is unacceptable.

“You did not ban outright the importation of wastewater produced by fracking and you did not ban outright the export of water from the watershed for fracking,” Tracy Carluccio of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network said during the public comment portion of the meeting. “This is not only a huge loss for the health and safety of our communities; it is a missed opportunity by you as commissioners who are charged with the responsibility of protecting and managing the Delaware River watershed for the benefit of all of our communities.”