Uniontown mayor wins nomination for third term
Uniontown Mayor James R. Sileo won the Democratic nomination to a third four-year term in office, defeating City Councilman Joseph N. Giachetti in Monday’s primary election, according to unofficial results. He’s virtually assured of victory in November as no Republican candidates entered the primary.
Sileo won in all seven voting wards by an 860-709 margin, unofficially, and will appear on the Democratic ticket in the general election in November.
“I’d like to thank the voters of Uniontown who voted for me to a third term as mayor,” Sileo said. “Although I’m very proud of my accomplishments with city council during the last eight years, I’m committed now to making the next four years even better by revitalizing downtown Uniontown.”
In conceding the primary, Giachetti said he ran a good race and voters selected the wrong candidate.
“I think I ran a great race. I gave him a run. The people of Uniontown really lost,” Giachetti said. “You’re going to have another four years of nothing. I’m disappointed. I needed a big turnout, but the rain hurt. I’m disappointed by the turnout. I called him and wished him the best of luck.”
Unofficial results from each ward were:
Ward 1: Sileo 172, Giachetti 137.
Ward 2: Sileo 110, Giachetti 94.
Ward 3: Sileo 128, Giachetti 101.
Ward 4: Sileo 87, Giachetti 77.
Ward 5: Sileo 124, Giachetti 105.
Ward 6: Sileo 105, Giachetti 70.
Ward 7: Sileo 134, Giachetti 125.
“During my door-to-door campaign, I fully appreciated the need to make our neighborhoods cleaner and safer and I pledge to address those problems.”
He said plans to hire a full-time code enforcement officer; work with the Uniontown Redevelopment Authority to demolish abandoned houses and work with police and Fayette County Drug Task Force to attack the city’s illegal drug problem.
Sileo has been mayor for two consecutive terms and was a two-term city councilman before he was elected mayor.
During the campaign, he said he was proud of many accomplishments made during his tenure in the city’s top elected position.
Among those accomplishments was not raising taxes while maintaining full-time police, fire, street, sanitation and sewage departments; the Main Street and South Street improvement projects; Fayette County’s 911 center in downtown; renovating the State Theatre for the Arts; upgrading employee pension plans; adopting a comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance last year; initiating the city’s recycling program; passing contracts with all three employee unions last year and starting a police reserve unit.
The state-mandated sewer separation project is proceeding ahead of schedule, he said.
Giachetti, a former Uniontown Area School Board member who is in his first term on council, disputed Sileo’s record of accomplishment.
He argued that the city has languished under Sileo’s administration, saying that code enforcement has been lacking in many neighborhoods and the police department should be a more visible presence in neighborhoods and downtown.
Giachetti and Sileo, both of whom reside in the West End, did not agree on a proposal to place the Fayette Building in a tax-free Keystone Opportunity Zone.
Council denied the request the first time it came up for a vote, but it passed the second time around.
Giachetti voted in favor both times, while Sileo voted no on the first occasion and abstained from the second vote.
The Fayette County Commissioners and UASD board approved the measure, which would forgive local real estate and income taxes as well as most state taxes through 2013. Approval from the Department of Community and Economic Development is required for KOZs, but the department has not yet acted on the application.
Giachetti said the KOZ tax break incentives could bring much needed businesses to downtown.
Sileo said it gave the building owner an unfair business advantage over businesses. He argued that granting KOZ status for all businesses in the central business district would cost the city about $45,000 a year in revenue from taxes.
Many downtown business owners expressed support for the Fayette Building KOZ, while a few property owners spoke out against it.
Since then, council approved KOZs for an abandoned building at 11 W. Main St., Marshal Park and a vacant lot adjacent to the Uniontown Public Library. Both men voted KOZs at the three sites.
The school board approved those KOZs on Monday and passed another KOZ for the old Central School building on Church Street, which is the current district administration building. The district is planning to move the administration building to the former CareerLink building on Iowa Street.
Council and the commissioners have yet to consider the Central School KOZ.
In another economic revitalization effort for downtown, Sileo and Giachetti voted in favor of committing $1.5 million as a match to $1.5 million in requested funding from the state for a number of projects.
About $900,000 of the city’s match consists of Community Development Block Grant projects and money.
Sileo was first to reveal the plan in public, but Giachetti said it the Fay-Penn Economic Development Council – not Sileo – came up with the idea.