Nov 7, 2003 By Josh Krysak 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – Now that a taxpayers’ group in the Southeastern Greene School District apparently has ousted four ballot candidates for school director, including three incumbents, the organization is trying to take its message further. And while the results of the election will remain unofficial until at least Friday, Nov. 14, after the write-in ballots have been counted, one thing is clear: The grass-roots organization focused on relieving the tax burden of Greene County residents is gaining support and the attention of county government officials.

Tom Fox, the Southeastern Greene resident who led the campaign for the five write-in candidates who apparently won election to the school board, said his group, the Overburdened Taxpayers of Southeastern Greene, is changing its name to the Overburdened Taxpayers of Greene County and is hoping to pressure county government and even state officials to meet the taxpayers’ demands.

“In Southeastern Greene we had a smashing success, and we certainly wiped out our opponents very easily because of the situation there and the fact that our district is very, very poor,” Fox said. “We can’t afford new taxes for a new school at this time, not that we wouldn’t love to have our children have a new school.”

Fox said group members now plan to lobby the county government for more economic development in the district.

And if their demands are not met, they want to expand their campaign to make government accountable, he added.

“In the next couple of years we want to see a plant in Southeastern Greene that will employ 400 or 500 people. We want industry,” he said. “We are putting the commissioners on notice that we want to see them do their job for the county.”

He said that the Southeastern Greene residents want more than just a retailer like Wal-Mart with low-paying jobs, but something more substantial like a textile factory.

Fox said the local tax base continues to decline and the area will survive only if the county brings in economic and commercial development.

According to Fox, the group also will lobby state legislators for a manufacturing plant for the area and also hopes to tackle education reform, beginning with the reduction of school administrators locally and eventually on the state level. He said the reduction can free up funds for school repairs and for educational needs.

Fox said his experience as a financial advisor in Pittsburgh and for Greene County in years past will help him to keep pressure on the elected officials to meet the taxpayers’ needs.

In the election Tuesday, the five write-in Republican candidates successfully routed the four ballot candidates, receiving a total of 3,836 votes in the 10 precincts compared to the 1,115 received by the three incumbents, Terry Ganocy, Dennis McIntyre and George Billetz and newcomer Warren Dickerson.

The vote remains unofficial until the votes have been canvassed, counted and certified.

The group campaigned that the decision by the current board to build an $18 million kndergarten-through-12th-grade school for a district with fewer than 700 children and already overtaxed residents was irresponsible.

The write-in candidates – Rick Barzanti, Jeff Duranko, Sandy Theis, Joe Spiker and Gary Yoskovich – told area voters that they would put a freeze on the building plan until further options are explored.

Fox said the group will explore school consolidation and redistricting.

And he said that without the help of county officials, especially elections director Frances Pratt, the apparent change in the school board could not have taken place.

He said that at the group’s prompting, election officials helped to explain how to properly execute write-in ballots so that the voice of the voters could be heard.