Voters in Shillington will elect four people in the Nov. 4 general election to fill seats on borough council.
Democratic candidates Elizabeth Bentz and Jared Hopgood and Republican candidates Michael Hoffert, Ronald Klee Jr. and Edward Michalik Jr. are running for the four-year terms.
Bentz, Hoffert, Klee and Michalik and Lineaweaver are incumbents.
The candidates were asked to respond to the following questions.
Question 1: What makes you an ideal representative of this area?
Question 2: What needs improvement in your municipality?
Elizabeth Bentz
Elizabeth Bentz
Party: Democrat.
Age: 52.
Occupation: Bentz is an occupational therapist and registered yoga instructor. She is the owner of OTherapYoga.
Response 1: Since 2010, I have served on the Shillington Borough Council. The residents of this area have trusted me to represent them with every reelection. I honor that confidence and I am grateful for their faith in me. It is a privilege to continue to support them.
Response 2: Municipalities are made up of people. Our residents make Shillington great. During my 15 years on council, I have discovered that we need volunteers to join our community boards. We appreciate our current board members who dedicate their time and energy. When they complete their terms or step down, we rely on our residents to fill these open positions. If any Shillington resident wishes to serve, they can contact me for information at Elizabeth.bentz@verizon.net. We want to keep our advisory committees ongoing and strong.
Edward Michalik Jr.
Edward Michalik Jr.
Party: Republican.
Age: 64.
Occupation: Michalik is the president and chief executive officer of Threshold Rehabilitation Services Inc.
Response 1: I have lived in Shillington with my family since 1993. I have served as an alternate on Shillington’s zoning hearing board and was appointed to fill an unexpired term on borough council in 2018. Since then, I won election for a two-year term and am running for reelection to my first four-year term. I have served as a member of the Shillington Keystone Fire Company since moving here in 1993. For many years I served as a member and then long serving Board President of Southern Berks Emergency Medical Services until its merger with Tower Direct Emergency Medical Services and I continue to serve as the Shillington’s liaison to the Tower Direct EMS Advisory Committee.
Since 2018, I have served either as a member, vice chairman or chairman of the following Shillington council committees: recreation board, administration, law and finance committee, tree, pole and light committee, and I currently serve as vice chairman of the borough’s fire committee and am chairman of the police and personnel committee. I continue to serve the community on many advisory committees and governing boards including Crime Alert Berks County.
Response 2: As a member of borough council for the past seven years, my focus has been to address and support key issues of improving our aging infrastructure including our roads, ensuring clean water through upgrades to our water and sewer systems and upgrading our recreation system including our pool and park system. I am also proud that I worked toward making Shillington efficient in trash collection and expansive recycling while keeping costs as low as possible. I believe we must also focus on quality-of-life issues for our residents including continuing to preserve Shillington as “The Town Beautiful” through graffiti eradication, continuing excellent police, fire and borough workforces and partnering with the Gov. Mifflin School District while being good stewards of our finances and keeping taxes stable for all 5,475 (according to the 2020 census) residents.
Jared Hopgood, Michael Hoffert and Ronald Klee Jr. did not provide responses.