Tyrone’s new mayor, Jim Kilmartin took the oath of office Tuesday night at Borough Council’s first meeting of the year.
Kilmartin was elected in November after stymieing Councilman Bill Fink’s late write-in challenge. Fink also ran against Kilmartin in the spring Republican primary. Kilmartin won that race and also garnered the most write-in votes in the Democratic primary.
Former Mayor Patricia Stoner passed the gavel to Kilmartin on Tuesday after he was sworn in.
The new mayor sat down with The Daily Herald on Tuesday to discuss his ideas, hopes and plans as mayor.
He wondered if he could get everything he wanted to do accomplished in the next four years.
He said, “I’m going to be in Tyrone for a long time whether I’m mayor or whether I’m something else.”
Kilmartin said of his goals, “I’m going to continue to see some of these things happen.”
He indicated that some of the goals might not necessarily be accomplished during his time in office. He explained “some things may be a 10-year project.”
One of his goals is to work with code officer Tom Lang to clean up what he called “some of the blight buildings.”
Kilmartin said, “I really want to see Tom and the borough work on that and have the owners take pride in the community and take pride in their places. They are really becoming ugly and a blight.”
Last year saw several major drug busts in Tyrone and the surrounding area. It also brought with it a rash of robberies, a murder-suicide and the stabbing death of a six-year-old boy on the day after Christmas.
Kilmartin said he wanted to work with Police Chief Joseph Beachem to “eradicate the drug culture.”
He said, “I don’t know if it’s idealistic or not, but I really want to get it completely wiped out.”?
Communities in other areas have faced cutbacks in their police departments and in some cases have been disbanded leaving the duties to state police. Other communities have consolidated forces to form regional police departments.
Tyrone’s new mayor was asked what a community like Tyrone could do regarding crime from a municipal standpoint. He was asked if funding might be available to increase crime-fighting measures.
Kilmartin said, “In looking at the budget, I know we won’t disband the police force. So, that’s a good thing. But, to expand it, I’m not quite sure.
“I do think Chief Beachem is doing a good job,” said Kilmartin. “But, there’s a lot out there for a small police force to take care of everything.
“It’s difficult to deal with traffic violations and also deal with the murders and drugs,” Kilmartin noted. “I do think the larger violent things has to do with drugs.”
(Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series about Tyrone’s new Mayor, Jim Kilmartin. Part two will appear in Friday’s edition.)
