Republican Ron Beitler, 34, a business owner and lifelong resident of Lower Macungie Township, announced earlier this week in a written release that he is running for one of the three commissioner's seats that will be open in the fall.
Beitler is a graduate of Emmaus High School, and he graduated from Slippery Rock University with a degree in political science.
Over the past two years, he has served on various local community boards: he chairs the Friends for Protection of Lower Macungie Township, a smart growth advocacy group, and he is on the executive board of LMT Citizens for Change.
Beitler is a co-owner of Bar None Weddings & Entertainment in Macungie, a small business that provides wedding and commercial films, photography and entertainment services for businesses, weddings and special events.
"My commitment is to continue advocacy for positive solutions making sure the residents of Lower Macungie have a clear alternative representing sound land use planning, smart growth principles and transparency in government. I hope to earn their support in the May 2013 Republican Primary," he said in the release.
Beitler invites voters to learn more about him and the issues at hand at www.ronbeitler.com.
What I strive to do is lay out my positions rather then any rigid ideology. In my opinion issues are more nuanced then party lines. But I do consider myself an unabashed moderate for whatever that is worth. Actually some "party folks" consider me too moderate since the LV Republican party seems to be tacking to the right a little?.. So really I can't win ha. I'm really not good at the being purposely ambiguous for political purposes game. For example instead of leaving it at the purposely ambiguous "I support smart growth" as others do, I actually lay out what that means to me in vision and policy. If one thing, I hope people see that. I'm going to see if people will vote for someone who actually takes clear position statements. Thats my goal. My blog is a record of my positions and opinions which are always open to discussion and evolve. Just for curiosities sake anything in particular on my platform you think is too far right? www.ronbeitler.com I value your opinion I know you are a frequent poster on here and tend to be pretty informed on the issues. I'd appreciate the feedback. RB
To answer your question I do have some opinions and some interest since I am a Macungie business owner. First philosophical: The Mayor was within his rights to challenge what he challenged. We have a system of civilian oversight over police and military. Fundamental important American Value. Part of me appreciates that the courts upheld this. I think political science classes will be reading about this as a case study. It upheld an important value. Now practically.... Do I think the Mayor handled this with tact? NO. Do I think he was way out of bounds asking for taxpayer money to install GPS units on police cars.... Yes. Do I think the issue caused distractions from other issues I hold near and dear. Yes. Now.. It looks like he's raised the money to install GPS himself. That makes it interesting. Do I think at all in any way shape or form that we need GPS units on our cop cars in Macungie monitored by the Mayor. NO, I don't. The county already has the ability to monitor police car via GPS as I understand it. This is an example of the Mayor taking things too far and causing a distraction.
No rigid ideology? Right, let's see how you vote when Jandl comes asking for even the tiniest thing. I say again - the organization he headed and was spokesman for spent tens of thousands of resident tax money. He exaggerated the position of the group as being some large percentage of LMT (it was nowhere near) and expected a court to rule based on the "groundswell of public support." We need transparency, but we also must demand honesty and fiscal responsibility.
Obviously environmentally they are terrible.... but so are warehouses. And for the record all I ever advocated for was for the options to be presented to the public. I'll continue to do that. But Michele of course you are welcome to your opinion and I appreciate it. Agree to disagree on this one. RB
Michele K, its all about quality of life if you think for one second, warehouses, strip malls and townhouses being built on some of the best farm soils in the valley is going to make this a better place to live thats your opinion. I would bet that the VAST majority would think otherwise. As far as the quarry, Jaindl knew he didn't have a chance in hell at that, the enviormental hoops would have consumed him. He might be able to work his magic with his real estate commissioner buddy's but DEP is a different story. Still all in all would have been better than what we are going to end up with. Lets see how everyone is going to like the new and I am guessing 50+ million dollar school that this will cause.
Never having lived in LMT, I haven't followed their recent land use controversies, so I'm not particularily interested in where you stood or stand on any particular one. But from everything else I've read about you or by you, it seems like you should be taken very seriously and are a more than viable candidate for serving on any local board, including as a commissioner. It's clear that you are more than a single issue candidate, which of course is what many will try to paint you as. You're exactly the same age as I was when I ran for the EPSD board (and won), serving for one term more than 20 years ago, after being much rejected for an open seat appointment. My rejection wasn't controversial - there were a dozen candidates - but one incumbent suggested a run in the next election, so I did. It seems that you have the energy and ability to study the myriad issues that will confront you and you have more than enough life experience to make reasoned and fair judgments, like I think I did during my time. So go for it!
First let me start off by saying….Mr. Beitler, I am pleased to learn of your decision to run for Lower Macungie Commissioner. It is encouraging to see an informed, educated, impartial citizen willing to step forward to serve our community in such an important way. If only those commentors who attempt to throw barbed comments would take the time to do the research needed to be as well informed as you are on such a wide variety of topics and issues affecting our area of the Valley….why we would be living in a well thought out, well planned community with much to offer the citizens, of which at the least would be a solid investment in the real property we own here. rather than take cheap shots from their armchair sidelines, they should become active in their community in any positive way possible. I wish you many successes Mr. Beitler, because your successes ultimately will be our communities successes too.
My, my my. These comments you have posted cannot be from a real, concerned resident of the township. You trifle over the several thousand dollars that LMT had to spend for this legal case versus the volumes of “your” money LMT will HAVE TO SHELL OUT to build a new high school, a new middle school, more elementary schools, pay for school busing services, future road and traffic studies and remedies, etc, etc ? And by the way, it was not a legal case regarding whether a quarry was a viable alternative to a warehouse. I am shocked that a resident such as yourself could be so grossly misinformed. LMT spent that money to defend the fact that they failed to be transparent with their soon-to-be affected community when they mishandled the Jaindl land re-zoning. In a nutshell, they conducted secret meetings without proper notice to the public, and then rendered a decision to re-zone in Jaindl’s favor. That is not how the government of where you live should handle the affairs important to the community, their quality of life, and the value of their real property. And…it would seem to me that if you truly are a resident, you would be much more horrified by the thought of what your real estate and school taxes will look like if the current plan continues to proceed to develop and build a warehouse, a strip mall and hundreds of new housing units.
And for that matter, Michele K where in LMT do you ACTUALLY live? Do you live within sight of the Jaindl property of which we speak? Additionally, have YOU ever been to, or even lived near, a quarry? I live within a stone’s throw of the Jaindl property we speak of. Also, I grew up in a small, suburban town that had a large, successful, residential-friendly quarry operation. This quarry was not a blight on my hometown. It was a productive, contributing industry that made great use of the land ~ it was not a drain on land or community. This quarry even paved and watered/machine-cleaned the streets daily as part of it’s terms of use of the town steets it‘s trucks accessed to transit the quarry. By the way, none of my friends were EVER hit by a dump truck, nor blown up by the dynamite they used to blast at the mountain area that WE used for recreation purposes. We lived peacefully, together. And it is noteworthy to mention that this quarry is still in operation today which means that its lifespan exceeds 56 years of operation. Since I have life experience with quarries AND I stand to be affected by what Jaindl ultimately does to develop this property, I can tell you this: I would much prefer Jaindl build a quarry in my backyard, than the aforementioned warehouse/strip mall/housing nightmare!
I find your comments about quarry trucks, noise and danger to be seriously misinformed. Warehousing alone will bring just as many trucks, noise and danger. And you forgot to factor the ADDITIONAL cars, noise and danger that the strip mall and housing units will bring to this tiny, inaccessible area. Oh…by the way…have you driven down Alburtis Road lately? Or should I say, crawled down it behind tons of tractor trailers? Are you even aware of the warehouses just recently completed, and those just recently built along Alburtis Road? It is frightening to watch a tractor trailer try to turn the corner at the Shell Gas station after school when the kids are out walking home on the sidewalks! LMT hasn’t done anything to address the mess they’ve already created with just these few warehouses tucked away on the border of LMT & Alburtis. And you think adding more to this would be the wise choice??? Come on down and meet me at the Shell, I’ll buy ya a cup of coffee so we can sit and watch the accidents as they unfold before your very eyes.