NEW HANOVER >> The revolving door that is local government in the township these days took another turn Monday night when planning commission member Kurt Zebrowski was named as New Hanover’s newest supervisor.
Zebrowski, one of 10 people who initially applied for the post, will replace longtime supervisor Ralph Fluharty, who resigned abruptly at the July 25 meeting.
The unanimous choice of the four remaining supervisors, Zebrowski was one of four applicants who could not attend a special meeting held Aug. 10 at the township recreation center to interview applicants for the board vacancy.
Another of those not interviewed Aug. 10 – North Coventry Police Chief Robert Schurr – withdrew his name from consideration, Supervisors Chairman Phil Agliano told The Mercury Tuesday.
The two remaining candidates who had yet to be interviewed – planning commission member Michael Millman and Conshohocken Police Chief Michael Orler – “didn’t show up for the meeting,” said Agliano, who added “they were contacted and informed they would have a chance to be interviewed last night.”
The other applicants who were interviewed on Aug. 10 were: Shawn Malloy, a Conshohocken police officer; activist and accountant John Auman; retired businessman Patrick Calvert; local business owner Keith Zegiestowsky; Brian Hemmingway, who runs a landscape business, and D. W. Boone Flint, a project manager for a West Chester construction firm.
Zebrowski made his way to the top of the list quickly Monday night, Agliano said.
“When I polled the board, he was the top choice of two out of three of them and he was on the top of my list as well,” he said. “So I asked for a motion and Kurt was chosen unanimously.”
Being appointed supervisor does not mean Zebrowski must relinquish his position on the planning commission or the Pottstown Metropolitan Area Regional Planning Committee, said Agliano, who himself resigned from the planning commission when he was appointed chairman of the board of supervisors.
That appointment only happened after former supervisors chairman Doug Muller resigned, also abruptly, in April, ending 10 years of public service and citing the need to focus on his business.
Marie Livelsberger was appointed to replace Muller, but only after the first meeting to appoint her was declared improperly advertised and a second meeting had to be called to repeat the appointment.
Like with Fluharty, there were 11 applicants to replace Muller on the board and most of those names are familiar.
Many of them – Malloy, Millman, Auman, Hemingway, Orler, Schurr and Zebrowski – also applied again to replace Fluharty.
Zebrowski, Livelsberger and Andrew Kelly, the board’s vice chairman, will be up for reelection to six-year terms in November, said Agliano – creating the potential for even more turn-over on the board.
In addition to the planning commission vacancy created by Agliano’s resignation – still unfilled – the township is also in the hunt for a new township manager, having officially released the former manager Kevin Tobias in July.
Agliano said the efforts by the Meyner Center for Local Government at Lafayette College to recruit a new manager are continuing and the deadline for applying for the job is Sept. 3.
In the meantime, interim manager Greg Prowant “is doing a good job. We’re cleaning up the little stuff that had been slipping through the cracks before,” said Agliano.
