Candidate Profiles: 4 Democrats for Collegeville Council

Election Day in Pennsylvania is Nov. 5 – and Patch is providing our readers with a look at the candidates running for office locally. 

Andrea Baptiste, Catherine Kernen, Mandelyn Kilroy and Christopher Nicolas make up the Democrat team running for Collegeville Borough Council.

If you are a candidate and would like to submit a questionnaire, e-mail brittany.tressler@patch.com.

Name

Andrea Baptiste, Catherine Kernen, Mandelyn Kilroy, Christopher Nicolas

Running for:

Collegeville Borough Council

Party Affiliation:

Democratic

Positions Previously Held:

Andrea and Cathy have previously served on Collegeville Council; all four of us are professionals with considerable experience.

Why are you running for office?

Especially now that Providence Town Center is becoming the commercial hub for the area with its big box stores, we believe that we need to be proactive in shaping Collegeville’s future, similar to the steps taken to develop Phoenixville’s thriving restaurant, arts and music culture and Skippack’s niche boutiques and restaurants.  Based on the responses of the CEDC’s 2010 residents’ survey, we believe that Collegeville should be repositioned as a destination with excellent restaurants and one-of-a-kind local boutique stores that attract both local and regional shoppers.

What are the biggest issues facing your community?

We advocate:

·         Developing and implementing a strategic vision and plan for Collegeville’s future.  We already have two documents with excellent data:  a market research analysis of Collegeville businesses by the JGSC Group and a Collegeville Revitalization Plan developed by the Montgomery County Planning Commission.

·         Working to attract new businesses that the residents want and will enjoy patronizing to revitalize our business district;

·         Using all borough, state and federal resources to the Borough’s fiscal advantage, and

·         Increasing the communication and transparency of the Borough administration and Council with all residents.      

If elected, what do you hope to accomplish?

Based on the issues we are advocating for above, we would develop a five-year plan for the Borough with resident and business owners’ input, and then would roll out the plan to attract new businesses to the area and work to make Collegeville an even more vibrant, interesting community.

Interesting fact about you:

We all love living in Collegeville and we each have the experience, professionalism, drive and commitment needed to work toward making Collegeville an even better place to live!