Meet Upper Macungie Supervisor Candidate Edward Earley

Edward J. Earley

Age: 72

Family: Married; son and two daughters

Political party affiliation: Republican

Tell us about your educational background: B.S., M.S. University of Scranton; M.S., Ed.D., SUNY Albany

Tell us about your professional/business background: See website “edwardjearley.com”

Why are you running for supervisor?: See website “edwardjearley.com”

What qualifies you to serve on the board of supervisors?: See website
“edwardjearley.com”

What do you see as the board's/commission's primary role and responsibilities?: To ensure sound fiscal management and to secure the
health, safety and welfare of the residents in the township.

Tell us about three major challenges facing Upper Macungie and how you would address them. (Please be as specific as possible): 1. Safety and security. These are presently being addressed by three volunteer fire departments and the Upper Macungie Police Department. 2. Smart growth.
Our Planning Commission, Director of Community Development and Director of
Public Works provide outstanding guidance and advice to the Board of Supervisors. 3. Traffic. Those bodies cited above, together with our Traffic
Engineer, work closely with developers to ensure roads, traffic signals, etc.
are state-of-the-art. 4. Recreation/open space. The township has nine parks
and 20% of the 26 square miles of the township will remain in preservation
in perpetuity.

What is the biggest challenge you see facing Upper Macungie over the next six years?: All those cited above.

How would you control traffic and development in within the township?: See (numbers) 2 and 3 above. What must be understood is thata developer/landowner must comply with the township's SALDO (Subdivision
and Land Development Ordinance). However, depending on the zoning
classification, said developer/landowner maintains property rights. In
plain language, the township cannot deny approvals based on personal
biases.

How much of a priority is spending/keeping tax increases to a minimum?: Certainly, a municipality should live within its budget
just as residents should. Predicated on the present millage (.64
mils), a property assessed at $200,000 will have a township property
tax of $128 (35 cents a day), which allows the township to provide
24/7 police and fire protection, maintain over 130 miles of roadways,
485+ acres of parks/open space, a yard waste drop‐off site and
maintaining a fleet of 76 vehicles. Furthermore, the present lease
for the township-owned Pennsylvania State Police building is paying
the debt service to fully fund our own UMTPD building. As an
endnote, the township is financially healthy and is “debt
free."

How much are you spending to run? How is your campaign being funded?: I will have spent $599.82 on my campaign. The entire
amount are personal funds.

Do you have any endorsements?: Personally, I have not sought any
public endorsement from any group. However, I have received enthusiastic
support from many residents.

Do you use social media?: I have not used social media.