Reading City Council recently recognized outgoing council members Marcia Goodman-Hinnershitz, Christopher Daubert and Wanda Negron.
Council President Donna Reed and Vice President Melissa Ventura presented commendations to the three last week during council’s regular meeting.
“A piece of paper doesn’t quite seem adequate for the kind of work that you guys have done over the years,” Reed said.
Goodman-Hinnershitz, who will end her fifth term Sunday, was the first to be honored.
“Thank you for serving as an elected official,” Reed said. “It is not easy. I know that. But you rode it out. You did what you did, Marcia. Thank you.”
Goodman-Hinnershitz, who represents District 2, thanked her constituents.
“After 20 years of sitting at the table, I thought, ‘What else is out there for me?’” she said, “but I learned so much. It really has made my whole life just feel so enriched.”
There were some painful and frustrating moments through her years of service, she acknowledged, but overall it was a fulfilling and enriching experience.
Asked about her proudest accomplishment, Goodman-Hinnershitz said it was successfully preserving Antietam Lake and the surrounding parkland from development.
Controversy over the future ownership and use of the 560-acre Antietam Lake property arose in 1998, during the term of Mayor Paul J. Angstadt and before the start of Goodman-Hinnershitz’s first term in 2003.
The lake property had been identified as one of 14 prospective city properties that might be sold to raise revenue.
An offer to sell the acreage surrounding the lake for private development placed the lake and surrounding woodland preserve in peril.
Controversy reigned for nearly a decade as successive Mayors Joseph D. Eppiheimer and Thomas M. McMahon and members of council disagreed with one another and negotiated with private developers and Berks County officials over the sale of the lake property.
In 2008, after years of controversy, council approved the sale to the county.
Goodman-Hinnershitz and Reed, both on council at the time, were among those who voted in favor of the sale.
“The lesson learned,” Goodman-Hinnershitz said, “is to be careful when people come to you with red herrings that sound like good decisions.”
Council members should expect inevitable political motives and controversies to arise, she noted.
“Stick to what you know is right,” she counseled the other council members. “And if something doesn’t feel right in your gut, don’t do it. Stick to what’s right. And then you’ll have things for your legacy as beautiful as Donna and I have with Antietam Lake.”
Council also thanked Daubert and Negron for their service.
Daubert was appointed to represent District 1 after the previous councilperson, Brianna Tyson, resigned.
He previously represented the district from 2014 to 2017.
Ventura called Daubert a man of few words, noting that when he speaks at meetings it is to make salient points or ask pertinent questions.
“Thank you very much,” Daubert said, adding humorously, “I was going to save this for my council comment, but this gives me the ability to go out like I like to with ‘no comment.’”
Then more seriously, he continued, “Despite the fact that all of us sitting around the table don’t always agree, I have never questioned once the ethics or the care that the people sitting around this table right now have for the city.”
The job of a councilor can be difficult, he noted, and takes a lot of time.
“Many of us work full-time jobs, balancing family, keeping the house and trying to do all of that while still staying engaged with what’s going on to serve our community better,” he said. “It is not an easy feat. So I thank you all so much for all of your collegiality. I wish the city and all of you the absolute best.”
Negron was appointed by the Berks County Court in June to fill the District 5 seat vacated when Reed was named president last year.
“I want to thank everybody,” Negron said. “It’s been a wonderful experience.”
In her less than six months on council, Negron said, she learned a tremendous amount about local government and community service.
“I have a respect for you all, regardless of anything that has been said about City Council,” she said. “My hat goes off to all of you.”
Source: Berkshire mont