EASTON, Pa. — Voters will have a choice between Republican Sharbel Koorie and Democrat Julie Zando-Dennis to represent City Council’s District 2 seat on Tuesday.
The two candidates – fresh to Easton City Council but certainly familiar to residents – will square off for the seat, which encompasses Wards 5, 6, 7 and 8 West, along with 8 East, during the Nov. 4 general election.
The seat is open because incumbent Democrat James Edinger decided not to seek re-election.
Both Koorie and Zando-Dennis have put boots to the street in the past few months, knocking on doors and directly engaging with residents to discover what they want and need for their community.
Sharbel Koorie
Koorie is a lifelong Easton resident, “born and raised right here in the city,” who has resided on North Ninth Street for 56 years as part of a large family.
With 25 years’ experience working for the city, Koorie started as a laborer, working his way up to become a heavy equipment operator for the highway department before shifting to the codes office to become a code inspector.
“I became the building inspector, and then in 2018 I was asked to serve as the code administrator for (Mayor) Sal Panto,” Koorie said.
“I had the opportunity to better myself. The city gave me the opportunity to better myself, by my work in different positions, having learned different parts of the city.”
On the personal side, Koorie also owns Daddy’s Place and Zaks Bistro, which helped him gain even more knowledge about immediate and long-term budgeting, business relations with the city, and proper employee management, he said.
For his campaign, Koorie said he made it a priority to engage directly with the public and speaking with about 1,200 people over three or four months.
The most discussed topics formed the cornerstones of his campaign for the West Ward: parking, sidewalk disrepair, street tree maintenance, and the overcrowding of the neighborhood, he said.
“I feel all of these four items can be done, really, without billions or millions and millions of dollars. I think they're things that can be done. They’re simple things that people want to make their neighborhoods better for them,” Koorie said.
Koorie suggested parking lines should be redone on West Ward streets to clearly mark spaces, which could open up three or four spots per block.
As for sidewalks and trees, he suggests the city should take a fresh look at maintenance and planting initiatives, with the city taking responsibility for the sidewalks and any damage done by tree growth.
For the overcrowding, Koorie said the city should explore some of the more tight, compact spaces – such as housing along Ferry Street that was devastated by a fire – to improve the land, and make strategic use of the space.
“We can create an accessible area for people to walk their dogs. Kids might want to ride their bikes back there. They might want to play catch off the streets,” Koorie said.
Keeping in communication with constituents will be vital to the role, Koorie said, as he has received plenty of great input from residents.
“We have to reimagine how we’ve tried a certain way over the years, and it doesn’t seem to be working,” Koorie said.
“And so maybe we come in with a different idea, and some of these best ideas are coming from the people who live in the neighborhoods. We just have to listen to them.”
Julie Zando-Dennis
Zando-Dennis arrived in the West Ward in the mid-2000s, and proceeded to get involved in the community right away, joining the now-defunct West Ward Neighborhood Partnership, assisting with tree planting, sidewalk repairs, and façade uplifts.
From there, she joined the West Ward Community Initiative, a project funded by the Greater Easton Development Partnership.
“As a member of the steering committee, I worked on a $50 million HUD grant proposal," Zando-Dennis said. "It was a Choice Neighborhood grant program, and our proposal was to replace outdated public housing on Union Street and Elm Street with affordable housing with a kind of mixed income, low and affordable housing that would be town homes.”
She has also worked on a committee to develop a media arts center in the West Ward – though this program is currently at a standstill due to funding – and served as the vice president of the board for Safe Harbor, where she is working on a $1.5 million expansion for the organization.
Zando-Dennis has also volunteered at the West Ward Market each Wednesday for about four years, in addition to working on the West Ward Community Initiative’s Clean and Safe Committee, and serving as a founding member of Stop the Wood Ave. Warehouse, she said.
And while her work to stop a zoning variance for a gun store ultimately failed, Zando-Dennis said she would like to pursue some common-sense regulations when it comes to weapons shops in her community.
“It has little to do with how I feel about guns. It has more to do with not having a gun store in a densely populated area,” Zando-Dennis said, adding she grew up in a rural area outside of Chicago in a family of hunters, and that “It’s about protecting the community, protecting their property values.”
Practical development is a hallmark of Zando-Dennis’s campaign, she said, balancing causes like affordable housing with structures that fit the neighborhoods appropriately – especially when it comes to zoning regulations and large buildings.
“The important thing is to bring it down so that people don't feel like they're being overwhelmed, and to have it integrate more closely with the historic architecture of Easton,” Zando-Dennis said.
Putting developers on the hook for parking accommodation is also important, she said, as some recent projects have skirted requirements via purchasing blocks of spots in the local parking garages.
Ultimately, Zando-Dennis is also focusing on the importance of communicating effectively with constituents to address the issues of the community, she said.
“I’ve been working in the community for nearly 20 years on behalf of West Ward residents, and so that's the message I'm trying to get out,” Zando-Dennis said.
