Penny Bottomstone Gesualdi is the Republican Candidate running in Bristol Borough’s East Ward for Council.
There are no other republican candidates, but she realizes, residents of the ward could nominate a write in candidate to take on the winner in of the democratic nomination in November.
Advertisements
“Its Bristol. You know strange things do happen here.”
Gesauldi, who volunteered her time to such efforts as the local drama club and the borough’s business association, has a simple platform as far as she’s concerned. Get smart Bristolians!
As she explained it, while sitting in her home, the aroma of chocolate chip cookies baking in the air, for far to long, residents accept the information passed on to them as set in stone fact, without digging and searching for answers on their own.
Advertisements
“I just don’t understand why people let our supposed government get away with what they do and say, without a deeper look.
Its like, are you kidding me, ” she says, sarcasm dripping in her voice.
Advertisements
Her sense of frustration, she says comes from skyrocketing taxes over the years and a focus on just making the borough more optically pleasing.
“I understand why making the borough look good is important but at the same time, since I’ve been living here, the taxes we have to pay have forced me to put my home up for sale. We have money to build all this pretty stuff, then one has to wonder why the cost of living here continues to rise.”
Married for about 32 years, a mother of four, and former owner of her own seamstress business, where she put her talents to work creating dresses, Gesualdi, wants to help design a much better future for residents of the borough she says. It starts with changing attitudes on the part the current council towards residents of the borough.
Advertisements
“The attitude is just wrong,” she says, “It really bothers me to watch or go to council meetings and see it conveyed to citizens. How they get away with is really beyond me. Everyone deserves to be treated with a sense of dignity and respect, she says.
The biggest ongoing issue in the east ward relates to what to do with the old Mill Run building that used to house an assisted living program.
Advertisements
Discussions have been ongoing at the council level with potential buyers, however, nothing has been settled as of yet.
Gesualdi who worked at the facility when it was open said she hopes something of value comes out of it because that old building just siting there has to have an effect on property values for home owners in the ward, and its time to get it back on the tax rolls.
Advertisements
“It is rather convenient this is a big issue of all of sudden, right before a primary,” wryly she says.
More than anything though, Gesualdi has a message that’s become a calling card for her of sorts, as she explained sitting on her front porch with Bristol Borough High School in the background.
Advertisements
“I entered the political arena after years of watching taxes increase and incomes decrease. I believe its easy to stand behind the bushes and throw stones… it takes more guts so stand up for your beliefs. Its time for new ideas and new voices, and I can bring this to Bristol Borough.
“Its your tax money, wise up, ask questions,” she says.
