CHESTER, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — New leadership is on the way to the city of Chester, in Delaware County.
Chester Councilman Stefan Roots won the city’s mayoral race on Tuesday by amassing 86% of the vote. He’ll take over leadership of a city that’s currently on Pennsylvania’s financially distressed list. However, he’s optimistic his administration can help bring change for the better.
“In regards to community relations, policing, fire, youth programs, in regards to working with our receiver who’s getting us out of what is our most troubling position right now and that’s our finances,” said Roots.
To do that, longtime businessman Roots says he plans on running the city like a business.
“People were saying, ‘Time for a change, time for a change.’ So we’re really going to test Chester to see if they have an appetite for change,” he said. “There’s going to be change in all departments of city government, not in regard to personnel, but in regard to governing.”
Part of that change, according to Roots, includes getting youth off the streets and giving them something positive to do. “The city doesn’t have a dime for programming,” he admitted, “but we have a lot of nonprofit partners that we have to bring into the fold and try to direct how we’re going to do youth programming around the city.”
The Democrat says these changes have to start at a grassroots level.
“This is going to be a time for the community to help us in city government. There’s going to be a big effort to get community engagement by creating committees that focus on areas that city government can’t focus on by itself,” said Roots.
He says housing blight, cleaning trash off the streets and revitalizing parks are initiatives he wants to immediately tackle.
“There’s a lot of blight in Chester. Concrete programs have to be put in place to flip these 100-year-old houses into affordable housing so that people don’t have to leave but can be living in a more dignified place, without breaking the bank.” he said.
“What the city can do directly,” Roots added, “is upgrade our parks and playgrounds to make things as basic as putting working bathrooms in our parks, to make sure there is proper lighting, to make sure grass is cut.”
Roots starts his term in January, replacing outgoing mayor Thaddeus Kirkland, whom he defeated in the May primary.