Darrell Rapp, Incumbents Win Democratic Nominations for Swissvale Council

The unofficial election results are in: and  all have won the Democratic nominations for Swissvale Council. 

who also ran for a Democratic nomination, fell short Tuesday night.

Gionta is ecstatic and glad that she will have the chance to serve another term.

“I think that it’s so important to make changes. I think that we have come a long way, and I know that we can go a lot further,” Gionta said.

She is thrilled to continue doing what she loves to do. Her first order of business will be building up the business district, and continuing to keep crime off the streets.

“We don’t want to raise taxes, we want to be able to keep Swissvale affordable, and a great place for families and businesses to move to,” she said. 

The energy was high at the Rapp household as the results were coming in Tuesday night.

“I will look forward to hopefully another good result in November, and to be on council starting in January,” Rapp said.

If elected this fall, Rapp is planning to attend the Newly Elected Officials course, offered by the Local Government Academy. The whole process of going door-to-door and meeting constituents allowed Rapp to see things from an entirely new perspective.

“It was really interesting to walk through many different parts of Swissvale,” Rapp said. “When you’re driving, you get completely different perspective than when you’re walking.”

Rapp gained new ideas and knowledge from talking to neighbors in the community while canvassing.

“It was really interesting to get a feeling of the different parts of the community. It was nice to have a few minutes of people’s time to talk to them. Some people gave me really good ideas and comments about the borough that I will definitely look to take with me on to council, and try to do things that people have talked about,” Rapp said.

Rapp’s wife, Toby Yanowitz, is just as thrilled as her husband is about the results.

“I think it’s an exciting result for us personally and for Swissvale,” Yanowitz said. "He’s going to really bring a personal touch and make things happen for the community. It’s an exciting time to get some fresh blood on council."

Hanchett and Zaleska were unavailable for comment Tuesday.

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